One thing he said sticks with me – my friend is a VERY fit man, and he said the South Koreans were hard to keep up with physically. They are tough cookies, our allies. I know the North has one of the largest armies in the world, but I suspect the South is tougher, better motivated, and better fed.

J.P.

This time it may be different. For one thing, the nuclear genie is out of Pyongyang’s bottle. That changes everything. Second, it is pretty much agreed that Kim’s health is failing, and he has certain ‘legacy’ issues he’s determined to act upon. How far he’ll go only time will tell.

As for BarryO, he’s a half-a-loaf kinda guy. Reactive, definitely not proactive. He’ll only act if he’s forced to. By then it will be much too late for an awful lot of people.

We have (at the moment) a peacetime president at exactly the point in time when we need a wartime president. I’d like to be proven wrong, but I learned long ago that the trend is almost always your friend.

I have been wondering for years why it hasn’t happened yet. Perhaps this latest insanity will be enough for them to step up.

I was reminded of something else while reading elsewhere: the NoKo military may itself have other ideas about committing suicide and instead would help the Dear Leader along to the afterlife, should he give the order to invade the South.

I agree with Anthony’s assessment of N. Korea’s “official” intent. Whenever things like this happen though there is an increased chance of something going horribly wrong. Can you imagine the amount of stress that N. Korean military commanders endure? I’m afraid all it will take is one commander to be more concerned about the backlash of failure, rather than the consequences of an aggressive reaction.

We have to bear in mind a few things: 1) North Korea is all about regime survival — everything is geared toward that. An attack into the South would be suicide. Pyongyang will not do this unless they feel the alternative is the certain end of the regime.

2) North Korea is a “mountain bandit” state. It survives by oppressing those under its control and extorting what it needs from its neighbors by scaring them. Note that whenever the North wants something, it threatens war — and then it gets what it wants. The pattern has been the same for 20+ years. And that’s exactly what’s happening now: Kim Jong-Il, North Korea’s Psycho-in-Chief Dear Leader wants concessions from Obama, whom he is betting will be desperate to avoid a conflict and thus will give him what he wants. Based on past (and sadly bipartisan) American behavior, my guess is he’s right.

Look, I’m not discounting the threat posed by the lunatics running the world’s largest prison camp (which is what that nightmare land is), but last night on Twitter I saw Righties running around like headless chickens shouting “War! War!”, clearly ignorant of the history of NoKo “diplomacy.” We don’t do our side any favors when act with less than sober, informed judgment.

BTW, ST, you’re spot-on about the difference in the Democrats’ reactions then and now. Typical Washington hypocrisy, and a disservice to the nation.