Paul B. Stares of the globalist
Council on Foreign Relations, author of the recent report
Preparing for Sudden Change in North Korea, is now making his case to the general public —
Prepare for North Korean instability.
The first two paragraphs, dedicated to a discussion of "Kim Jong Il's uncertain health and longevity," are followed by the obvious and all-important question: "Why should we care?" Of course, we should not care, but the author spends the rest of his miserable article trying to convince us that we should.
"As a nuclear weapons state and exporter of ballistic missiles, North Korea has long been a proliferation headache for Washington," he says. Washington has enough headaches; let this headache belong to Seoul, Tokyo, and Peking. He continues, "With one of the world's largest armies in possession of long-range artillery and rockets, it also can wreak havoc on South Korea and Japan -- America's most important Asian allies." After six decades as protectorates, isn't it about time these advances economies took care of their own defense? "And with neighboring China and Russia also engaged in the Korean peninsula, there are few other places where the interests of so many great powers intersect and potentially collide." This is not a game of
Risk®; those days are long gone.
"Should North Korea begin to collapse, the world could face a host of challenges, including huge outflows of refugees, military provocations, a breakdown in public order and, most ominous, uncertainties about the safety and security of its nuclear arsenal." No, Northeast Asia would face all but the last of that host of challenges, and it would not be in China's interest to see nuclear weapons on the black market. If we stopped policing other people's borders (starting with the Koreans'), and started policing our own, we'd be safe. We were blessed with two oceans separating us from the rest of the world; let's start using them again.
He mentions "work[ing] closely with South Korea and Japan to improve allied coordination and preparedness" and "pursu[ing] a quiet dialogue with China to reduce the risk of misunderstanding and friction in a crisis involving North Korea." Talk is good, but as long as these countries think that Uncle Sam will step in to solve every problem, they'll continue to act like children.
What Mr. Stares fails to mention is the
460,000 troops his report called for, as reported by the Korean press —
'U.S. must brace for N.K. collapse'.
Of course he's not going to mention this to a general American audience; the average American is still every bit as nobly isolationist as were the good people chronicled by
Bill Kauffman in his two great books —
America First!: Its History, Culture, and Politics and
Ain't My America: The Long, Noble History of Antiwar Conservatism and Middle-American Anti-Imperialism. That's our character.
Labels: America the Beautiful, Corea, Norks in the News, Novus Ordo Seclorum, Republic Not Empire