Continuing the story, it would seem that there have been six missiles let off by North Korea. Five were short range and one was the Taepodong 2, long range missile. The Taepodong 2 stopped flying 50 seconds into the flight, or, it is posited, just before the second stage would have lit off.
The various sausage machines that pass for news outlets in North America are wall-to-wall with coverage. Every commentator with a pulse is being propped up in front of a camera to let their wisdom ooze out. Fortunately, there has not been much oozing, as there is not much wisdom to be had. Knowledge is in short supply right now, except for one obvious prediction: Crazies should not have pointed sticks.
The mammoth problem is China. It is a bit like your cousin, who would come to visit for a couple of days each summer. You would be told to take “Cousin Drooler outside to play with your friends for the afternoon.” Your friends on the street, the centre of the universe when you are nine years old, want nothing to do with your relatives.
Cousin Drooler is also wearing those ‘going to visit the relatives’ freak clothes that preclude all the fun things you do with your friends: Softball, football, road hockey, hide and seek, buck-buck and going to the apartment building construction site to drop bricks off the sixth floor come to mind.
That sums up China and North Korea. Kim Jong-Il is Cousin Drooler. He’s family, but damn it, he’s too weird to be seen with.
If the US had a lick of sense, they would quietly and discreetly tell China to get their idiot cousin under control. China provides almost al the food and fuel for North Korea as well as sharing a border. China has a big say in the deal, like it or not. China is also not stupid: They know that an armed and dangerous North Korea is not a good thing for anybody.
But notice the qualifiers on that concept: Lick of Sense. Quietly and Discreetly. I think we have a problem.
RoadDave 