Interesting scenario unfolding before us..
One has to find it almost inconvievable that Venezuela is running a close second for the temporary seat on the UN Security Council.. The appointment would only be for two years duration, but the presence of a government who's President has called George 'the Devil' when there are so many cards on the table.. North Korea, Afghanistan, The Sudan, Iraq, continuing petrochemical sources..
Yet there it is indeed.. the possibility of a voice which could prove decisive in immenent votes..
While on the topic of North Korea.. There is some question concerning just what sanctions will be imposed on North Korea.. It's always those at the bottom of the ladder who suffer most when trade embargos are imposed, and China is understandably concerned about the possibility of a flood of refugees, with the poorest appearing first..
Yet all seem agreed that something must be done to curb Kim Jong Il's determination to test nuclear weapons.. There has been a formal warning from the US to Pyongyang, that no follow-up testing will be tolerated.. but just what that ambiguous statement actually means is moot..
Military action would seem to be a non-option, on several levels..
The US and NATO are already deployed on two fronts.. to stretch the limited resources of the main contributing countries, and with France, Italy, and Germany exceedingly reluctant to contribute to this effort.. could, and almost certainly would, lead to failure on all fronts.
Especially when China declares itself neutral, and possibly refuses any forces engaging North Korea the use of Chinese ports..
Russia itself could likely adopt a similar disassociation..
The Japanese..
Well despite their non-violent stance since the end of WW2, their Foreign Minister has dropped sotto voce hints, that they too, might consider a nuclear program.. It demonstrates perhaps more graphically than any other statement, that there are real concerns about the virulence of the attacks on The American, and thus by association the Western, way of life, by the average North Korean man on the street. They do believe our way of live to be evil.. not just bad, or despicable, but evil. This is what they've been taught, indoctrinated into believeing, since the Korean War..
And they're a proud people.. whether earned or not, they have self-belief in abundance..
Just as the Japanese have a name for Westerners they're not too fond of.. so do the Chinese, and the Koreans, and right around the Pacific rim to the Philippines..
It is an area of the world which has a history which far oputstrips ours.. While our ancestors fought with gay abandon, the Oriental mind had already become well-versed in manipulation.. both in battle and in diplomacy.. and we, relative newcomers to this poiltical scene, who's government(s) aim for the well-being of the individual, are dealing with those who have been trained to deal with amazing alacrity, leaving all those within the negtoiations at least appeased, while achieving their own purposes entirely. Their diplomacy works in small steps, small concessions, leading them into a position of moral, or economic superiority.
One must define 'moral' here, in the Western sense..
North Korea is fishing.. seeing just how strong the line is that binds them with China.. and how the other rod reels in the West..
North Korea could not concievably win a full-fledged war with the West, and Pyongyang knows this without a doubt. This is the case of 'The Mouse That Roared'.. an attempt to pry direct talks between Kim and George.. concessions for a country that while wallowing in poverty, is united in it's hatred of all the US represents..
Interesting.. Mohammad al Baradai, the head of the UN Regulatory Commission, says it's becoming 'fashionable' to posess nuclear capabilities.. he estimated that as many as 30 countries have the technology to build the bomb..
It's when these powers posess the long-range rockets capable of delivering these bombs, that we'll find ourselves back in a 'Cold War' situation, multiplied by tens..
We are doing well, are we not?