HIGH ROCKIES, Colorado—U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen said on Nov. 21 that North Korea “continues to head in the direction of additional nuclear weapons.” This was based on a Stanford University report released the day before, regarding North Korea’s “ultra modern” nuclear facility which could be converted to further produce nuclear weapons.
Two days later, North Korea opened fire with a deadly artillery barrage on South Korea. The attack included indiscriminate shelling of a residential area.
This came on the heels of border gunfire exchanges earlier in November, North Korea’s provocative shelling of disputed waters in August, and the torpedoing of a South Korean patrol boat in March, which caused the deaths of 46 sailors.
What disturbs me most is that we look to China’s communist regime for leadership in resolving this escalating conflict.
China is the hand in the puppet.
Frankly, I’m done with these clowns, both China’s ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and North Korea’s “leadership.” I don’t look for the CCP to resolve squat, because I’m not fooled by the table manners.
North Korea is a troublemaking parrot on China’s shoulder. Their regime maintains power by crushing the spirits of its own people, isolating them from the rest of the world.
Underneath the polish, China’s CCP is no different, having more in common with N. Korea than with Western democracies. They just have better PR. We have willfully compromised our American principles for easy money and profit.
Even worse, for some unknown reason we’ve allowed the CCP dictatorship to hold a rather large promissory note over the heads of our free republic.
What on earth are we thinking?
As for N. Korea, they don’t sneeze without China saying it’s ok. Would a nuclear power like China allow a bordering nation to develop nuclear weapons (not to mention set one off) if there was even the slightest danger they could be used against them?
Some of you older folks remember the “Missiles of October” incident of the 1960s, when the Soviets were deploying nuclear missiles in Cuba, 90 miles off the coast of the United States. We were on the brink of a nuclear war before cooler heads prevailed and the weapons were removed.
The cold hard truth is that despite outward appearances, these regimes will never change because they can’t—it’s against their nature. They don’t operate in the light, but instead in the shadows, and illuminating them reveals their true nature. They’re finished.
In a search for long-term solutions, don’t be swept up by complicated explanations or political maneuvering. As we Americans rediscover and reassert the principles that defined us in the past—principles that were and are not for sale—we'll surely know what to do. But let’s be quick about it.
When we are no longer under the bewitching spell cast by China’s communist regime, we can with a clear conscience properly handle our relationship with them. And by proxy, North Korea.
We'll do it for ourselves, for the people in China and North Korea who long for freedom, for the religious and ethnic groups who suffer under tyranny, and to clear our conscience for compromising with evil.
The world is depending on the United States to play the historic role bestowed on us, and to lead the way. We don’t have to like it or even want it, but that’s who we are. It’s time to stop pussyfooting around with these criminals, and instead set the bar and define the terms of our relations, and our friendship.
Jim Fogarty lives in the High Rockies. He can be reached at [email protected].
Two days later, North Korea opened fire with a deadly artillery barrage on South Korea. The attack included indiscriminate shelling of a residential area.
This came on the heels of border gunfire exchanges earlier in November, North Korea’s provocative shelling of disputed waters in August, and the torpedoing of a South Korean patrol boat in March, which caused the deaths of 46 sailors.
What disturbs me most is that we look to China’s communist regime for leadership in resolving this escalating conflict.
China is the hand in the puppet.
Frankly, I’m done with these clowns, both China’s ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and North Korea’s “leadership.” I don’t look for the CCP to resolve squat, because I’m not fooled by the table manners.
North Korea is a troublemaking parrot on China’s shoulder. Their regime maintains power by crushing the spirits of its own people, isolating them from the rest of the world.
Underneath the polish, China’s CCP is no different, having more in common with N. Korea than with Western democracies. They just have better PR. We have willfully compromised our American principles for easy money and profit.
Even worse, for some unknown reason we’ve allowed the CCP dictatorship to hold a rather large promissory note over the heads of our free republic.
What on earth are we thinking?
As for N. Korea, they don’t sneeze without China saying it’s ok. Would a nuclear power like China allow a bordering nation to develop nuclear weapons (not to mention set one off) if there was even the slightest danger they could be used against them?
Some of you older folks remember the “Missiles of October” incident of the 1960s, when the Soviets were deploying nuclear missiles in Cuba, 90 miles off the coast of the United States. We were on the brink of a nuclear war before cooler heads prevailed and the weapons were removed.
The cold hard truth is that despite outward appearances, these regimes will never change because they can’t—it’s against their nature. They don’t operate in the light, but instead in the shadows, and illuminating them reveals their true nature. They’re finished.
In a search for long-term solutions, don’t be swept up by complicated explanations or political maneuvering. As we Americans rediscover and reassert the principles that defined us in the past—principles that were and are not for sale—we'll surely know what to do. But let’s be quick about it.
When we are no longer under the bewitching spell cast by China’s communist regime, we can with a clear conscience properly handle our relationship with them. And by proxy, North Korea.
We'll do it for ourselves, for the people in China and North Korea who long for freedom, for the religious and ethnic groups who suffer under tyranny, and to clear our conscience for compromising with evil.
The world is depending on the United States to play the historic role bestowed on us, and to lead the way. We don’t have to like it or even want it, but that’s who we are. It’s time to stop pussyfooting around with these criminals, and instead set the bar and define the terms of our relations, and our friendship.
Jim Fogarty lives in the High Rockies. He can be reached at [email protected].
