Friday, May 29, 2009
From The Cuban Missile Crisis To The Korean Nuclear Crisis
| Forty seven years ago a new, young American President was faced with a test given to him by communist Russia which dealt with the lesser but closer threat of communist Cuba. It was a test of Americas resolve and an exploratory attempt to see the extent of sacrifice that our President, John F. Kennedy was willing to allow America to make in its defense. Today North Korea is flexing their muscle. As history shows, such actions, in the face of a new American President, are to be expected. All international bullies are like children with a new babysitter. They will try to test the limits of their new supervisor and see how many things that the new babysitter will let them get away with. Such is the case with the North Korean regime. The first test occurred weeks ago when the North Korean dictatorship “test” fired a long range missile which proved a capability to strike American soil. From this first test, Pyongyang learned that the new American President had no new established plan for dealing with whatever they threw at him. The President’s slap on the hand and knee jerk response to seek a U.N. organized tongue lashing of North Korea did nothing. So North Korea has now pushed even further. They have conducted an underground nuclear test that unleashed a force equivalent to that of the WWII ending bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The ramifications, of the recent test of their own nuclear capabilities and of our President, pushed North Korea to the forefront and it made it the most immediate crucial issue to confront our nation and our new President. It is a clear and present danger that puts much at risk and could set a presendence that could either set other ambitious rougue regimes on a course to follow or a course to avoid. If North Korea becomes a nuclear power, one of the nations at greatest risk is Japan. In response to the recent flexing of North Korean muscle, Japan's Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, said that this test was "unpardonable" and that the region was "entering a new, dangerous nuclear age". Shinzo’s assessment is undoubtedly correct. The current regime in Pyongyang is erratic and unpredictable. As such, with any amount of nuclear capability in their hands, the East, and dare I say the world, may find itself held hostage to the whims of the communist Korean madmen at the helm of the Korean Pennisula‘s northern territory. If this is something we are prepared to live with than President Obama’s U.N. based policies are the way to go. However I am not willing to simply let by-gone missiles be by-gone and live with the threat that now exists. I am not suggesting that we should go this alone. We must, I repeat, must enlist the diplomatic unity and support of the nations of the world on this. We must. But we know that fractured alliances, China’s veto power on the U.N. Security Council and a history of U.N. resolutions that always lack teeth and the will to actually enforce any resolution, only go so far. So what are we to do? First of all, the President must reverse course on his slashing of the missile defense budget. To not do so would merely indicate that we do not see North Korea’s nuclear forays and infatuation with long range missiles as a serious threat. Seeing as how North Korea ignored President Obama’s first reaction to their initial examination of him, this most recent test requires a dramatic but prudent reaction that makes the North Koreans wonder if our President is as crazed as they are. Part of that prudent action will be restoring and even increasing our missile defense budgets. President Obama must then make crystal clear to the Kim Jong-Il-ites, that he does not seek to use Robert’s Rules of Order to combat enemies that fight by the rules of the Marquis de Sade or Genghis Khan . If signs of weakness and lack of resolve are demonstrated by the President or our citizens, North Korea will surely move on to more missile tests and more nuclear tests. They will proceed with their nuclear ambitions like sharks sensing blood in the water. But dealing with the intricacies of this situation do not just require our focus on North Korea. China has much to do with North Korea and they are the only entity with any real influence on North Korea. So we must undertake convincing actions that speak to both North Korea and China. We need to make China realize that their unwillingness to punish North Korea for their attempts to nuclearize is unwise and too costly. Without their endorsement of U.N. Security Council Resolutions 1695 and 1718, diplomatic solutions through the United Nations are doomed. So by making moves that cause China to feel that their poverty stricken neighbors are causing things to get out of hand, maybe China will fall in line and influence North Korea enough to back away from their nuclear ambitions. If they can not achieve that than China must be willing to sign on to tough UN sanctions and support U.N. Resolutions 1695 and 1718 and stop being North Korea‘s enabler.. One way to get China’s attention will be to turn to the very man who said that Pyongyang’s recent actions were "unpardonable" and claimed that the region was "entering a new, dangerous nuclear age". ………Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Although very adept with nuclear fusion, since Japan surrendered in World War II, a mutually agreed upon “Security Between The U.S. and Japan” established a non-nuclear weaponization policy which placed the newly demilitarized Japanese nation under the protection of America’s nuclear umbrella. In return, Japan does not maintain any nuclear weapons. With North Korea so close to Japan and at such odds with Japan, their nuclear war games make the Japanese non-nuclear weaponization agreement a very tempting agreement to release Japan from. And that is another thing that our President should make clear he is ready to do. Such a move would make Kim Jong-Il’s comatose head spin and it will rattle all the bamboo in China too. The Chinese do not want Japanese nukes off their coast and although Japan may not have nuclear arms at the moment, they have enough nuclear experience and capability to arm themselves with nuclear weapons, even without out help.. More than 30% of the island nation is powered by nuclear energy. So arming a missile with this capability is not must of a stretch. But this alone will not prove that our President is serious enough about the situation. President Obama must take hold of the world stage and stand firmly on the American bully pulpit. With steely resolve he must propose an initial package of four actions that the United States will pursue, enforce and carry out, if North Korea does not comply. It must be a statement that reverberates throughout the international community. To begin, President Obama must declare that there will be economic repercussions to any nation that does not return to an enforcement of international laws that holds North Korea or foreign entities that are involved in Pyongyang's illegal counterfeiting and drug-smuggling activities accountable. When the U.S. did this with a bank that was found to be laundering money for communists North Koreans, Pyongyang was stunned and at least tried to pretend that they were dropping nuclear their pursuit of nuclear capabilities. In such cases, a multi lateral effort to freeze and seize the assets of such laundering entities must be pursued. And not only by us. The President make it known that those nations that do not adhere to this, will find themselves vulnerable to their American sponsored sanctions, along with depleted American foreign aid. The second action to be pointed out in the President’s address must be the initiation of a multilateral effort to seize and freeze the assets of North Korea and foreign government agencies that violate existing U.N. resolutions which prohibit exporting and procuring WMD and missile related materials, capabilities and technologies. After declaring those first two diplomatic approaches, the President must convey to North Korea his willingness to face the possible inevitability of Pyongyang’s insanity. He must announce an increased deployment and activation of anti-missile systems to our allies at North Korea’s southern border………….in South Korea. And he needs to throw in a deployment of such defensive tools to Japan too. Once those measures have been laid out, President Obama can unleash the coup de grace. Declare that the if North Korea does not drop it’s nuclear ambitions within 45 days, in addition to the above mentioned actions, the United States will release Japan from the clause that prevents her from arming herself with nuclear weapons……“The Security Between The U.S. and Japan” clause that was a part of the Treaty of Peace that ended World War II. It is at this point the President could introduce a new diplomatic approach. He can propose that if North Korea is seeking nuclear weapon capabilities for some claimed sake of their own defense, they need not fear America or our allies, for we do not wish to engage in battle with any peace loving people. Following that proclamation, we need to propose that China enter into the same type of security agreement that the U.S. made with Japan at the end of WWII. If defense is the right that North Korea wants to claim as the reason for nuclear weaponry and capability, than we suggest that China, Pyongyang’s closest and most loyal benefactor, provide the same nuclear umbrella that the United States has provided for Japan. This would be in turn for North Korea’s verifiable commitment to disarm all nuclear weapons and dismantle all nuclear capabilities. President Obama can acknowledge China’s own defensive capabilities and make clear that we know that China is more than capable of meeting such a promised defense of their neighboring ally and that they should be more than willing to accommodate a commitment that protects their southern neighbor and averts the possibility of regional nuclear contests that could be triggered by unstable regimes. With Solomon-like wisdom and logic, President Obama can state “if such an arrangement is not acceptable to North Korea than the United States, China and the world will only be able to conclude that North Korea’s nuclear ambitions are intended for offensive measures designed to wreak havoc and deliver death and destruction to mankind. Such a determination will leave us with but one course, a combative course that no one will win”. But statecraft does not stop their. Before, during and after this speech of ultimatum and proposal, the United States needs to spike the number of talks with Taiwanese separatists. These conversations need not be of any significance. They could simply be about how Taiwan’s crops are doing this growing season. The point is not what we discuss but rather what the Chinese think we could possibly be discusing. Let them wonder if we are discussing attempts to secure Taiwan’s independence and planning for some sort of inevitable Sino-American engagement that we expect to result from the fallout of a neccessary confrontation with North Korea. Make sure that the Chinese also see that we are “covertly” reaching out to Tibetan separatists. Let China know that we are up to something. Have all this occur while, we simultaneously put forward our proposal for a Chinese nuclear umbrella of North Korea and list the initial actions that we will take against North Korea if they do not find a way to do away with their nuclear ambitions. While we raise concerns through perceived diplomatic actions involving Chinese concerns, a series of military actions need to also take place. They must be actions that the Chinese view as heightened defensive measure on our part. Measure that allow the Chinese to believe that we really do see a nuclear North Korea as a serious threat that we must do something about. Critics will claim that these steps will only escalate matters but it is my most ardent belief that this matter has already escalated to a point that far exceeds any level of toleration. Short of actually starting World War III by being the first to actually carry out offensive military actions, the punitive measures, tactical moves and nuclear umbrella defense proposal that I have outlined, allow us to be firm but diplomatic, unyielding yet rational. Forty seven years ago a new, young American President was faced with a test given to him by communist Russia that dealt with the lesser but closer threat of communist Cuba. It was a test of Americas resolve and an exploratory attempt to see the extent of sacrifice that our President, John F. Kennedy was willing to allow his nation to make in its defense. Forty seven years later the players may be different but the stakes are the same and just as John F. Kennedy refused to blink, neither should President Barack H. Obama. |
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