One of my favorite people in Congress used to be S.I. Hayakawa, who died in 1992, after a career in academia and the Senate. One of the things he did was carry things to their logical conclusion. When Congress, or the White House, hears what it proposes coming back to them with unintended consequences, it makes for interesting discussion. I wish for his approach today in dealing with North Korea.
We have tried sanctions for 40 years and must wonder how they could possibly work just this once. As I said in my previous post, not likely. But in the vein of looking at all the options, we might think of the military one that makes equal sense when confronted with a nuclear threat by someone saying he wants to strike the US. Hit him first.
This is called First Strike, a logical option when the damage an adversary can do is considerably greater than the alternatives that are needed to eliminate that adversary. It is the logic of the movie Dr. Strangeglove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. The Russians in that movie were pretty helpless against a real first strike. In the Nuclear business, close is not great, but victory can be had and the problem solved forever. The North Koreans don't mind the casualties, and won't have many missiles to retaliate with after a first strike. It could work out well for everyone. No regime change. No more missile threats. No invasion of the South. The Chinese have already said they would not tolerate radiation drifting over their territory, and we thought they were talking about North Korean radiation. Maybe not.
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