The American Spectator

Shiroi Neko| 11.23.10 @ 5:34AM

WWIII is open now.

Curly Smith| 11.23.10 @ 7:12AM

The world has now officially recognized the weakness of Barack Obama. You can only bow to so many foreign leaders before they realize that your willing subjugation is not a mistake. But, the question remains, what's in this for China? As North Korea is their puppet, China must have some reason to want to humiliate Obama.

serfer62| 11.24.10 @ 7:43PM

The missile launch off California was an insult. While Americans are again mislead by our MILITARY to cover up for The Won, the rest of the world snickers...

Mimi| 11.23.10 @ 7:13AM

Well.... we seemed to glide through, limping a bit, angry at, concerned for our NATION ...all related to the TERRIBLE choice of Nov. 2008.
It is for this TIME, a North Korea,inexperienced,young leader feeling his oats...signs of potential horrendous conflict... That we all have dreaded...Is the LEADER in office qualified? .....Is this the 3AM wake-up call? We all NOW, have to REALLY..WORRY!!!!!

WL| 11.23.10 @ 7:19AM

It seems like the North Koreans have just started a war...
BUT THEY HAVE TO BE FRUSTRATED BECAUSE OBAMA "CONDEMNS" it, but won't let the S. Koreans fire back....

Make no mistake folks...China authorized this...and it is just one more step of pushing forward to challenge the Greatest Military Commander in World History...

Generalissimo Barry Barrack Hussein Obama the Magnificent....

GO ON BARRY, COCK THAT HEAD BACK AND LECTURE 'EM!!!!!!!!

HA HAAAA A AHAA

JohnD| 11.23.10 @ 7:55AM

Looks like Obama's policy of coddling genocidal dictators and telegraphing American weakness is working nicely.

Too Many Tims| 11.23.10 @ 8:12AM

PREPARE THE STRONGLY WORDED PROTEST!

Old Counselor| 11.23.10 @ 1:14PM

When I read this post, my mind flashed back to Christopher Warren stating that he would ". . . bring to bear the full weight of American diplomacy." A cartoonist (Ramirez?) at the time drew an illustration of scores of attache' cases falling from the bomb bay of a B-52. Perhaps BHO can convince him to come back to the State Dept.

Grzmlyk| 11.23.10 @ 9:06AM

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

I recall the late-but-not-lamented SL Toddard, troll du jour for 24 months running couple of years back, speaking for liberals everywhere when he PERSONALLY assured me - and other rabid, warmongering conservatives - that North Korea wasn't a threat at all, and they CERTAINLY weren't trying to go nuclear. Ditto Iran.

What, liberals worry?

So settle down, all you "tea baggers." This is simply a figment of your fevered, Sarah Palin-marinated, Dick Cheney-corrupted imaginations.

We all know the ONLY war waged on earth is at the hands of war profiteer Halliburton. The only evil that sullies the Global Workers' Paradise comes from America. Especially under Bush.

And now that the earth-goddess Gaia has deigned to assume the form of a mortal - in the ultra-cool, totally hip, affirmative-action approved person of St. Barack the Fecal - it's only a matter of a few months before he/she turns back the oceans, reverses global warming and imparts peace to our once pristine planet.

Why, I'm sure all it will take to clear this up is a well-read speech and a bit of spit and polish on the presidential knob from the mainstream media. Maybe he'll offer a "cash for bunkers" program that will convince the North Koreans that we mean them no harm.

I swear. You "tea baggers" are so hung up on reality. Come on over to the liberal side, where good intentions, naivete and felonious opportunism are mixed daily with pixie dust, unicorn eyelashes and vain gossamer to spin the loveliest of Utopian coccoons.

Just keep down the thundering bombs and the screams of the suffering hordes, will ya? I almost spilled my Kool-Aid.

S.L. Toddard| 11.23.10 @ 5:11PM

I recall the late-but-not-lamented SL Toddard, troll du jour for 24 months running couple of years back, speaking for liberals everywhere when he PERSONALLY assured me - and other rabid, warmongering conservatives - that North Korea wasn't a threat at all, and they CERTAINLY weren't trying to go nuclear

Really. Here are all the threads at AmSpec where you and I both appear together with the phrase "north korea":

http://www.google.com/search?i.....s=1&q="s.l.+toddard"+"north+korea"+Grzmlyk

Please provide our audience with a quote, from me, in which I "assure" you that "North Korea wasn't a threat at all", and where I argue that "they CERTAINLY weren't trying to go nuclear".

If you cannot, I would appreciate it if you would retract this lie, along with your insinuation that I am a "liberal", which you yourself know to be false. The main reason I post so infrequently here now (I still read AmSpec daily) is that with Bush out of office, AmSpec writers spend most of their time criticizing the Obama administration. As I oppose the Obama administration myself (from the Right) there hasn't been much of interest to contest.

S.L. Toddard| 11.23.10 @ 5:15PM

Sorry, Grzmlyk - that link won't post right. Just do a google search for the following (I'm sure you're familiar with how to do this, but whatever):

"s.l. toddard" "north korea" Grzmlyk site:spectator.org

Copy and paste that into Google, and search away. If you find nothing to support your allegation, I do hope you will retract. And I pledge right now that if you quote me assuring you that "North Korea wasn't a threat at all", and that "they CERTAINLY weren't trying to go nuclear" I will absolutely admit that I was wrong.

I think you are confusing North Korea and Iran.

Curtis Rasmussen| 11.23.10 @ 6:52PM

The troll never left, he just changed his moniker...

Grzmlyk, you just convinced the douchebag to put it back into heavy rotation.

S.L. Toddard| 11.24.10 @ 7:26AM

Mr. Rasmussen, would it be too much to ask that we explore any differences of opinion we might have like civilized men? It is, after all, Western Civilization that we conservatives wish to conserve, and any civilization in which the "grown" "men" cannot engage in discourse without employing the crude gutter language of the perpetual children of our welfare-addicted underclass is no civilization at all.

Also, unless Grzmlyk posts otherwise I presume we may consider his silence a retraction of his allegations.

Curtis Rasmussen| 11.24.10 @ 11:16AM

Written when this troll was ubiquitous. No one has ever fallen for his toad turds. Either this flaming lib got a job at the TSA or he has multiple moniker personalities:

Curtis Rasmussen| 9.10.09 @ 3:25PM

S.L.ick Toadturd is an obfuscating liberal in permanent attack mode. He hides behind the conservative label in order to divide and hijack, just like this thread has nothing to do with supporting Republicans in prior administrations.

This elitist gets a rush from any reply to his vapid, empty replies. His feeling of superiority bouys him to live another day. He spends so much time on this site that one wonders if he has any human contact at all.

I urge all readers to scroll past his posts without reading them. Ignoring him is the only way to make him disappear.

Thom| 11.23.10 @ 9:22AM

North Korea's second act of war goes unanswered.... South Korea doesn't have an offensive capability being totally geared toward defensive measures. They can't sustain an effort without our assistance....

If King Obama responses as the North Korean/China wants he’ll have a real war not a little dust up as we had in Iraq and Afghanistan. If he does not respond then NK will just keep on with its provocations making a fool out of both South Korean’s government and ours….. Peace through weakness doesn’t work every time it is tried.

Grzmlyk| 11.23.10 @ 9:44AM

That's only because you're not wishing hard enough, Thom. Duh. It won't work unless we all send out positive vibes in unison. Don't you read Frank Rich?

Now everybody hold hands and think "world peace" while chanting, "Oprah, Oprah, Oprah."

Yeah, baby. THAT'S the spot.

Thom| 11.23.10 @ 10:21AM

Absolutely....

Grzmlyk| 11.23.10 @ 10:22AM

It would be funny if it weren't the death knell for American sovereignty.

Thom| 11.23.10 @ 10:53AM

Grzmlyk, so many problems, so little time.....

Ken (Old Texican)| 11.23.10 @ 10:30AM

Grz,
...here we go... wwwtexassaidno.com

...right on schedule.

OK, some of you constitutional scholars, a question:
Can Congress unilaterally declare war, and must the Executive...execute it in that case?

Al Adab| 11.23.10 @ 11:02AM

Here's one we can blame on someone other than Bush. Clinton failed to respond in the 90's to NK and instead gave them reactors. Gee, that was smart. Let's see if Al Naqis blames Clinton for this little "issue" or if instead he goes into full apology mode.

Sheila| 11.23.10 @ 10:33AM

Color me unsurprised. Where, however, are the ever-present protesting South Korean students? Where are all those angry South Koreans who want U.S. troops (all those criminally-minded, evil ones who do nothing for the SK small businessmen or economy) OUT immediately? Cowering? You don't say. Amidst all the furor over the North's criminally-insane leaders, please don't forget that they acted as proxies in the fifties and they are most likely proxies again today. Whether it's for the Chinese or the Russians doesn't really matter, of course. Hey, wow, I just realized that brilliant Joe Biden warned us to "gird " our loins - he's something, huh?

Thom| 11.23.10 @ 10:51AM

NK has been trying to provoke a war for nearly 2 decades. It knows we don’t have the ground forces and stomach for such an endeavor any longer and the side on defense has the advantage due to terrain. It also knows the South Korean military can’t sustain one either being half the size of the NK forces. SK Air Force while modern is smaller than Israel’s and NK has noticed the relatively ineffectiveness of air only massive attacks in Bosnia for 81 days and Israel’s same against Hezbollah for 34 days. A great deal of damage could be done along the border area and into the populated Seoul area without NK actually crossing the border in mass. In the eyes of the North Korea, inflicting damage on the heart of the South Korean economic engine (the Seoul area) and demonstrating that US promises are a paper tiger would be a victory in their eyes. We can’t sustain an effort there without operating from Japanese bases which will bring Japan into this mess indirectly. US or Japanese support will bring China in to protect their interest there. South Korea is an economic competitor to China and diminishing their role in the world would be a good thing in their eyes. North Korea has been a proxy since 1950 and the Neville Chamberlains in Washington DC just can’t bring themselves to understand the Asian mindset about such things. We lost 38,000 in Korea because the dumbarse at 1600 Pennsylvania in 1950 didn’t understand this.

Grzmlyk| 11.23.10 @ 11:04AM

Yes, Thom, I agree. I just heard Cliff May (the Foundation for Defense of Democracies) talk about how China will probably keep the NORKs on a relatively short leash because China needs American consumer markets and they don't want us to default on our loans.

I am not nearly so optimistic; at some point, the Chinese will see that their pool of potential consumers - 1.2 billion - dwarfs our puny 300 million - and in any case, they know we're going to inflate our way out of debt; the dollar's status as the world's reserve currency is history.

NK may poke and prod here and there to cow us now, but at some point China's going to take the leash off of NK, take its own gloves off and just take what they want.

I think of what the world will look like in 40 years and I have only one question: Who will be our masters, the Chinese or Islam?

And where will the SL Toddards and Frank Riches and other vainglorious liberal masturbators be then?

Shiny, happy graduates of re-education camps or dead. That's where.

Thom| 11.23.10 @ 11:16AM

Grzmlyk, printing money, devaluing our currency is essentially defaulting on their loans to us a little at a time and of course we aren't borrowing from them. They will let NK run with the ball until it hurts China which won't be any time soon. The Chinese almost destroyed one of our aircraft in order to test Bush. They already know what the jelly spined King Obama is made of and if their proxy can do him the back door way the better even. You know, Good Communist, Bad Communist......

This is a very dangerous game, one we've demonstrated we can't play very well particularly when you don't have the forces to back it up and finish the job.

Al Adab| 11.23.10 @ 11:28AM

Grz, Thom:

Don't worry, President Al Naqis will apologize for our provocation and all will be well. Don't forget the fault is always ours for being a (still today) free nation. Our friends you know are just greedy while our enemies just misunderstand us.

Yes guys, the day of reckoning is coming. How any of our fellow citizens bought into this kumbaya la la land is beyond me.

Grzmlyk| 11.23.10 @ 11:38AM

Obama's primary foreign policy challenge is this: How can he devote his full energy to apologizing to China (for our erstwhile hegemony) and Islam (for our wicked Judeo-Christian culture) at the same time?

That leaves him very little time to snuggle with Hugo Chavez.

Al Adab, I agree - I cannot understand how anyone bought into Obama for a nanosecond. But what really discourages me is that too many STILL haven't figured out it - or they think he hasn't prostrated himself at the altar of one-world Marxism enough.

Al Adab| 11.23.10 @ 12:47PM

The question as you say isn't how his approval rating has fallen to 39%, rather it's that four in ten still think the job he's doing is OK. Never underestimate the public. "There's one born every minute."

Grzmlyk| 11.23.10 @ 11:27AM

Not sure why you say we're not borrowing from them - we're into them for about a trillion at this point and I think that, since their economy's been growing at about 10% a year, they are better positioned to absorb the losses inherent in getting paid back in funny money than we are positioned to sustain our economy by printing it.

This extortion that NK is engaging in is kid stuff compared to what's coming.

China's goal is to become the lone superpower - and they know we'll do nothing to stop them.

Thom| 11.23.10 @ 11:52AM

Grzmlyk, by that I mean we are printing 600+ billion which devalues their return on what they have loaned us and we aren't borrowing more from them..... the one who loans money takes a bath when you devalue it with inflation. Right?

Grzmlyk| 11.23.10 @ 12:30PM

Well, they did decline to take the bait on our last Treasuries sale - so yeah, I think they will probably stop bankrolling more of our debt moving forward.

On the other hand, they're kind of hip-deep in this inflationary cycle themselves. We're both inflating a bubble and I think if they let their currency float they'll experience a contraction - I mean, they've been growing at 10% for what, a decade?

Which is one reason they're getting into more corporate investments here.

I don't claim to be an expert, but it seems to me that if the bubble pops for both of us, they'll be in a much better position to recover sooner than we will be. Our populace is maxed out on credit - their populace is four times larger than ours and needs a lot more stuff than we do at this point. They save more than we do. And they have more manufacturing than we currently do, at cheaper labor costs.

And they aren't so encumbered by this kum-ba-ya one-worldism that has crippled us; they do what's good for China first, last and for the foreseeable future.

So they'll be building up their stockpile of war materiel even as we reduce ours.

Despite my admittedly incomplete understanding of the economics, I think you and I pretty much agree on the direction we're headed.

Thom| 11.23.10 @ 1:52PM

We are in a place that requires strong leadership skills and the susbstance to back that up. We have neither at this point in time.

Grzmlyk| 11.23.10 @ 2:17PM

Absolutely. Unfortunately, too many people in this country still cling to the myths that Obama embodies.

We now expect our political class simply to kick the can down the road both domestically and foreign p0licy-wise.

Thom| 11.23.10 @ 3:03PM

Grzmlyk, with King Obama’s base of support being the bulk of 22 million government workers (read voters), Union workers, academics living off taxpayer funds, non white/non Christians I wouldn’t look for his support to fall below 40% in any real sense. The war we have at home isn’t going to go away because of an international incident, if anything his support will rise because so called “republicans” will back him just as Truman and LBJ got initial support for their follies. In many ways he is just the empty suit at the top of the power pole… and a real shooting war in Korea we really don’t want with that in place and our small military force structure so out of whack trying to police the world. There is a real danger here of getting dragged into something we don’t have the means or resolve to finish. The North is banking on that. The so called Peace President is the absolutely worst ingredient in maintaining real peace.

Grzmlyk| 11.23.10 @ 4:30PM

I agree with 99% of this and it depresses me.

I don't think NK thinks we will confront them on this, however. I think they give us this bitch slap every year or so to extort concessions out of us - which we will give like the lapdogs we are.

I do agree we don't have the wherewithal to fight them, nor should we at this point - they have us right where they want us.

Thom| 11.23.10 @ 6:00PM

We put ourselves in this position with wishful thinking foreign policy decisions going back to the end of the Korean conflict. This is what happens when you don't seek victory and win on the battlefield. This is personal with the North and we continue to treat it as a business decision....

Heywood| 11.23.10 @ 11:33AM

This is just the North tossing a temper tantrum b/c they wouldn't start up 6 nation negotiations. Our side told them they couldn't negotiate as long as they had that light water nuke plant. A few days later they're shelling them.
They made a huge mistake by not shooting down that test missile they launched and for not sinking the Norths navy after they killed 46 S. Koreans. That sinking raised the bar for the North--so from now on what they're saying is if we don't give in to their blackmail they're going to sink ships, launch nuke tests and fire artillery.
WTG Obama! *sarcasm*

Chuck| 11.23.10 @ 11:37AM

Where is our great Secretary of State, the dishonorable Hillary Rodham Clinton and her disgraced impeached husband? Another villain is a** kisser Jimmy Carter.

Thom| 11.23.10 @ 1:54PM

Hillary, is trying to come to grips with why her presence as SoS does not scare the North Koreans and Chinese.....

Mojo Risin| 11.23.10 @ 11:58AM

I wonder if this is Bush's fault???

Al Adab| 11.23.10 @ 12:31PM

This one we can actually blame on Clinton. In the 90's he bought off NK's govt by giving them reactors. Real smart huh? As they say, what goes around comes around.

Mojo Risin| 11.23.10 @ 12:42PM

And I thought it was the exchange of "Basketballs."

Grzmlyk| 11.23.10 @ 12:45PM

Don't forget the aforementioned, ever-helpful Carter, who gave Clinton a tip-in.

Liberals: Always and everywhere toxic to America, to freedom, to justice and to prosperity.

Heywood| 11.23.10 @ 1:51PM

Clinton's do-goodism liberalism is just one reason for the boat we're in now. Basically we had a standing agreement with China for them to not give the nutjob dictator food, medicine and energy he needed to sustain and upgrade his over-sized military that the North Korean peninsula couldn't sustain on it's own. They have rich farmland in the south--which the North covets--and the thinking is/was we didn't want to put the North into any position where they'd have nothing to lose by trying to seize that rich farmland in the south. So when Clinton gets there, he sees all those North Korean civilians starving to death and inside very large slave labor camps--boo hoo hoo and we gotta save all those poor people--it'll look great on the evening news when we 'save' them! So like a dummie, the well-intended libs in power back then gave the North food, oil, medicine and even advanced nuclear power so that they could feed their starving population--which was starving b/c the nutjob needed everything for his military. The U.S.A. sustained the North's Army--the libs -as usual--never met a commie dictator they felt they couldn't help. What morons!

Thom| 11.23.10 @ 1:58PM

Exactly. Like all the humanitarian aid given to dictators the world over, it frees them to focus their limited resources where they really want it, like Oil for Food did…..

Yosemeti Sam| 11.23.10 @ 12:43PM

Um, may the South Koreans 'acquire' a dozen or so Daisy Cutters?

And DEMONSTRATE one to the NKs?

To illustrate to the NKs that their strutting
automaton military would be pushing up desert fields of daisies if they kept pressing their belligerence.

Thom| 11.23.10 @ 2:07PM

Yosemeti Sam, I don't think a C-130 with a 15,000 lb VW sized Daisy Cutter could make it even to NK air defense zone let alone into their territory proper. The tactical AF of SK is just going to have to deal in pin pricks since they are totally orientated toward defense south of the DMZ to keep China happy.

Al Adab| 11.23.10 @ 2:32PM

Think thermobaric. Of course this President would never authorize any military action.

Thom| 11.23.10 @ 2:46PM

Like Truman I don't think King Obama can think that many moves ahead in this game. He is beyond predictable and thus can be steered toward the result the NK/Chinese want here. Don't be too sure he won't authorize some action given his need to prove he is in charge. That's where the danger line is between his desire to prove something and the need to do something effective and follow through on that.

Yosemeti Sam| 11.24.10 @ 10:18AM

ON the other hand, the SKs could commandeer one of the tunnels the NKs keep building towards Sk for - some purpose.

Thus bypassing NKs LEGO air force in delivery of a Daisy.

LOL.

FastJohnny| 11.23.10 @ 8:51PM

Why doesn't our Lecturer-and-Chief go over there and give them one of his famous "let me be perfectly clear" and make no mistake about it" speeches. After a half hour of listening to one of those, the N.Koreans will certainly capitulate.