...Behind Door Number One, War!

By Semperpapa

The world has been playing this game for a long time now. Appease the tyrant of the day in hope that he will see the light.

It was done with Hitler, resulting in the bloodiest conflict in the history of mankind.

It was done with Saddam Hussein and it resulted in the dictator becoming even more emboldened.

It is been done with Iran and North Korea, and the results have not hit the West with the potential devastation we may be facing.

We are witnessing today another reckless behavior on the part of Kim Jong Il in North Korea, who is once again flexing his aging muscles and creating a potentially explosive situation in the Asian peninsula.

Last March, a NK torpedo struck and sunk a SK warship costing the lives of over 40 sailors, and yet the reaction of the leadership of the South was once again unable to formulate a relevant response, definitely not helped by the lack of resolution coming from the United States and the United Nations.

What I see as a stumbling point of this whole affairs is the approach taken by the international community in regard to the NK dictator.

Every time Kim wants to get more foreign aid into his coffers, all he has to do is to start some small scale conflict in the region. As a result, the United Nations just sends more financial aid and the little guy goes back into his palace.

The travesty is that the money Kim receives from the world community slated to help his people survive the state of popular starvation the country is in, goes to enhance the dictator’s decadent life style and to accumulate even more nuclear technology. Meanwhile, the people of North Korea, completely isolated from the rest of the world, continue to starve to death, literally.

The last few days have seen yet another attempt from Kim to provoke the UN into more financial aid by attacking the South with artillery. And it looks like this latest provocation will have, once again, the desired effect.

After the sinking of the South Korean warship in March and the recent discovery of some secret, fully operational uranium enrichment facility, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon is planning to give NK a new round of monetary aid.

The plan, according to a confidential memo from the Sec. General, is to convince other nations of the importance of engaging NK in a peaceful, diplomatic manner.

While the posture of the United Nations should be one of “no access-no aid” meaning that the international organization must have access to the recipient nation’s process of disposition of aids, in the case of North Korea, Ki-moon recognizes that the effort is a very challenging one, as Kim Jong Il has forced the UN into a process of “no aid-no access”.

In the memo, Ki-moon is delineating procedures aimed at convincing nations to contribute more toward the new aids he wants to send to NK in the hope that it will convince the little dictator to allow international access to insure that the aid goes to the desperate people.

Of course this latest attempt on the part of the absolutely useless United Nations will rest on the same heap of loosing propositions as all the others in the past.

Most likely, Kim needs some cash infusion for the lavish inauguration of his little unsuccessful abortion of a son into power.

The United States has, meantime, announced that the USS Washington Carrier Group is steaming toward the area west of the Korean peninsula to participate in a joint military training exercise with the naval forces of South Korea. This move was not welcomed by the Chinese military upper echelons, who stated that the move, considering the “sensitive” nature of the area, would not be good for relations between the US and China.

Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, Adm. Mullen, responded that the area where the Carrier group will operate is in international waters and therefore not subject to restrictions for the US Navy.

So here we are, facing the conundrum that should have never gotten this far. We are in front of the proverbial doors, from which we have to choose.

Behind door number one is the status quo. Let’s keep on feeding this beast, appease his destructive goals and allow China to perpetuate this murderous satellite nation until they will cause another major conflict.

Behind door number two is making a stand against the NK regime now, taking the chance to fuel a direct confrontation with China.

There is no door number three!

US officials, including President Obama, and leaders of South Korea and Japan are calling on China leadership to place restraining pressure on Jong, but the prospect of any good will move on the part of Beijing is definitely a long shot, as the Chinese regime has been increasing the political and economic communication with Pyongyang.

History teaches us that appeasement of self-destructing, blood thirsty dictators always results in catastrophic consequences. In the case of North Korea, I am afraid, appeasement has been going on for so long that trying to reverse it now will result in a rekindling of a conflict that never really ended.

What make things even worst is that both North Korea and China are much more powerful today.

Just my thoughts!