Korean tension boiling; Threats of Nukes

While the news agencies have been keeping it relatively quiet, tensions in the Far East are rising to dangerous levels.

For most the summer, tensions between North Korea and South Korea have erupted over the sinking of a South Korean Warship on March 26th. Since then, investigators of several nations have confirmed South Korea's findings that a torpedo sunk the Cheonan, resulting in the deaths of 46 South Korean sailors. Naturally, all eyes turned to the North as the only possible aggressor. North Korea denies this, and they claim a conspiracy of fabrication.

However, South Korean websites devoted to the tracking of news from within North Korea claimed that a North Korean submarine crew was recently awarded medals of honor and the government boasted of the victory in the Cheonan's destruction to various cultural elites with North Korea. Even a propaganda poster depicting the similar destruction of a corvette style ship seems to support these claims. However, the South Korean government has been unable to, or unwilling to, confirm these reports as legitimate.

Still, motivation for an attack on Cheonan does currently exist in the volatile political environment of North Korea. Kim Jong-il is.. well.. ill, and the succession of power still on slightly shaky ground. Was the attack an unauthorized ploy for political power in the war-obsessed military elite of North Korea? Was it a mistake? Or are we looking at another Maine? Are we going to discover a hundred years down the line that it was a powder magazine all along?

In response to this apparent attack, the United States and the international community (or lap dogs) have agreed to further sanctions of the North Korean government. The United States and South Korea are even now staging a military exercise as a show of reprisal against the attacks, North Korea has threatened nuclear war in response.

Is it another bluff? If so, its one that must be called. But what if it is not? Or what if it started as a bluff, and due to Kim's failing health, the reigns of state are currently being held by the son of Helios? Will the nuclear sun burn the mountains and boil the seas because an inexperienced driver cannot control the horses that give it power?

Frankly, I don't think we've been this rhetorically close to a nuclear conflict since the Cuban Missile Crisis. And as is readily apparent, the leadership of North Korea is certifiably insane. Is the threat of war a bluff? Or will the next few days change the world forever?  Here's to hoping some small shred of sanity exists somewhere in the power structure of North Korea. The fate of millions may be in their grasp.

In regards to the charges of fabrication, I would not put such a move past the United States of America. After all, the war in Iraq was started with lies over WMDs, and the Vietnam War began with the bogus Gulf of Tonkin incident. But in the current case, where is the motivation for American fabrication? In those two examples, both decisions were made by a president who feared they would not be re-elected without a successful war.

And Obama's reelection is.... up in the air....

Uh...

Shit!

Here's to crossing fingers we really did elect a smarter man to office. And may God watch over us all.

Provided the world does not end: In other news, U.S. Military personnel, and lots of them, buy child pornography on government computers. Awesome....