"Gird Your Loins" For An Act Of War Update

It's early morning now, in Tokyo, and I have my answer as to how our new president would respond to the latest threat from North Korea: officially, the most powerful nation on the planet has opted for the defensive crouch.

Robert Gates, the holdover Defense Secretary from the Bush administration, has announced that we will take defensive measures should North Korea attempt to fire a ballistic missile toward Hawaii. Absent is any semblance of spinal structure or intestinal fortitude in the face of this rogue nation's threat. We will simply duck and block.

I am a fan of analogy for descriptive purposes, and an occasional denizen of places of thirst abatement, so I will offer the following...

Imagine being in a crowded pub and that there is a very large man present, enjoying the atmosphere as everyone else is. Now imagine that a very small, inebriated man with a chip on his shoulder declares that he is going to beat the large man up - for reasons that matter not in this analogy - and that word of this spreads to the ears of the large man.

The large man now must choose between warning the little man that such an attack would be suicidal, thereby halting the insane intentions of the little man, or wait for the relatively ineffectual punches to the kneecaps that will ultimately result in the little man's being propelled through the pub's decorative lattice woodwork into the wall at the other end of the room, hoping that there are no darts remaining from a previous game. Either way, the little fellow loses. Unless...

Unless there are other patrons watching who are not quite as small or that there are two dozen other little guys who capitalize on the weakness originally exhibited by the large man. Swift and decisive action should be secondary to swift and concrete ultimatum. Simply hoping that accurate deflection of incoming blows will deter future blows is insanity exemplified, and a policy that should be reserved for those whose only hope for survival depends upon it.

The strong should never be compelled or inclined to exhibit weakness. Powerful nations should never acquiesce to the whims of impotent bodies, and bodies designed for the enforcement of world law should neither be impotent nor ambiguous.

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