Re: North Korea rocket launch 'fails' On the positive side the good folks of Piscataway New Jersey are looking into hiring the North Koreans to put on their Fourth of July fireworks show.
Re: North Korea rocket launch 'fails' Sorry. Didn't look to see if there was a thread covering the subject.
I am trying to work the phrase "Going down faster than a North Korean rocket" into conversation today. In any event, I think it is time to tell North Korea all deals are off. If they wish to starve, so be it. I also think if the rets of you are correct as to the purpose of US troops in the area, we should be threatening China with removing our troops and implicitly giving South Korea and Japan a free hand. I still hold that this is not our problem and the presence of the small number of US troops in Korea and the larger number in Japan is the source of much of this instablility.
Last time the US pulled out of the far east we ended up closing our bases in the Philippines. Nothing happened. Get out of Korea now.
I managed to use this in conversation today -- someone was reading in the paper that a company's profits dropped big last quarter, and I said they were going down faster than a North Korean rocket. People looked at me like I was nuts.
Screw them, they're a bunch of Kimchi-fockers. Anyway, in response to your earlier post, I think you (and the media) are overreacting. NK wanted to throw a big birthday bash and nothing was going to come out of the launch - they couldn't and they wouldn't. And unfortunately, "Screw you, Pyongyang" approach is an untenable one. There's nothing more dangerous than a rogue state with nothing to lose - you do have to keep throwing them a bone or two so there's something. And you do have to keep South Korea and China on board, because they're the ones who would be on the receiving end of any mass exodus. East Asia isn't any more dangerous or destabilized today than it was a week ago, and the US pulling out of Korea won't make it any safer or stabler. Oh, and speaking of the Philippines Matt, we should probably keep an eye on that South China Sea brouhaha.