U.S. to stage exercises with South Korea; few good options for dealing with North
John Pomfret
The United States is dispatching an aircraft carrier strike group to the waters off the Korean Peninsula for joint military exercises that President Obama said would reinforce the U.S. alliance with South Korea in the wake of a North Korean artillery attack Tuesday.
In his phone call with Lee, Obama pledged to lead international efforts to condemn North Korea's apparently unprovoked 50-minute barrage on the island of Yeonpyeong, which killed two South Korean marines and two civilians, wounded at least 19 other people and set buildings and forests ablaze. But analysts said the United States faces few good options with regard to the North.
Tuesday's artillery blasts marked the first time in years that North Korea has trained the firepower of its 1.1 million-strong military on South Korea's civilian population. It prompted a withering round of return fire from South Korean batteries, the scrambling of the South's air force and concerns that the firefight could spiral into all-out war.
I thought this article did a pretty good job of framing the complexity of the situation in a few short words. The fact of the matter is there REALLY aren't any good options. I'm convinced that the sawed-off little nutcake running North Korea is in cahoots with other "friends" of the United States to test our President's mettle. They know that our President is between a rock and a hard place. He has troubles in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Israel. The last thing he needs right now is a high intensity war on the Korean Pennisula. The all-volunteer military is tired and shaky on material. Unless the President is prepared to invoke the draft and spend a whole lot more money on the defense budget, the best he can do is send a carrier group to an exercise there and "lead international efforts to condemn North Korea's apparently unprovoked 50-minute barrage on the island of Yeonpyeong". Any response stronger then that will find the U.S. in an intense shooting war on some very ugly terrain.
I'm not so sure that the exercise won't provoke a fight anyway. The North Koreans are hungry and facing yet another winter of very little food. They could move south and fix some of their "food" problems. They would have China's tacit backing. They know that America simply doesn't have the will to fight there. We remember the last ugly fight...ask any Korean War vet. There won't be any Inchon-type moves in this fight. We will lose lots of people and break lots of things.
The short crazy guy running North Korea is just poking at our President while he can. He knows that President Obama won't do much of anything. He can't.
At times like these you have to wonder what a former president's wife would recommend (now Secretary of State) and what a former community organizer (now President) might decide to do. I think you have already seen the answer. And both sit at this time with fingers crossed hoping the exercise that starts on the 28th doesn't start WWIII and include a nuclear exchange that would bring Japan and China into the fight in a hurry. The only saving grace I see is that the U.S. is in soooo deep with China that China would be damaging its own investments by fighting with us and stemming commerce with the Western world. They know North Korea has nothing to lose...but China has a lot to lose.
