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Why Rocket Man Doesn't Keep Me Awake At Night
Townhall.com ^ | November 30, 2017 | Arthur Schaper

Posted on 11/30/2017 9:08:37 AM PST by Kaslin

Kim Jong-Un fired off another rocket last night. It got close to Japan, supposedly. Friends, neighbors, and even political rivals have called me, terrified about where this military build-up is headed. Trump has mobilized a greater show of force in the Pacific rim. Hawaii is under red alert, prepared for a nuclear attack at any moment.

But as for me, guess what? I don’t care. I may live on the Western rim, but I have survived along the San Andreas Fault all my life, and despite earthquakes, terrors, wars, rumors of wars (and even the LA riots), I am not worried.

First of all, I take God at His Word, and rest in the promises of Psalm 91. Yet even for those who have no spiritual convictions, there is still no reason to be afraid, and even fear itself is not something to worry about. Little Kim represents a brightly-lit yet still dying ember of the Stalinist Resistance, the latest movement of communism which is quickly tumbling into the ash heap of history (except on college campuses, of course).

Communist regimes had a long, stories history of moderating their hardline collectivist, tyrannical, statist stances from generation to generation. As head of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin killed anyone whom he viewed as a threat. His successor Nikita Khrushchev moderated his dictatorial bearing in part because of pressure from the Inner Party higher brass. Even the politically-connected don’t want to suffer under abject, arbitrary despotism. Forty years later, Mikhail Gorbachev desperately needed economic openness so that the Soviet Union could survive, let alone thrive. President Reagan knew that communism wasn’t cashing in, and Gorbie was willing to play nice. What Reagan also knew, of course, is that once free market reforms and cultural liberty expanded enough, the will and thrill of the Soviet Union would collapse, as happens every time with communism.

In China, Mao Ze-Dong was a ruthless butcher, killing millions in the wake of his Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward. His successor Dieng Xiao-Ping had to permit economic liberal reforms, or the entire country would have collapsed into heaps of starving bodies. The successive Chinese premiers have retained autocratic political power, but economic growth has risen based on free market reforms. Communism is not really communism in China.

In Cuba, despite Obama’s best efforts to prop up a new rapprochement (he should have focused on working with Congress and representing our Republic), Cuba’s record of civil rights abuses will not go unchecked. President Trump is clamping down on their abuses, and has scaled back diplomatic relations. Thank God that Fidel Castro is dead, and his brother Raul didn’t bother to attend his one-year commemoration. Look forward to Little Raul scaling back the repressive communism of his brother’s era as the Trump Administration continues playing hard-play with this serial human rights abuser nation.

North Korea, though, has been a small yet persistent thorn in the side. This dumpy, dark Communistic regime has so far bucked the Communistic trend that as the new guard replaces the old guard of corrupt blood-thirsty cronies, that the regime takes on more moderate stances, in domestic policy if not in rhetoric. Kim Jong-Un has become more belligerent, not less, and the military brass and political establishment in North Korea can’t keep him in line. Remember the rumors about Little Kim feeding his uncles to rabid dogs? Whether those stories are true or not, the fact that such rumors surrounds the regime exposes Rocketman as a more demented, dogmatic leader. While Grandpa Kim Il-Sung had achieved deity-like status as a propped-up puppet of the Soviet Union, and Daddy Kim Jong-Il would take over and just go for international crime syndicate status, Rocketman is truly nuts!

But still, I am not worried. What we see with Kim Jong-Un is a relentless, spoiled brat who is in the final temper-tantrum death throes of his regime. Like the impetuous Rehoboam in the Bible, he is not listening to any kind of wise counsel, but wants to play rough and tough on the world stage. But it’s not working. If he had weaponry to hurt us, he would have used it by now.

This game of global chicken will not end well for Kimmy Jong Uh-Oh. Unlike Obama, Trump has a backbone, and he’s not afraid to shame the little boy-dictator and put him in his place. The walking zombie-like North Koreans want any kind of relief they can find. More North Koreans are defecting to South Korea and to other parts of Southeast Asia. China is ramping up the sanctions against the futile regime, against closing off the borders.

The latest rocket launch is not a credible threat since they did little damage. Japan’s conservative government has increased their numbers to supermajority status, which means they can amend the nation’s constitution. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government wants to reinstate a standing army for the country.

I say it’s about time. I do not think that any country should be prevented from protecting itself with a strong army. Japan’s rearmament will lead to the rise of another brutal dictator like Hideki Tojo. Trump and Abe are good friends. And it’s time for China and North Korea to know that they are not going to push everyone else around in Southeast Asia. The Philippines are taking charge of the vicious drug cartels and Islamic extremists in their country too, even if we find President Duterte’s methods extreme and border-line illegal.

When it comes to international terrorism, we should focus on Iran with more scrutiny. Their theocratic megalomaniacs running that country want to usher in the Islamic apocalyptic age. After all, their last President threatened to blow Israel off the face of the earth! North Korea is run by a brutal, arrogant man-child, but at the end of it all, he is angling for food and more money. Call it dialectical materialism on steroids. The Kim John-Un regime has no interest in blowing up the world to push some apocalyptic end.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: japan; kimjongun; nknukes; northkorea; trumpadministration; trumpasia
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1 posted on 11/30/2017 9:08:38 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

North Korea is all bark, no bite. If they were going to do something crazy they would have done it by now. But, they clearly enjoy being a pain in the ass.


2 posted on 11/30/2017 9:12:33 AM PST by gdani (Everyone is a snowflake these days)
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To: Kaslin
Perhaps a typo there in the original (?).

Japan’s conservative government has increased their numbers to supermajority status, which means they can amend the nation’s constitution. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government wants to reinstate a standing army for the country.

I say it’s about time. I do not think that any country should be prevented from protecting itself with a strong army. Japan’s rearmament will lead to the rise of another brutal dictator like Hideki Tojo.

Based on the tone of his article, that should be “...will not lead to another Tojo”

3 posted on 11/30/2017 9:15:42 AM PST by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly, but socialists' ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
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To: Robert A Cook PE

Agreed. Or else maybe it’s sarcasm.


4 posted on 11/30/2017 9:17:38 AM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Kaslin

I see most of what’s going on with N Korea as nothing but kabuki theater. It’s all for show. Kim doesn’t want his reign to end, which would be the inevitable outcome of any sort of hot military action: his life’s just too good. He has too much to lose.

N Korea is simply a bargaining chip in the bigger struggle for supremacy in East Asia between the US & China. Frankly, if the MSM never reported in N Korea, I think the world would quickly forget the hermit regime existed.


5 posted on 11/30/2017 9:19:47 AM PST by Thalean
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To: Kaslin

Locketman is cluising for bluising.


6 posted on 11/30/2017 9:20:55 AM PST by deadrock
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To: Kaslin

Joe Stalin killed people as a management technique. If they were against him they just arrived at the Gulag earlier.


7 posted on 11/30/2017 9:22:36 AM PST by buffaloguy (Bond arms Cowbot)
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To: gdani
If they were going to do something crazy they would have done it by now.

Disagree. Now would be the time they finally feel comfortable doing something crazy.
8 posted on 11/30/2017 9:23:37 AM PST by Chad_the_Impaler
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To: Kaslin
Japan’s rearmament will lead to the rise of another brutal dictator like Hideki Tojo.

Really? Is this what the author wants? Or did he forget the "not"?

9 posted on 11/30/2017 9:30:52 AM PST by AlaskaErik (I served and protected my country for 31 years. Progressives spent that time trying to destroy it.)
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To: Chad_the_Impaler
Now would be the time they finally feel comfortable doing something crazy.

That's what I have been hearing for decades now.

10 posted on 11/30/2017 9:33:20 AM PST by gdani (Everyone is a snowflake these days)
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To: Kaslin

“The latest rocket launch is not a credible threat since they did little damage. “

Um, wake up dude! The rocket was not an attack launch but rather a test. Okay, so it passed over Japan and splashed into the sea of Japan, probably as intended.

Kim knows that a rocket that shows a trajectory of long range and a computed bearing reaching a US land mass, that we will likely a) attempt t shoot it down, all things considered b) launch some sort of retaliatory strike either immediately or soon after, targeting key facilities C2 etc. So when he lights one (salvo-it won’t likely be a single vehicle) off with those parameters, then you will see a different response from SK, JAP US etc.

Kim has publicly threatened to destroy the US, he has weapons capable, according to his own commentary, and international intel assessment and he demonstrating the ability ( via recent launches) to be able to do exactly what he threatens- if it were your neighbor across the way, you would have an equation that meets a lethal force response- when you see him walking out the door with a missile and a ignition/control system in his hand, pointing it towards you....

Ability, Intent, Imminent= Lethal Force response


11 posted on 11/30/2017 9:37:14 AM PST by Manly Warrior (US ARMY (Ret), "No Free Lunches for the Dogs of War")
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To: gdani
That's what I have been hearing for decades now.

I have been hearing for decades that North Korea is about to collapse. I think countries like North Korea and Iran want nuclear weapons to leverage their power in the future, not just defense against regime change. To maximize leverage they may think it is useful to do something "crazy", push the limits up to every red line.
12 posted on 11/30/2017 9:45:57 AM PST by Chad_the_Impaler
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To: Chad_the_Impaler
Disagree. Now would be the time they finally feel comfortable doing something crazy.

I'm with you. He is aggressively building up capabilities. He is smart enough to know he needs a big cache of nukes and ICBMs to be a credible threat.

13 posted on 11/30/2017 10:00:16 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Kaslin

Mating a nuke re-entry vehicle to a missile has a few challenges:

1-Ensuring a safe/arm sequence that doesn’t permit a rocket failure to endanger your own country. - requires much testing, easily monitored.

2-targeting accuracy - no proof of NK ability yet

3-reliability of arm/detonate system in the reentry vehicle/warhead

The only path to rapid development in these areas is direct help from China.


14 posted on 11/30/2017 10:08:36 AM PST by G Larry (There is no great virtue in bargaining with the Devil)
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To: Kaslin

It was predicted by many that the “the world” would test the new president sooner rather than later. So here we are. China wants to see what Trump will do in an ‘un-tenable’ situation.


15 posted on 11/30/2017 10:22:55 AM PST by TalBlack (It's hard to shoot people when they are shooting back at you...)
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To: Robert A Cook PE

I noticed that, too. Agree that it is a typo.


16 posted on 11/30/2017 10:34:22 AM PST by calenel (The Democratic Party is a Criminal Enterprise. It is the Progressive Mafia.)
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To: Kaslin

But as for me, guess what? I don’t care. I may live on the Western rim, but I have survived along the San Andreas Fault all my life, and despite earthquakes, terrors, wars, rumors of wars (and even the LA riots), I am not worried.


As the guy who jumped off the Chrysler building said as he plummeted past the tenth floor, “So far, so good.”


17 posted on 11/30/2017 10:56:20 AM PST by sparklite2 (I hereby designate the ongoing kerfuffle Diddle-Gate.)
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To: G Larry; Kaslin; SoothingDave; LS; Ernest_at_the_Beach

We don’t know the size and weight of their weapons either.

We don’t know the number of their test failures, nor the reliability of their weapons AFTER the vibration and shock of the rocket launch.

We don’t know the true range and accuracy of their rocket assemblies - only that a few have worked, and one has gone a long ways “up” but not downrange. Yes, that is “only” a matter of aiming and control and reliability and repeat-ability of the entire rocket and re-entry and weapon system.

But that is the point: It is a very, very, very difficult “only” a matter of aiming and control and reliability and repeatablility of the entire rocket and re-entry and weapon system.

Kim gets only one launch of one ballistic missile and warhead and re-entry system.


18 posted on 11/30/2017 10:57:40 AM PST by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly, but socialists' ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
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To: Robert A Cook PE
I don't see no typo

Definition of typo

plural typos

: an error (as of spelling) in typed or typeset material

Source

19 posted on 11/30/2017 11:05:09 AM PST by Kaslin (Quid est Veritas?: What Is Truth?)
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To: Kaslin

I live in flyover country and I am not worried.


20 posted on 11/30/2017 11:15:47 AM PST by The_Media_never_lie
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