The Mouse Is Roaring

The more I see of the situation with North Korea, the more I'm reminded of "The Mouse That Roared." You know, the story by Leonard Wibberly of the tiny country of the Duchy of Grand Fenwick that decided to go to war with the United States. The reason? So the U.S. would defeat them, and then the Marshall Plan would go into effect, and the U.S. would have to rebuild their country, much as the U.S. did to Germany after World War II.

Kim Jong-il liked to saber rattle. He'd constantly keep trying to goad the South and the U.S. into doing something, but, thankfully, we never bit. He'd rattle, we'd throw some sanctions, and leave him alone, because, it seemed, he was nothing but a lot of noise. Hell, he'd said in 1994 that North Korea would dismantle their nuclear program for U.S. Aid.

But, in 2002, OOPS! North Korea admitted it had been producing nuclear weapons since that Agreed Framework, for "security reasons." In, 2006, North Korea said it had completed an underground nuclear test. But, still, he wasn't taken too seriously. Oh, we kept an eye on him, but compared to the threat that al Qaeda presented, the ongoing wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, and keeping tabs on Iran, North Korea kind of sat on the back burner.

Now, Kim Jong-il is, of course, deceased, and his third son, Kim Jong-un is now in power. And this is what's disturbing. This is a 28 year old kid who doesn't seem to grasp that his dad's saber rattling was just that. This is a kid who has shiny new toys to play with, the security and prosperity of his people be damned.

He's said in the past month that they now have ICBMs capable of reaching the U.S. West Coast. He's said that the 1953 Armistice Treaty is null and void, essentially restarting, at least verbally, the Korean War. Even China and Russia aren't touching this kid like they help back up Iran in the U.N.

And still, we throw sanctions on him. We say we're ready at a moment's notice. And, truthfully, we are. Maybe this kid isn't as dumb as we think. Maybe he's trying to push dad's idea to have the U.S. invade and then activate the Marshall Plan even further than dad could get it to go. There's just one problem that I don't think this kid understands. You launch a nuke, and shit will get real, and fast.

For the sake of the people of North Korea, I hope someone in his cabinet tells him to chill. Dad was easy to predict. He'd yell, threaten, and then go sing about how lonely he was. Jong-un? He's a wild card. And one that, for the safety of the world, needs to be put back into the deck.