Facetious Pride and False Expectations
October 11th, 2006Two people I’m proud of today: Tony Snow and Salman Rushdie. Snow replied to a question from a reporter asking him to admit mistakes by saying, “Oh my God, it’s a silly question!” A little straight-forward banter never hurt anyone (but, so you know, they’ve made plenty of mistakes, although I do understand and agree with a President who wants to protect his current policy during a tense standoff; that said, I have no faith in Bush’s abilities or those of his handlers). Salman Rushdie, on the other hand, said that “veils suck” in response to Muslim dress. It’s nice to see a man who isn’t censoring himself, despite the fact that he was once in a ten-year-hiding because Iranian hitmen wanted to kill him for insulting Mohammed in a book.
By the way, if you’re planning on going to Denmark, don’t. I hear it’s bad out there!
Kim Jung Il said today that sanctions would be considered an act of War, and that raises concerns everywhere. South Korean troops are preparing for a possible invasion, and the Southeast of Asia is preparing for all sorts of War. Ultimately, the results of this all will come down to China.
China’s current relationship with North Korea is sexual in nature: temporary and ultimately unsustainable, because you can only have meaningless sex for so long before the two involved parties have to go their separate ways. It’s called a One-Night-Stand for a reason, and someone in the White House has to explain this to the Chinese (I hear they don’t talk about sex over there, which is part of why everyone there is having it). Here’s the situation: the Chinese need to keep Kim happy so as to prevent him from allowing refugees to leave his country and flood China. Further, Kim gives them leverage with the US: “If you don’t do as we’d like, we’ll stop helping with the North!”
The Chinese, however, are not willing to go to War over him and they aren’t backing him as he thinks they are. China is playing a game, and will find itself pregnant at this rate if it continues straddling. It needs to tell the Koreans, unequivocally, that it will not support them in a War. It can do this privately if it must, but it can’t continue giving Kim the impression that he can do as he wishes because the Chinese are right behind him. Because that is what is fueling North Korea, and if the Norks were to be told, “You are not going to have any assistance from us in a War,” which sounds about right to me (unless the Chinese are willing to sacrifice their Economic well-being for the next fifty years — which they very well might be: I once told a friend that I don’t fear China long-term because that is a country that enjoys self-destruction very much, and always has, historically).
Quite the situation we’ve got here. And not a single competent man around in any of these countries to help solve it.