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"How about the President? His response has been pathetic. Playing it as a game. He is the one that has to make decisions to defend the country. I guess we now have to live with countries lauching missles at us?"

Thanks. Ive been watching this all unfold and have the same confusion as well.
I really don't understand the response of the U.S.

The only thing I see Bush doing is waving his finger a lot and crying about it all.

I also don't understand why everyone seems so confidant Kim is doing this all under the direction of China. China has billions (trillions?) at stake with the U.S. to lose. Somehow I think if they had as much control over N.K. as most seem to believe they would not be allowing this to go on as it has.

The response thus far really has me baffled and frustrated however. It really seems to me like the US is going to have to lose a major city to a NK nuke before they decide to take any real action against them. Just can't understand that logic especially after hearing GWB all these years tell us how that isn't how it's going to be played any longer.

Please don't get me wrong, I fully support George Bush. It's just his response over this missile situation that really has me perplexed.

"How about the President? His response has been pathetic. Playing it as a game. He is the one that has to make decisions to defend the country. I guess we now have to live with countries lauching missles at us?"

I think the President is privy to a little more intel than the rest of us here.

Even if you accept this unverified report that the missile was aimed at Hawaii, the big question is "why" Kim sent off his flurry of dongs. Importantly, many indications suggest that the NK economy is in extremis and Kim is seeing meaningful dissent for the fist time. Something may well be going on internally in NK; if so then a business-as-usual non-response from Bush would be exactly the correct prescription, as it is for any pathetic yapping little cur. As things stand: Kim has utterly shot his wad, and got nothing for it: no bilateral talks, no easing of sanctions, not even much attention, nothing, nada, bupkes, zilch, zip.

Interestingly, if this is the dynamic at work, then even if we shot down the missile (to which I'd give even odds, actually) we would be well advised to keep that to ourselves, and let the world think it just blew up or fell apart or something. It makes Kim look incompetent as well as insane, and puts a bit of a crimp in his sales efforts for his weaponry.

My sense is that Kim will cease to be a problem soon.

Above all else, George W. Bush is a Texas poker player. Always remember that.

How about the President?

Congress is required to approve a joint resolution to grant war powers. And that is a good thing. There is no such thing as "Bushes War". Congress alone has the power to request updates from the Commander in Chief (currently every 60 days for 1441); and they alone fund troop mobilizations and withdrawals. The president is correct in using the US state department and exhausting all diplomatic efforts before resorting to requesting military action. This keeps the rhetoric toned down on both sides. Look at how long it took for congress to approve the Iraq operations. And the Iraqis had been shooting at our aircraft for years.

That said, I would not want to live in Hawaii. This will get downplayed lest it really hurt tourism there.