North Korea is like Obama’s pesky fly

The North Koreans are threatening us. North Korea may launch a missile toward Hawaii on July 4th. The missile is not supposed to have the capability to reach Hawaii. However, U.S. Secretary of Defense Gates seems to be taking the basic necessary first step of positioning U.S. forces to shoot down the North Korean missile.

President Obama needs to decide soon if there is enough evidence to suggest that the North Koreans are really planning to launch a missile, and if they are, what action to take.

That means that if the threat appears to be real, the President will have to decide whether or not to take pre-emptive action to either destroy the missile or discourage the North Koreans in some other way. Preemptive military action of any kind will anger the portion of the President’s base that is far-left and extreme anti-war, as well as anti-Americans world wide. That anger will be fed by the reality that the missile is very unlikely to present a real danger to the U.S. It will either fall harmlessly into the ocean (assuming it even makes it off the launch pad), or provide the Navy with an unprecedented opportunity for target practice.

Assuming the President takes no preemptive action and the North Koreans launch their missile toward Hawaii, the President will have to decide if that action is in fact an act of war. Most Americans, including me, will consider a missile launched at an area of the U.S. to be war. Most Americans are not the Commander and Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces.

You can be sure that if a missile is launched, reaction from the media, the President’s critics, and his supporters, will be swift, sensationalist, and in some cases, hysterical (and I don’t use the term hysterical to mean funny). Some will scream for war while others demand talks and aid to the North Korean regime. Each side will accuse the other of fear or fear mongering.

I wish to point out here that reactions based on fear are justifiable. The North Koreans are learning and improving their weapons with each missile launch and nuclear test, as well as advertising their military wares to a world with plenty of well financed terrorists. As a result of fear, destroying the North Korean’s weapons before their weapons destroy us is tempting. The opposing view, the peacenik perspective, is also valid. The Korean people are at best serfs to Kim Jong-il and not able to do anything about him even if they are willing to give their lives to stop him. The U.S. can never take killing people that are mostly innocent victims themselves lightly. Further, Kim Jong-il has a half million man army, and he himself is crazy. War with North Korea will be very bad.

What should President Obama do?

When I think about the crazy North Korean leader firing a missile at Hawaii that cannot reach Hawaii, I can’t help also recalling the recent video of President Obama swatting the fly. If you haven’t seen it, click here. Note from the video that he swats the fly the way he does everything else; he is Mr. Cool.

This blog is not an Obama supporter and certainly not caught up in the media love affair with him. However, like him or not, he is cool.

I do not believe that the U.S. will take any preemptive action against the North Koreans. That would be very unlike this President. Instead, the U.S. will shoot down the North Korean missile with little fan fare, much as the President swatted the fly. He won’t give the North Koreans any more attention than what is absolutely needed, just as he did with the annoying fly, and just as you might do with a disobedient child. It will be an interesting response. Very Obamaesque.

If the president does the Mr. Cool thing after the Navy shoots down the missile, the rest of us should play along. Instead of criticizing the President for inaction, we need a nationwide effort to laugh as loudly as possible at Kim Jong-il. Maybe this way the U.S. can combine shooting down a missile with shooting down a crazy tyrant.

Tagged as: fly, hawaii, Kim Jong-il, korea, missile, North Korea, obama, obama fly, obama fly video