Tensions are high on the Korean peninsula where North Korea is being blamed for the death of two South Korean soldiers and for injuring dozens more.
South Koreans were reportedly running military drills on the island of Yeonpyeong when the North Korean’s unleashed a barrage of artillery shells, in what many are calling the most serious clash since the end of the Korean war.
We can all hope that this event will remain isolated and no further escalations will ensue, but anything can happen.
See, that is the trouble with war, or rather, the war machine. There is an adage that says give a man a hammer, and pretty soon everything looks like a nail, and therein lies the problem with military budgets and defense spending. Soldiers and military personnel who are trained and armed can be too eager to use the power entrusted with them.
The same thing happens with riot police, who’ve been trained in crowd control and subduing dissenters, when they finally strap on their armor suits and get set free on groups of protesters. It can be almost instinctual, almost expected, that some of them will end up cracking open those pesky hippie skulls.
It can be far too easy for people trained to use force to find the slightest provocation to use said force. The more we invest into war, the more likely it becomes that someone will find a reason to unleash war upon others.
This is why it is so imperative that we stand up against more spending. We need to let our leaders know that we are sick of war, and that we want our nation’s defense and military budgets to be used for something productive.
Obama’s weakness has come home to roost here, it appears. With an assist from China, NK can do as it pleases, and probably will. This little incident illustrates more how China disrespects BO and company than anything else really.
It has now been asked whether this unwarranted attack was planned by NK. Well, of course it was planned! Even if Kim Jung Il’s generals were not directly under his control, they would not risk the attack drawing return fire from SK or US forces. It had to be carefully planned to show Kim Jung Un how to pull the trigger and excite the world. NK will continue to do stuff like this to get the UN to recommend aid be increased. The UN needs to disband and go back to all those third world countries that they represent and do something useful with their own money.
Under Dear Leader Chairman Maobama, the US will never attack or respond to provocations from Socialists, Communists or other dictators/despots. They are his “homies”, and he empathizes with them from the bottom of his little America hating heart. We had three statements from our boy president during the first hours of this crisis. First it was “we stand shoulder to shoulder with South Korea”. Then it was “S. Korea is our ally and will remain our ally”. Then it was “South Kores should refrain from provocative acts to ensure peace and stability on the peninsula”. Hey, Boy President, South Korea didn’t do anything! It was NORTH KOREA, remember them? They publicly endorsed you for POTUS? Why don’t you blame NORTH KOREA for what has happened instead of telling the South to do nothing? This is the same scenario you play out in the Middle East. Syria, Lebanon, Iran or Hamas/Hezbollah attacks Israel and when Israel responds to defend itself you tell them that they need to show restraint because the poor Palestinians are “occupied” and can’t help themselves. This is what happens when you tell a boy to do a man’s job.
North Korea is the last Stalinist state on earth, and in October 2006 it became the latest country to join the nuclear club. Over the past two decades it has swung between confrontation and inch-by-inch conciliation with its neighbors and the United States, in an oscillation that seems to be driven both by its hard-to-fathom internal political strains and by an apparent belief in brinksmanship as the most effective form of diplomacy.