This time, America cannot be the global soldier. This time our troops are exhausted, our equipment not worth moving into another theatre and the American people and their Congress are gunshy of being the Responders.

Perhaps this is the moment when our global partners will step up to the plate. More than anything, that is the curiosity point because the US can't fix this.

Incentives for China and Russia to actually step in? Being the front guys means they can't be coy with their positions any longer, it would require a commitment of policy that would surely invite the same kind of criticism the US has undergone for decades.

As a Korean War vet, I am deeply disturbed by North Korea's trashing of the 1953 armistice. The De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) has been a constant source of tit-tat militaristic jostling between the US and North Korean troops. Up until recently, Pyongyang's use of provocation in the DMZ has been a signal of its irritation over some international or diplomatic slight that it felt was offensive. But the Korean Peoples Army (KPA) has always found a way to cool things down by meetings with the U.S. Army Representatives at selected sites in the DMZ. This awkward but necessary protocol has been successful for 55 years, but now it has been scrapped.

American arm chair generals are wasting time wringing their hands and engaging in endless suppositions about the leadership of North Korea, and who is actually in charge. In the face of the North Korean rejection of the 1953 peace accords, the Obama Administration is sitting on a ticking time bomb. In the past local KPA commanders in the DMZ controlled just how far the KPA would go to breech the buffer boundary between North and South Korea in the DMZ. On many occasions small detachments of the KPA would actually engage in incursions into South Korean territory on some bogus pretext, and then faced by the appearance of the U.S. Military, they would slowly withdraw back into their own territory. This always was the outcome because of Pyongyang's acceptance of the 1953 truce agreement. The danger is that any future incursion ordered by a local KPA hot head commander could lead to deeper and deeper penetration into South Korean territory, until they are fired upon by the Americans or the South Koreans, kicking off the start of open warfare.

There is not sufficient time left to petition the UN or to start a troop movement from Iraq, or any other long delay response. As of this moment, peace in Korea rests on the disposition of the local KPA commanders in the DMZ.If one these guys wakes up with a hair across his butt, we all could suddenly find ourselves in a world of trouble. Think about it!!

 

The problem of North Korean behavior is not one of our making, but our unpreparedness is a direct result of the decision to wage the War on Terror as a war of invasion and occupation of foreign lands

l grant that the great WOT, and it's costs have aggravated the situation, and increased it's volatility; but, if memory serves, our relationship with north korea at the end of the clinton administration(s) was considerably less hostile. l would also grant that it's never been particularly friendly. but the nuclear issue, vis-à-vis the production of weapons grade plutonium, bomb making, etc. was reasonably contained, and there was international monitoring in place re: their shuttered reactors. there were cross border exchanges between families divided by the geography of the conflict, and relations were as normal as they had ever been.

BushCo™ took over and things quickly went to hell in the proverbial handbasket. the neocons refused to even talk to the north, leading to the expulsion of the inspectors, with the subsequent re-opening of the reactors and the resurgent antagonism toward all things western. the situation deteriorated from there, spurred on in large part by the bellicosity of the bush administration(s) and it's protagonists..

just another disaster in the litany of intractable legacies that the neocons left in their wake.

feel free to correct me if l'm mistaken.

the revolution will not be televised...

I was in Korea for 13 months, most of 1958, and we understood perfectly well that we were just there to delay any attack. This is not something new and connected to the war on terror. We also knew that Seoul was targeted by massive artillery. The whole situation is more than 50 years old.

North Korea is saying what it is always saying "PAY ATTENTION TO US, WE'RE IMPORTANT".  

They know perfectly well, that although they could do huge damage in an initial attack, thereafter, they would be crushed, and the Chinese would not come across the Yalu to rescue them this time.

Stupid miscalulation is always possible, but the status quo has held steady for a very long time.

Greatferm