Yet Another Post on North Korea: North Korea Testing its Limits

According to a news article by Yahoo, North Korea test-fired short range missiles today. If you're interest for the complete info, click this link. Now, this came as a surprise to the US and many of its allies, because North Korea launched these missiles right after it seemed like it was going to act more complacent.

This even surprised Russia, a country that usually is not too adamant a supporter of stopping North Korea (compared with the US, or Japan). A Russian foreign ministry source was quoted of saying "The launch of short-range missiles by the Korean People's Democratic Republic causes bewilderment." I'm guessing that this "testing of limits" by North Korea even surprised China, because just last week, the premier, Wen Jiabao visited North Korea, and N.K said that it was willing to go back to the negotiating table.

Clearly, North Korea is just trying to test the other countries and see what they will do. I think if the US and its allies really want to get the message through that N.K's actions are not okay, they should be more assertive. The US already sent an aircraft carrier to the South Korean port of Busan. Still, I do not think that is enough.

North Korea right now is acting like a toddler (toddler with nukes that is). It keeps wanting to see what it can do before getting a scolding. Maybe the US and its allies should start giving out more than just "scoldings" and convince other countries to start sanctioning. About 75% of people already think that North Korea is at least somewhat of a threat to the US in terms of nuclear engagements, so I think the US should take initiative (since it is the big dog in the world right now) and kill the beast in its infancy.

Picture this:


PLUS
-Henry Zhang

Palin in Foreign Policy

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0909/Palin_presses_White_House_on_Afghanistan.html

Sarah Palin. Most likely the first thoughts about her would be her inept stupidity. Notably, how she thought that Afghanistan was a neighboring country. Amazingly Palin is able to string together something competent about foreign policy in Afghanistan in a speech yesterday. Imagine that! Surprisingly, she actually makes some decent points about how we should go into Afghanistan rather than stay in Iraq. "Iraq is no longer the central front in the war on terrorism. Afghanistan is. ".... But when did she learn foreign policy? She can hardly manage a state. And where was this speech when Bush was in office. Looks like another case of band-wagoning when things look good. I'm pretty sure everyone thinks that we 'ought to get out of Iraq, not much to restate the obvious Palin.

-Weilu Jia

A New Leader in Israel?

The Israeli-Palestinian crisis is notorious for half-peaces and broken ceasefires. It seems that if one side gets it together, the other side breaks down. Right now, as The Economist notes, both sides are in a funk. The Palestinians are split between the Islamist Hamas and the secularist and moderate Fatah. The Israelis' prime minister, Ehud Olmert, is resigning over a corruption scandal. Thus, new leadership is needed in Israel. I agree that Tzipi Livni, the curent Israeli foreign minister, is probably the best person for the job. Shrewd and tough, she is not a hawk. I have always thought that moderation is necessary, especially with such a contentious conflict as the one in Holy Land, and she probably has the chutzpah to do what is right.

Now, to tie this back to American politics, I think this is one more reason to elect Barack Obama. As a Jew, it is constantly assumed that because of this fact, I am an unconditional supporter of the Israeli government. I am not. While I do support Israel, I am not Israeli and have no Israeli heritage. I support Israel no more than I do Britain or France or Japan; countries I have respect and sympathy for, but not ones I am actually from. I say this because I believe the unconditonal support American leaders give to Israel begets many of the problems there. While Islamist extremism and terrorism is never justifiable (and I do not respect the legitimacy of Hizbollah, Hamas, or their ilk), that does not mean that Israeli excess is justifiable. And, similarly, while I prefer American politicians that support Isarel to those that oppose it, supporting Israel unconditonally is dangerous. In the heat of battle and public opinion (as well as a fair number of hawks in the ruling coalition), Israel often makes mistakes. Instead of pressuring Israel to rectify these, American leaders, fearful of losing the Jewish vote (think Florida), simply remain silent, giving tacit support to even some of Israel's dumbest mistakes. This only antagonizes Palestinian extremists even more. I fear this is what John McCain would do. John McCain knows no nuance in diplomacy. He hastily atagonizes Russia, Iran, and others even when it does not help the situation. And while Obama too is a supporter of Israel, he understands nuanced diplomacy and the neccesity to be able to broker peace talks between all sides in the conflict.

Simply put, McCain would not be neutral enough to be able to negotiate peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. He supports Israel too much. If you want peace in Israel and Palestine to move forward, John McCain is not your man.

Why McCain/Palin Supporters Should Be Ashamed

The article basically says it all but in short--the McCain/Palin campaign is doing a disservice to the country by not only blatantly lying to the country (about taxes, Obama, and the Bridge to Nowhere), but is distracting from the real issues. We need to pick leaders who know the issues, and just because this is a weak-point for the GOP ticket does not mean that they should shirk from them (case in point: Palin did not know what the Bush Doctrine was on the ABC interview tonight--this is a basic tenet of the Bush foreign policy that led to the Iraq War; if you do not know what it is, you should not be on the National Security Council!).