Bad Options and Worse Ones

North Korea's nuclear weapon leaves civilization with only bad options and worse ones. We've only ourselves to blame: 20 years of feckless American diplomacy, 20 years of Chinese encouragement and acquiesence, have brought us to this point. It's too late for a military solution and far too late for a political one. It is near inevitable that Japan will complete its own nuclear weapons program. South Korea will either follow suit or put its head even further in the sand. Having let Pyongyang build and explode a weapon, our impotence in regard to Tehran or any other third world shithole with an internet connection, two electricians, and a plumber is now obvious.

A least bad option? Call Hu Jintao and tell him that unless he puts the very hard word on Kim and backs it up--now--with action, the the United States will publically announce that it, in the current strategic environment, can no longer in good conscience object to a nuclear armed South Korea, Japan and Taiwan. What could China realistically do? For a start, Beijing could close down all North Korean connected businesses in Macau. NoKo trading and shipping companies in Macau act as Kim's defacto overseas banking and trade arm. The North Korean Embassy in Beijing should be closed. Again NoKo embassies in large part exist as smuggling operations for drugs and counterfeit currency, and Beijing has the biggest one.

Not much, but thanks to the studpidity of three successive American presidents, it's all we've got.

North Korea Tests Nuke?

Matt Drudge is reporting via AP and South Korean media that Bouffaint Boy has lit off a nuclear weapon.

Now what?

Nanny Must Be So Disappointed

Nanny Helen must be bitterly disappointed that after all work pretending that she thinks the UN is worth a rat's ass, they pass her over for Secretary General. I'm sort of bummed about it, too. At least she wouldn't have been a corrupt African quango, an unrepentant Nazi or the loser foreign minister of an Arab dictatorship. Also, if they'd picked Helen, New Zealand would have finally seen the back of her.

Asian Proliferation

If I were Hu Jintao,this would have me more than a little vexed. If North Korea does test a nuclear device, the only rational strategic response for Japan and South Korea is to do the same. On a list of things that China does not want to see in international politics, a nuclear Japan had got to come in at number 2, maybe even tied for first with an independent Taiwan.

From China's point of view North Korea must be like an ugly and unpleasant dog that the kids left behind when they went away to college. It snarls at the postman, barks all night, bites you when you pet it and shits on the carpet, but you just can't quite bring yourself to throw the damn thing into the river.

Didn't Work Then, Won't Work Now.

The Investors Business Daily has this editorial on the departure of arch-scumbag and congenital idiot Mark Foley. The Democrats have covered up, protected and preserved the careers of at least four of their number, including Bill Clinton, in the face of sex scandals as bad as or worse (in the case of Garry Studds) than Foley's. I'm sure this was intended as an October surprise. The benefit to Republicans of course is that they can point to their own condemnation, censure and probable prosecution of Foley in contrast to the Democrats' excusing their own creeps.

It's exactly like the Democrats sudden revelation of W's 30 year old DUI while the Chivas soaked Ted Kennedy remains an elder statesman. After all Ted only killed someone in his own alcoholic haze. Meanwhile Kennedy's degenerate nephew and Democratic Congressman goes racing around Washington soaked to the eyeballs in Scotch and tranquilisers. The voters smell hypocrisy a mile away...didn't work then, won't work now.