.... with no response by the West.
SSDD
Posted on 11/24/2010 5:07:55 AM PST by IbJensen
Washington (AP) - President Barack Obama on Tuesday pledged the United States would stand "shoulder to shoulder" with South Korea after what the White House branded a provocative, outrageous attack by North Korea on its neighbor.
Its options limited, the U.S. sought a diplomatic rather a military response to one of the most ominous clashes between the Koreas in decades.
"South Korea is our ally. It has been since the Korean war," Obama said in his first comments about the North Korean shelling of a South Korean island early Tuesday. "And we strongly affirm our commitment to defend South Korea as part of that alliance."
Working to head off any escalation, the U.S. did not reposition any of its 29,000 troops in the South or make other military moves after North Korea fired salvos of shells into the island, setting off an artillery duel between the two sides.
-snip-
"President Obama said that North Korea must stop its provocative actions, which will only lead to further isolation, and fully abide by the terms of the armistice agreement and its obligations under international law," the statement said.
-snip-
The U.S. has relatively few options when dealing with the Pyongyang government. Military action is particularly unappealing, since the unpredictable North possesses crude nuclear weapons as well as a huge standing army. North Korea exists largely outside the system of international financial and diplomatic institutions that the U.S. has used as leverage in dealing with other hostile countries, including Iran. North Korea has also resisted pressure from its major ally, China, which appears to be nervous about the signs of instability in its neighbor.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
"....we strongly affirm our commitment to defend South Korea as part of that alliance."
Beware SK. The world knows full well that being an enemy of the USA is awesome, but being its friend can be deadly.
Let's break this down:
We have few options.
North Korea exists outside the international system that we use for diplomatic leverage.
North Korea isn't paying attention to Chin anymore either.
That's leaves two options:
1) Do nothing
2) Military response.
Since the article explicitly says that the military response is "particularly unappealing", I guess the message is clear: we will do nothing.
What a surprise.
SSDD
What is really scary is that at times like this a large part of the fate of the US’s nat’l security is in the hands of the feminist Wellesley grad, Queen Hillary!!
In some ways I am relieved 0bama will choose to do nothing. He is not a very good CIC.
A second Korean War would have disastrous effects globally, forcing long-dormant emnity between east and west to re-ignite and creating economic chaos on a scale as yet unseen due to today's unprecedented inter-connective financial structure.
China is in a lose-lose place if there's war. They either abandon NK to the west and face a re-unified historic enemy. Or, they support a rogue regime with direct assistance and jeopardize decades of economic growth into the free markets. Add ten or twenty cross border refugees into the mix and a justifiably re-militarized Japan along with a bigger US footprint in Asia and there is nothing to be gained by Beijing in a war.
And that's just the Chinese conundrum. The US would be equally boxed into a lose-lose scenario albeit for a different set of reasons.
I fully realize that under this evil regime there is not ONE appointee that isn’t a communist or doesn’t have a serious mental hangup like the jackass that some call president.
What do we pay membership to the UN for, if not to deal with EXACTLY this kind of problem?
Shouldn’t the UN use it’s peacekeeping forces, and all that money each country gives it, to force NK and SK to actually SIGN the TREATY they crafted back in the ‘50s ???
We need to quit sending money to NK and other members of the AXIS OF EVIL, and use it to buy our country back from CHINA.
hey Odumbo, how will stand shoulder to shoulder with the South Koreans as an American Citizen or as a Indonesian or as a British Subject. Show us your damn passports, show us the damn college transcripts, show us the damn financial aid transcripts - if you you attended as a International Student- you are toast.
A Bachelors degree in International Studies or is it really a Bachelors degree as an International Student.
Come now Odumbo fess up and be a man tell the truth once in your miserable life. Until than youare a worthless POS. Your dog has a more transparent pedigree than you do. gee everyone knows where Bo the First Dog comes from and yet really no one knows Odumbo the Classless Clown comes from. For all we know in America you were the first afterbirth that survived and is walking and breathing.
He fights cannon shells with words.
NK has nothing that the world wants or can use with the small exception of conventional weapons and it is restricted in that area.
They are starving all year long and freezing to death in the winter. The only chip they have with which to bargain is the threat of war.
They throw a stone and break a window in the giant's house, knowing that the giant is too benevolent to just squash them.The giant finds it easier and ultimately wiser to just pay them five bucks not to do it again. That keeps things quiet for a bit but sooner or later they need to get the giant's attention again. So they throw a bigger rock, get paid and go sit in the corner of the global yard again.
The problem is that in order to continue to get paid they feel the need to throw bigger and bigger rocks, each time running the risk of exhausting the giant's patience. Yesterday's artillery attack was akin to racheting things up a notch by setting fire to the giant's tool shed instead of breaking another window.
If the giant goes on a controlled rampage against the firebug the whole neighborhood suffers. The option is to wait the firebug/stone-thrower out. Eventually he will get sick and die. That is considered to be the more acceptable option in terms of the cost in lives and fortune, even if it is less satisfying on a gut level.
as I said before...I wake up every morning with this strange sense of Deja Vu that I am once again a teenager, and once again reliving, day-by-day, the entire Carter Administration.
If this doesn’t get Americans awakened to the incompetence of Obieber, nothing will....................
what a vag we have in office.
Considering the South Koreans will bear the brunt of any war I suggest that we allow them to lead and support their decisions.
The UN is nothing but a free ride and a place at a trough where they slurp up the largesse that has been provided by the clueless, socialist government of the USA.
All liberals are stupid, but the UN functions as a think tank for these unthinking marxist toadies.
Why has not one of the new Congresscritters said that removing the UN from the US is one of at least 50 priorities they will pursue....or has the zombie machine sucked their brains out already?
fag
“vag”ina
They are too busy watching DANCING WITH THE STARS to see if their favorite wins.
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