Good post.
The current anger is newsworthy but there will be no sustained retaliation by SK, even if the nutty Norks lavishly deserve it —indeed Kim almost appears to be begging for it.
In the past whenever he acts nutty he gets paid, so a-la-Pavlov he’s doing the same here. In fact, now that President Bailout is in charge here in the USA, it would be totally insane for Kim not to keep acting this way, the better to shore things up for his inexperience son before Kim pere dies.
We say he’s nuts, but I say WE are nuts for saying that Kim now faces a war —he doesn’t.
With death at his door, Kim is facing the cash, and we WILL pay him.
1. China doesn’t want a war
2. SK doesn’t want a war
3. Obama sure as hell doesn’t want a war
4. Japan...mostly wants to avoid missile attacks on bases in Japan.
All these forces point to no war over the SK ship, despite rhetoric or SK “mobilization”.
None of this rosiness alters the longer-term reality that the likelihood of an Asian arms race has rocketed skywards.
What can we do the Norks worse than what they do themselves?
We should make certain no aid gets through, freeze li’l Kim’s bank accounts and start arranging “accidents” for North Korean freighters and air transports.
Let them starve and freeze in the dark. When li’l Kim gets the last mouthful of food and the last dose of medicine in North Korea, it will be over.