Tuesday, January 14, 2003

[Colin Glassey] Orson Scott Card on North Korea (Thanks to InstaPundit for the links today) Here is a great essay on North Korea by the well known SF/Fantasy writer, Orson Scott Card. Mr. Card has two main points: 1) We can't treat North Korea like Iraq because North Korea is actively supported by one of the major powers on the planet: China. If we intervented militarily against North Korea, there is too much chance that the Chinese government would respond with military force. 2) Iraq has no patron state which will prevent us from destroying its government. Card goes on to suggest that a diplomatic solution with the Chinese should be possible. I think Mr. Card overestimates the support China is willing to give to North Korea, but I admit the chance of China going to war over North Korea is real, and they have done it before. I also don't think China has much leverage over North Korea, nor do I think they are much interested in using their power to topple Kim Il Jung. However, one idea Card mentions is pretty good: give South Korea its own nuclear weapons. Josh Marshall (of Talking Points Memo fame) has some blistering comments about the Bush administration's mis-handling of the North Korean problem. He calls it strategic ridiculousness. His says: [The] Bush administration solved the vexing problem of preventing the NKs from becoming a nuclear power by announcing that they already are a nuclear power and it's probably something we can live with... ...In order to take a tough line against North Korea's nuclear jawboning, the Bush White House is now prepared to accept North Korea as a nuclear power and contemplate the unilateral withdrawal of all American forces from the Korean Peninsula. If that's the hardline approach, I'd hate to see what appeasement might look like. I'm sad to admit it but this is very reasonable attack. Time to get rid of Dick Cheney, the mastermind of nearly all of the Bush administration's miscues. See Josh Marshall's article about Cheney here. 12:01:23 PM

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