David Warren writes about North Korea backing off from its threat to conduct a second nuclear test. It is a variation on one of my favorite memes, "Peace Through Superior Firepower." (Backed up by a willingness to use it.)
"...the dictator Kim Jong-Il told the Chinese envoy in Pyongyang that he has called it off for the foreseeable future. The truth could be anything -- from, the Chinese told their client enough is enough, to, there was never a second test ready anyway.... But the most likely explanation is that counter-threats and actions from South Korea, Japan, and the United States have persuaded Pyongyang that the cost of further testing is too high."
Diplomatic maneuvring at the UN and appeasement talk don't defuse internationational crises.
"Clarity, of the sort the U.S. secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, was delivering in Tokyo this week, is instead what defuses crises. It was clear enough, from Ms Rice’s language, that the U.S. was taking North Korea’s threats deadly seriously. She said explicitly that the U.S. was prepared to use nuclear weapons to defend Japan and South Korea. Moreover, a real sampling of that seriousness was offered for Pyongyang to taste. Aid, vital to the daily operations of the "hermit" regime, was being cut."
Japan and South Korea both stood firm against North Korea, which is a bit of a sea change for those countries.
"Unfortunately, our Western “gliberal” elites, and the media that express their fantasias, actually believe that peace is advanced by consistently appeasing our most lethal enemies, by "talking nice", and giving them interminable assurances of our harmlessness. Whereas, that is the formula for inviting attack. Peace between irreconcilable parties can only be delineated by lines in the sand."
Life, Liberty, Etc. has quite an array of "Peace Through Superior Firepower" products, including T-shirts, pins, stickers and patches.
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