There is a story, true or not, I do not know, but in his daily morning briefing, President Eisenhower was advised there was going to be a revolution somewhere that the US had some degree of interest. Ike yawned and replied that he was going to play golf. He did and there was NO revolution. Sometimes doing nothing is the next best thing than committing to an irreversible catastrophe.



Looking at the dual threats of destruction from Iran and North Korea at opposite ends of the earth, realistically, what can or should the US do and, just because it can do it, should it do what is tantamount to destroying the world that will be subject to a shootout even video games cannot envision?



Pacifists want talk and negotiation while warhawks demand action which anyway one looks at it, means war, declared or not. North Korea makes no secret that it is itching to strike the US with nuclear devices, possibly exploding one in the atmosphere to cause maximum damage with nuclear fallout, or devastating to the US electric power grid with Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP). At this point in time, the EMP concept still borders on comic-book futuristic enthusiasts that thrive on concepts too unimaginable to imagine, or not.



North Korea’s young Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un is the underlying problem with North Korea as he is evidently feeling his oats and demanding to make his mark by challenging alleged big US bully. How much is bravado and how much is ugly reality cannot be determined since he believes that no matter how boldly he acts, it may be for home consumption that is ravaged by dissipation of resources from domestic to military use.



Who would be hurt besides the immediate first targets of rocket attack? China would be the singular most damaged innocent party should Kim Jong be true to his words. Actually, China would suffer the greatest impact since China depends upon exports to America and Europe for its continued economic stability.



Should the China export pipeline lose at least one month of its thriving export base, their economy would drop faster than the stock market that sparked the 1939 depression. A single nuclear strike in the US lower 48 would cause less damage than that affecting non-combatant China.



Would China stand by and let North Korea capital Pyongyang destroy China’s worldwide economy? If that presumption were to be “NO,” nothing approaching nuclear will happen. Little bullies taunt until they are bluffed into reenacting the 14th century tale referring to the snail and its retractable tentacles known as horns on which a snail’s eyes are located, and these horned eyes are pulled in whenever the mollusk is threatened.



The best bet is again in Shakespeare, “Much ado about nothing,” and much like playground “In Your Face” taunting. In professional football the taunter is finally struck by the victim, but guess what, it is the tauntee that is penalized. There might be a lesson in there somewhere, perhaps comparable to the President G.W.Bush preemptive strike against Iraq where to date US casualties were double the 3,000 suffered by the first 9/11/2001 taunt.



Revenge may be sweet, but definitely, from a selfish point of view, revenge is unaffordable at a cost of $6 trillion and counting. Maybe now is the time to kiss-up to China. Who would have thunk?