In response to the gathering storm caused by North Korea’s insane belligerence and nuclear weapons program, abetted by its only real ally the People’s Republic of China, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon just deployed the biggest weapon he has, his mouth, and declared that the “crisis has already gone too far.” Oh well then I guess everyone will just stop. I mean now that we hear those words…
In case that gum-flapping merely seemed useless, Ban followed it up with an attempt to do harm by offering an inane misdiagnosis of the problem: “Nuclear threats are not a game,” he said. “Aggressive rhetoric and military posturing only result in counter-actions, and fuel fear and instability.”
Note that this assessment implies blame lies equally with both sides, too atavistic to break out of the spiraling cycle of mistrust. As opposed to it being the fault of North Korea’s insane dictator and tyrannical political system.
This misdiagnosis is not just useless. For if it’s really a cycle of misunderstanding, deterrence contributes to the problem and appeasement is called for to deescalate tensions. Whereas if the crisis has its origins in the psychotic belligerence of Pyongyang, threats and mobilization of military assets are clearly essential.
Oh well. Probably no one is listening anyway.
