Comment on Belmont Club "Never let a crisis go to waste"

We do not react on behalf of Mr Gore any more than we toppled the Taliban on behalf of the 9-11 widows. A sovereign nation reacts to offenses against its interests. The Chinese and Russians can assist or not.
Begin the following actions with approximately 24 hours between each step if the Pyongyang regime does not comply.
1) Demand the release of the hostages and the full compliance of North
     Korea with an inspection and disarmament program.
2) Announce publicly that we are prepared to feed 20,000,000, for 90 days,
     explain the steps we shall take.
3) Evacuate all but a a handful of Forward Observers from the DMZ.
4) Station 2 CVBGs about equidistant between Wonson, Vladivostok and
     Pohang.
5) Institute a full blockade of North Korea by air and sea, no aircraft may
     fly, no patrol craft or fishing boats can leave harbor.
6) Destroy the missile launch facilities.
7) Destroy nuclear facilities.
8) Destroy ballistic missile and artillery installations.
9) Destroy all military and government installations.

programmer,
I derive no pleasure from violence, you are right, this is no board game, these are human beings.
That is why credibility counts, that is why we spent hundreds of billions of dollars preparing for and rehearsing annihilation for 45 years. All that was done so that Obama could grow up sheltered and feckless, so that Kim jong Il and his ilk of the world would be contained. As Sam Spade says of threats, they all have to have the fear of killing behind them to work. If we can convince Kim to back off by showing him pictures of the cast of the View looking real concerned or sorry then go for it. I start out by saying marshall the humanitarian aid because I expect North Korea to crumble as everyone scrambles for food. If we cannot lay out a series of expected costs if they do not step off the escalation ladder then Kim faces no constraint at all.

exhelodrvr,
In a word, No. China’s conduct will help determine her relations with the US for the next 50 years.
If we want the NorK regime to wind down with the minimum violence then the cooperation of China and Russia should be part of the process. This could be a Good Cop/Bad Cop or Mutt and Jeff byplay. We should be constantly engaged in back channel discussions with Beijing on these issues.

programmer,
Thank you, pretty darn sadistic aren’t I? You haven’t even heard of my plan to send them Rosie O’Donnell.