It is curious how concerned we are with appearances, almost to the exclusion of everything else, yet everybody hates us anyway no matter what we do. Methinks we should be less concerned with appearances and more concerned with reality. Then useful appearances will naturally follow. Everybody who has been a successful leader understands that.
If it is China's backyard, they should take care of it. If it is not, Kim is up for grabs. If he is up for grabs, all options are on the table - ultimatum, coup d'etat, economic strangulation, assassination, invasion, conventional bombing, nuclear pre-emptive strike. Whatever gets the job done, in order of increasing severity.
Agreed. Now that the lunatics running NK can turn entire cities into glass and slag, it behooves us to stop worrying about our reputation and start worrying about our safety (and that of our allies in SK, Japan, The Philippines...).
Kim Jong Il's temperament leads me to conclude that this is an "us or them" type situation - someday, somehow, somebody is gonna get nuked. Better them than us. The Bush Doctrine/Pre-Emptive Strike Theory is looking mighty appealing right now.
All that guff about respecting sovereign nations and moral equivalence and so forth is a bunch of hot air. The purpose of the US governemt is to protect the liberties, property, and interests of the American people, NOT to win some sort of international popularity contest.
Now that KJI has the bomb, ugliness will ensue one way or another. Let us hope that our leaders have the courage to do what needs to be done to minimize that ugliness, and failing that, to keep the ugliness as far away from our soil as possible.