North Korea: Madman's End Game

North Korea, or specifically, Kim Jong Un, appears to be trying to find a reset button for dealing with the global community, or in particular, with the United States. But time may have passed the pudgy-cheeked little dictator by and left him in the ditch. After all, it’s hard to move from espousing the bright red LAUNCH button on your desk for one that quietly reads, reset, adjust rhetoric, kiss baby.

Why, you ask in a civil tone and with eyebrows properly furrowed, would Kim Jong Un even want a reset? After all, he is a third generation murderous lunatic who kills his former supporters and relatives with everything from mortar shells to bullets. He starves his population, feeds mainly the military that feverishly applauds his every decision, and runs the harshest political prisons this side of, well, everywhere. He survives by threat, bluster, and the occasional attack on shipping or the border that separates the two Koreas. “He is the poster boy for crazy,” you state with finality and flaring nostrils.

But what if, I ask with all due respect, that if under that outlandish and possibly irretrievable haircut, there lurks a plan, or dare I say it, an endgame? And what if that endgame was simply the ability to wage nuclear war and the means to wage it on foreign soil? If that is the case, then the little demon has achieved his goal, and no amount of negative publicity, American or United Nations’ sanctions will get that ability out of his hands.

But now what? Having nuclear capability doesn’t mean you can use it. On the contrary, if you use yours, then the real super powers will use theirs, and it is the end of the line for a one-trick-nuclear-pony. No, the only benefit of nuclear capability is the rational understanding that no sane nation wants to see that capability exercised.  This is why Kim wanted to meet with the South Koreans regarding the Winter Olympics. This is why the verbal salvos to Trump have been more muted. Kim Jong Un is now ready to walk on the international stage as an equal, as a part of the global community, to have his say in world affairs, to make trade agreements and other treaties. And all of this goes hand-in-hand with the understanding that other nuclear have-nots will see North Korea as the global banker whose nuclear expertise can be bought. And on the other side of the coin, the Western powers will have to court Kim Jong Un to keep him in line and his arsenal unpilfered by such louts as Hamas or ISIS.

But then there is the ditch that I mentioned earlier, the one that history may have already planned for the likes of Kim Jong Un. You remember the recent fiasco in Hawaii over the non-existent incoming missile that convinced Jim Carrey he was down to just ten minutes to live.  (In only ten minutes, how do you reconcile your self-worth with Dumb and Dumber To in the equation?)  More importantly, it scared the living daylights out of millions of people and probably pushed the inevitability factor toward the front of the military planning scenario.

The planning meetings might proceed in this vein. The Hawaii event demonstrates that we have millions of Americans that truly live in fear of a madman in North Korea. Without any known plan of his own, Kim Jong Un now knows that we were basically unprepared to massively retaliate for a perceived strike. Now, since we also realize that Kim Jong Un will think in this manner, our determination to retaliate moves closer to the trigger. But more importantly, we know that a nuclear exchange will be messy. But then, we think, the exchange could be manageable or, possibly not at all, if we strike them first? And of course, this same thought worms its way through the bad haircut and into the brain of Kim Jong Un. You know, the same guy who may or may not be, a mad man.

People We Don't Want to Think About

In our day-to-day lives it appears there are two things that we can always count on. Well, actually there are four. President Trump seems to be constantly on the minds of a great many people, some positively and some negatively, but I try and refrain from writing about him as there is ample verbiage on that subject to satisfy or pester anyone. And of course, we can always count on God being at hand and hopefully, to save us from ourselves.

I was, however, thinking of Vladimir Putin and the Arab Street. I can feel the quandary in your face through my computer screen. “Why, I never think of the two at all,” you say, “and if they come to mind, it was just a passing thought and it flittered away just as quickly and quietly as it came.” First of all, I think you are too nimble of thought not to recognize their importance, and secondly, these two lurk in the recesses of your mind and worm their way to your consciousness on an all too regular basis.

Let’s take Vladimir. He’s just a light-hearted fellow who enjoys walks on the beach and being photographed with his shirt off.  Some financial publications believe he is by far the world’s richest person with an estimated wealth valued at 200 billion dollars. He has already declared that he will seek reelection, which would mean that, at the end of his next term, he would have controlled (ruled) Russia for 24 years. Don’t ever believe that the wealth he accumulated through power will allow him to give up the reins of power. He believes the greatest mistake Russia ever made was allowing the break up of the Soviet Union. Every political action he takes is designed to reestablish control over those countries that left the USSR. He has no qualms about using military force either overtly or covertly with Syria and Ukraine as the examples. He puts oligarchs in prison if they refuse to come under the Russian Federation’s control, and he murders individuals like Alexander Litvinenko when they get under his skin.  Our politicians in Washington and our media outlets seem shocked that Russia may have meddled in our last election. Of course they did. They meddle in all elections so as to weaken their adversaries. Vladimir Putin may be our biggest bogeyman, but he is not invincible or infallible. He will never be our friend and he could care less who won the election. Putin deals in turmoil.

And then there is that irrepressible Arab Street; just a bunch of guys and gals out to have a little fun with flaming effigies and colorful signage.  President Trump just signed the order to make Jerusalem the location for our embassy, and the world’s media and weak-kneed European leaders brace for the inevitable chaos in the Arab world. So what? When has the Arab Street not been incensed at something?

The term “Arab Street” does not have the connotation that it used to. A term for the opinions of the regular guys on the streets and markets is an illusion undermined by the ability of the local militias to turn out demonstrations at a moment’s notice. It’s amazing what an AK-47 can do for opinion polling.  Our concern, and that of the European countries, is whether or not the visual animosity of the Palestinians, or demonstrators in Turkey, Iran, or Pakistan has the ability to cause damage on Main Street, USA or in London. The answer is yes, it does. But the scary truth is that they had the ability before the declaration by Trump, and they exercised their murderous qualities before they had any specific reason. They want us dead or subdued. They want Israel wiped off the face of the earth. I know this and so do you. We would just rather not think about it.

A Thankful Thanksgiving

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who reads this blog and to hope that all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. As I grow older I find myself looking forward to the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays more each year.

I am so thankful for my family. My brother, sister and I still have the ability to talk regularly by telephone and to discuss our children and the pleasant memories of our parents, and our aunts, uncles, and cousins who have already passed on. I am especially grateful for my wife, her parents and grandparents. Her father and grandparents were very loving to me as their son-in-law, and treated me as if I had always been a part of the family. I miss them. My wife and I eat at Hilda’s, my mother-in-law, every Sunday. My wife is my best friend and I measure all that I do by her approval.

I am especially grateful for the mercies of Jesus Christ. I count all the members of my family as true believers in the saving grace of Jesus, and I have never had to attend the funeral of a relative that did not profess their Christian faith. God is good.

I look forward to Christmas with my family by birth and marriage and with my Church family through the shed blood of Jesus. Most of my friends and family members of my age shake our heads at all that transpires in our earthly world. I know my Dad was aghast at what he observed in his lifetime, and I sometimes wonder, should he be alive today, at how I could begin to explain the morals and positions that we have gotten into as a nation. Thank goodness our faith is not dependent on this world, our leaders, and this nation, but on the enduring promise of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

And on a personal note finally, I would ask you to check down the right side of this blog to the heading “Who I Follow”. You will see a new link entitled “laurenstrahan.com”. My daughter, also an author, has just begun a blog, and I know she would appreciate you passing a moment of time with her musings.

Ho, Ho, Ho.

A Merry Christmas, We Hope

We are entering the holiday season and with the eager anticipation of turkey, family gatherings, football, and gift giving also comes the sobering announcements by ISIS of various forms of death and destruction to the infidel and Christian societies. Islamic terrorists keep close track of our holidays just as we do.

This is nothing new, but events in the Middle East make this season especially inviting for an attack. Within the last week one ISIS-following intelligence site revealed a direct threat against the Pope and the Vatican. The Vatican security forces insist that these threats come in all the time and this one will be treated with the required scrutiny. This Christmas will be radically different that the last few years however, because the Islamic Caliphate has been crushed. The ISIS terrorists need a big event to change the momentum, and the Vatican at Christmas fills the bill.

There is another event that adds gravitas to the threat which is the fall of Raqqa, the last stronghold of the Islamic State in Syria. As the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) tightened the noose around the IS forces, the original plan was to annihilate the remaining IS leaders and foreign fighters. However, at the last moment, a deal was brokered by the American, British, and Arab leaders to allow these remaining terrorists to leave the city and save the need for further bloodshed. One of the agreements in the truce was that no foreign fighters or heavy weapons would be allowed to leave. As the convoy departed however, the trucks were filled with those same foreign fighters and loads of weapons and munitions. The BBC chronicles the entire movement in this article. (Here)

So now, as the Western countries prepare to celebrate Christmas, truckloads of battle-hardened fighters and their munitions have spread out to Europe and beyond. To make the decision to destroy what was left of Raqqa in order to truly destroy ISIS would have been a hard decision. The ISIS controlled area was booby-trapped and manned with individuals who would fight to the death, and there were still civilians trapped in that hellhole. But what do we tell the citizens of Europe or the United States when these Muslim extremists launch their attacks against unsuspecting civilians? We had the troops on the ground, the air support, and a depleted and exhausted enemy. I am afraid we should have stayed with the original plan

I''m Blogging Again

Tomorrow, the 16^th of November, will mark the one-year anniversary since my last blog. It almost coincides with the one-year anniversary of Donald Trump as President. Although some might jump head long to the conclusion that with Trump as President, I have been in a state of depression, unable to string together a coherent thought. They would be wrong.

While some of it does involve our President, most of my reasons do not. As for Trump, I find it mind-numbing that everyday is basically the same. Trump throws out a tweet (Thankfully, I have no idea how to do that.), the press goes into a state of quixotic blubbering, the Trump supporters circle the wagons and shake their fists toward Washington, and the blue-blood Republicans yearn for a normalcy that kept them from winning elections and having to actually lead. Republican governmental ineptness has been a real shock to my system. I never imagined that being the downtrodden loyal opposition gave them such a warm and fuzzy feeling.

But to get back on track, my real incitement to write these blogs was hindered by work. That’s right, I have a job. At first it was just a part-time gig; seasonal they called it. I work for the IRS (now stop that spitting) and originally it was for about four months per year. Just enough to provide extra money for my cigar habit. I don’t smoke those over-the-counter dog rockets you see in the gas stations, just the good stuff; long-filler and with a nice white ash, from countries where machetes are carried like pocketknives. But then, about eighteen months ago, things got totally out of hand. The four-month little gig turned into six months, and now it’s all the dang time. I’ve had about four weeks off over the last year and a half. I’ve worked so much that I am now eligible for another retirement check! I don’t have time to smoke, much less write.

But all of that is going to change. If the Astros can win the World Series, then I can figure out a schedule to do some blogging. I will start my nagging and finger-pointing next week.