The Obama administration is totally inept with regard to foreign policy, but in no case is that worst than with regard to North Korea.\u00a0\u00a0 Unfortunately this incompetence has the potential to turn an annoyance into a major disaster.\u00a0 There is little doubt that North Korea sunk a South Korean ship.\u00a0 North Korea has been doing stuff like this for decades.\u00a0 \u00a0North Korea must be restrained, but this is not worth setting off a war.\u00a0 \u00a0There were two major incidents during 1968 and 1969.\u00a0 The first was the capture of the USS Pueblo. \u00a0\u00a0Lyndon Johnson was President.\u00a0 He huffed and he puffed, but ultimately did nothing.\u00a0 Ultimately, it was Johnson who backed down.\u00a0 The second incident, which is described below, was probably a direct result of the poor handling of the Pueblo incident by Johnson.\u00a0 The real tragedy of the USS Pueblo\u00a0is that Commander Bucher did not realize the importance of the equipment and the personnel on that ship.\u00a0 It was a Naval Security Guard vessel conducting operations so classified that the ship commander was not briefed. \u00a0\u00a0If he knew what was at stake, he probably would not have allowed the ship to be boarded, regardless of casualties.<\/p>\n
\u00a0http:\/\/www.usspueblo.org\/Welcome.html<\/a><\/p>\n There was a similar incident in 1967\u00a0with another ship, the USS Liberty when it was attacked by Israel.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0In that case the Commander, Captain McGonagle fought back, losing 34 crewmembers but saving the ship.\u00a0 He was awarded the Medal of Honor.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.gtr5.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n The second was the shoot down of an EC121 in 1969.\u00a0 I am very familiar with this case, because two of the crew members went to language school in Monterey at the same time I was there.\u00a0 What was especially sad about that case was that it didn\u2019t have to happen.\u00a0 A USAFSS listening post had picked up traffic indicating that the North Koreans were practicing an attack on the Navy plane.\u00a0 (It flew the same route on a regular basis).\u00a0 The USAFSS tried to warn the Navy and requested a direct communication channel with the plane.\u00a0 That was denied.\u00a0 The USAFSS linguists at OSAN picked up the attack and desperately tried to warn the EC121 crew.\u00a0 But, because they had to go through the Navy communications loop, the warning was received by the EC121 only 1 minute before it was shot down.\u00a0 The entire 31 man crew was killed.\u00a0 (I learned this directly from the linguists involved.\u00a0\u00a0 My roommate at that time was a Korean linguist.\u00a0 Two of the people killed were in his Korean language class.)<\/p>\n President Nixon took a very low key public approach to what amounted to an act of war.\u00a0 He ordered an immediate halt of all aerial reconnaissance missions, but he rescinded the order three days later.\u00a0 From then on these missions flew with fighter escorts.\u00a0<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.dean-boys.com\/shootdown\/shoot.htm<\/a><\/p>\n Nixon made some serious mistakes with regard to the EC121 incident, but ultimately he got it right.\u00a0 He did not over react, but he also did not ignore it.\u00a0 He resumed the flights, but made sure it wouldn\u2019t happen again.\u00a0 By this tactic he was letting North Korea know that this would not be tolerated, but he was careful to avoid turning a very unfortunate event into a shooting war.\u00a0 He handled this in a way that did not cause the North Koreans to lose face.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He even allowed a cover story leaked claiming that this was the result of a mistake by A North Korean ground controller.\u00a0 \u00a0Remember that Nixon was the first U.S. President to open up communications with China.\u00a0 Nixon understood face.<\/p>\n The problem with the Obama administration is that they are making a lot of threats that no one takes seriously.\u00a0\u00a0 Hopefully this will end quietly with the normal embarrassment associated with any Obama administration attempt at\u00a0an effective foreign policy.\u00a0\u00a0 Some of our actions, such as turning up loud speakers on the DMZ, just appear to be silly nonsense.\u00a0<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.ft.com\/cms\/s\/0\/1c0d9e4c-6884-11df-96f1-00144feab49a.html<\/a><\/p>\n http:\/\/www.news.com.au\/world\/us-warns-north-korea-to-stop-threats-after-warship-attack\/story-e6frfkyi-1225871843894<\/a><\/p>\n But the real problem is that\u00a0has the potential to cause North Korea to lose face.\u00a0 That could result in North Korean feeling it has to go to war to retain its honor.\u00a0 Notice how China is condemning the sinking of the South Korean ship, but is not specifically accusing North Korea of doing the sinking.\u00a0\u00a0China does not want this unfortunately situation to result in a war which would result in an unimaginable loss of life.\u00a0\u00a0I suspect that this will cool down shortly, primarily because the Obama administration is almost certain to back down.\u00a0 There is virtually no chance that China will support any significant retaliation against North Korea.\u00a0 While North Korea is definitely unpleasant, they really do not represent a serious threat to us, unless we cause them to lose face and blunder into a very dangerous military confrontation.\u00a0 But, if the Obama administration continues to escalate the tension, in a meaningless gesture, the results could be catastrophic.\u00a0 North Korea has an enormous military and many people believe their leader, Kim Jung II is terminally ill.\u00a0 \u00a0We have enough challenges without adding an unnecessary war in the mix.\u00a0 Let\u2019s hope calmer heads prevail.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ultimately, it is about face.<\/p>\n TDM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Obama administration is totally inept with regard to foreign policy, but in no case is that worst than with regard to North Korea.\u00a0\u00a0 Unfortunately this incompetence has the potential to turn an annoyance into a major disaster.\u00a0 There is … Continue reading