Bloviating away
This response is so…so…mushy. It’s like a cheap subway sandwich that has been left out in the rain. It is low quality, tasteless and inedible.
CNN starts out by asking a straightforward question, saying ‘Is Hillary doing the right thing?’ OF COURSE SHE IS NOT.
Let’s role play this:
Hillary: Fess Up! Tell the truth!
North Korea: Ok, we admit. We blew up the ship.
Do you think this would ever happen? No, neither did I.
But Zakaria’s answers are utter and complete milquetoast.
1. ‘..the behavior does seem to cross a line.’
Really, Fareed? Blowing up a ship of a country you are technically at war with crosses a line? This reminds me of those cartoons with Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam, where Yosemite Sam would draw lines in the sand Bugs Bunny would keep crossing over them. How does this behavior cross a line? The North Korean attempted to assassinate the South Korean president in 1987. Did that cross a line, too?
2. ‘..North Korean have to understand it is not going to be business as usual after this’
That is exactly what will happen. A few words, some insults hurled, and South Korea will go back to playing Farmville.
3. ‘..What has been particularly productive is that US and South Korea are ENTIRELY (my emphasis) on the same side of this’
Under what circumstances would they be on different sides? These two countries have ALWAYS been on the same side when it has come to North Korean military action.
4. The second paragraph is blah blah blah blah
The fact of the matter is that we don’t need to say one word to North Korea. North Korea does not matter at all in this situation. The player to speak with is China. North Korea exists because of China. 99% of its trade is with China. Its entire existence depends on Chinese goodwill.
North Korea is a bargaining chip for China. At one time in the past, China didn’t have many bargaining chips, and so North Korea was valuable. These days, with them owning 1.3 trillion of treasury bonds and being the world’s factory, the chip value of North Korea has dropped very much.
If the US and South Korea want to take care of North Korea, here is what they should do:
1. They should recognize that a North Korean collapse is in no one’s interest.
2. They should recognize that a war is going to be very costly, with the cost running into the trillions. And it is going to end in a stalemate anyway, because that is what China wants. This is China’s backyard, and they will not allow a North Korean defeat.
3. The US and SK should make a list of the top influencers in North Korea. They should then invite them for visits to the US and South Korea. Bring them over, wine them, dine them, take them and their families to Disneyland, take them shopping at Wal-mart, whatever they want. Give the North Korean leader a state visit. (Hey, we shook hands with Stalin). He likes Hollywood, so line up all the movie stars for a meet-and-greet. They should give out tens of thousands of scholarships to North Korean kids. Flood the country with iPads. All this will cost less than one B-2 bomber.
All this is critical to the one thing that the NKorean leadership needs in order to make peace: the ability to save face. With all this goodwill that we will buy, it will let them save face and say maybe the West isn’t so bad. The world has changed. It is all one giant misunderstanding. The West is sincere in wanting to make change. I can envision a come-to-Jesus speech by Kim Jong Il like the one Emperor Hirohito gave after they dropped the second bomb, but without all the radiation.
We should make it very clear that we have no interest in changing the N. Korean leadership. In fact, we want them to stay exactly where they are. We should guarantee their security. We will even send them a planeload of Cognac once a month.
All this will lead to a drawdown in the N.Korean military forces. SKorea will get a huge chunk of cheap labor, and a lot of it can be former NKorean army soldiers.
And China will love it most of all, because (1) does not force them into arbitrating or supporting a war, (2) does not cause a refugee problem, (3) does not expand SK all the way to the Chinese border and (4) all these North Koreans are going to gorge themselves on Chinese goods that the US is going to pay for, thereby keeping the Chinese economy going.
If President Obama implements this plan, he will be the first person in history to get TWO Nobel peace prizes. I’ll be happy if he gives me a ride in Air Force One. I’ll be really happy if he gives me a shout-out in the peace prize acceptance speech!
