Just when you thought the collection of stupid student groups might be subsiding:

I present to you proof of the opposite: Students for War.

These folks are, in their own words, "working to build support across America for military action against the murderous regime of North Korea’s Kim Jong Il."

As Don Imus says, "Jesus God Almighty!" I understand that college is a time when idealism trumps reality for a lot of people. The 1960s are a testament to that, and I do not particularly condemn the occurrence, so long as the student grows out of it.

However, the mindset of "54-40 Or Fight!" is dangerously inapplicable in the atomic age. I'm certain that anyone who's reading this will probably ask, "But Country Pundit, you didn't sweat military action against Iraq! What's the difference?" The answer is this: Atomic weapons and a billion people.

Saddam Hussein's best shot during the recent war was to fire off some antiquated Scud-type SRBM derivatives. What's the harm, barring a chemical or gas payload? Not too awful much unless he gets lucky. They're supposed to be closely related to the German V-2 of 1944---once upon a time (and therefore unattributable at this point) I heard a quip that the people a Scud was aimed at didn't have to worry about it hitting, but anyone else in the cardinal direction of the thing's flight path did.¹ An HE warhead only does so much damage, after all.

Change this around a bit: We're told that the NKs are working on missiles to carry their putative products of their strategic weapons program. That's Not Good. When a nation has atomic weapons, the bloody rules change. One doesn't barge in with bellicose rhetoric and great sweeps of visible efforts at changing public opinion. Furthermore, you don't do something that'll irritate a neighbor who has defended the North Koreans against Americans before, especially when that neighbor has atomic weapons as well. Correspondingly, you don't want either of those parties to be getting nervous about an impending American invasion.

My preferred model for dealing with this involves talking. A lot of talking. Winston Churchill's "jaw jaw is better than war war" applies here, because the NKs have nothing to lose if war comes, if I understand their mindset right. Their society's crumbling, the regime will be doomed in a war, and they can go down while taking lots of Americans, Japanese, or South Koreans if a missile commander gets the word. I don't want that to happen. I'd rather alter Captain Edward Jellico's famous dictum² and play slick, not stupid.

Yes, I said talk. I'd prefer to have my enemies asleep when and if it is deemed necessary to strike. That strike must be unequivocal, absolutely successful, and be the proverbial bolt from the blue. I would prefer the scenario constructed in Tom Clancy's Debt of Honor as a model. No noise, no nothing until it's time for Donald Rumsfeld or George Bush to address the nation and relate to us that the North Korean atomic weapons capability no longer exists.

These students for war could benefit from not tipping our hand. Admittedly, I doubt the Bush Administration is going to be swayed by a student movement, but the last thing we need to do is to keep this in public view. I'd almost want to trust the cold-eyed men at the Pentagon with this and thus sucker-punch the NKs. No sense giving their paranoia something to feed off of. In the words of Khan Noonien Singh, "Let them eat static..."

¹ This may be horribly inaccurate; the Scuds that I'm aware of at least managed to get near their theoretical targets, but I have no way of knowing the real-world accuracy/CEP of the thing.

² His famous dictum is "I don't want to talk about it. Get it done." The title for this is open for debate; arguably another one of his good remarks was ordering Roddenberry's fantasy LCDR Deanna Troi to dress like an officer instead of Julie Newmar. Not that there's anything wrong with dressing like Julie Newmar, but one would rather not see that on a serving officer whilst on duty.

Tip of the Wisconsin hat to Glenn Reynolds.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 10:23 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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