Monday - April 06, 2009

 What to do about Korean Missiles

So North Korea, a despotic, murderous regime, threatens to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile.  This is not good.  But what should we do about it?

One option would have been to shoot it down.  In fact, there were rumors that US Navy ships were deployed that were capable of doing that.  This capability is still very new, still being tested, probably not entirely reliable.  So, say we did decide to shoot it down, what would have happened if we missed?  The world's attention would have been focused on us, our ineptness, and on how to stop our rogue behavior.  This would have been very bad.  North Korea would have been triumphant while we would have been shamed.

But now that it has splashed in the ocean we have a lot of good data on North Korean incompetence and how they are advancing their capabilities.  

The truth is that international law is only observed by the lawful.  And the lawless get to demand that the lawful do so.  This is essentially how terrorism works.  Terrorists can destroy anything, kill anyone, and get their way.  Civilized nations can't do that.  

There are only really two ways to deal with this.  Either we wipe out the North Korean government, or we live with their threats.  There's no other workable solution.

 

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