Is This The 30, Or The 70?

Remember when VP Joe Biden predicted that the world would test Obama within 6 months of being sworn in?  Do you also remember how he said that the administration would get things wrong 30% of the time?

In that context, let's examine what is very possibly Obama's first genuine foreign policy test:

The US and South Korea on Thursday warned North Korea not to proceed with a planned satellite launch, as Pyongyang threatened a "fiery bolt of retaliatory lightning" if Japan tried to shoot down the rocket.

North Korea says it will launch a satellite between April 4 and 8. The US, South Korea and Japan say the launch – even if the missile carries a satellite – would breach a United Nations resolution passed after North Korea tested a long-range Taepodong-2 without advance warning in 2006.

Unfortunately, this viciously stern finger-shaking wasn't enough to deter the North Koreans from launching their missile, which happened over the weekend.  So what did Obama do next?

The White House has issued a statement. This is my favorite part:

North Korea's development and proliferation of ballistic missile technology pose a threat to the northeast Asian region and to international peace and security. The launch today of a Taepo-dong 2 missile was a clear violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1718, which expressly prohibits North Korea from conducting ballistic missile-related activities of any kind. With this provocative act, North Korea has ignored its international obligations, rejected unequivocal calls for restraint, and further isolated itself from the community of nations.

We will immediately consult with our allies in the region, including Japan and the Republic of Korea, and members of the U.N. Security Council to bring this matter before the Council. I urge North Korea to abide fully by the resolutions of the U.N. Security Council and to refrain from further provocative actions.

After Obama acknowledges that the N. Koreans ignored UN Resolutions, he calls on the N. Koreans to abide by them. This is smart and tough diplomacy?

And our response is to "consult" with people who have done nothing of consequence on this issue and have shown they pretty much don't care about it.

Finger-shaking that was even more vicious than before!

We know Obama lacks the will to use the military for pro-active measures (like securing American interests abroad), but did he even bother with defense?  The U.S. has developed a missile defense shield to protect ourselves and our allies from precisely this sort of attack, but one of the key pieces of that defense -- an extremely powerful radar system -- was floating idly at Pearl Harbor.  I'm sure our ally Japan really appreciated our help as North Korea's missile rocketed straight toward it.

Hot Air has some interesting analysis in terms of the results of the launch:

In the end, maybe it was better to have North Korea demonstrate its ineptitude at rocket science.  According to every source but Pyongyang, the latest version of the Taepodong-2 had as much success as its predecessor in reaching orbit: none.  The failure undermines yet again the inability of North Korea to mount a legitimate threat against the US, but it wasn't the only display of impotence this weekend:

North Korea failed in its highly vaunted effort to fire a satellite into orbit, military and private experts said Sunday after reviewing detailed tracking data that showed the missile and payload fell into the sea. Some said the failure undercut the North Korean campaign to come across as a fearsome adversary able to hurl deadly warheads halfway around the globe. …

But looking at the launching from a purely technical vantage point, space experts said the failure represented a blow that in all likelihood would seriously delay the missile's debut.

"It's got to be embarrassing," said Geoffrey E. Forden, a missile expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "I can imagine heads flying if the 'Dear Leader' finds out the satellite didn't fly into orbit," he said, referring to the name North Koreans are obliged to use when speaking of Kim Jong-il, North Korea's reclusive leader.

The real threat from North Korea doesn't come directly to the US.  The DPRK has more than enough technical capability in short-range missiles and rockets, and the main threat comes to South Korea and Seoul, which lies just a few short miles from the DMZ.  No one doubts that Kim Jong-Il could ravage the South in an attack, and that would require the US to fight Pyongyang in defense of Seoul — and might bring China back in on Kim's side.    It would pull the entire Pacific Rim into the conflict.

So, what does the Great Uniter, the man who is universally loved all 'round the world for healing the wounds inflicted by the eeeeeeevil George W. Bush do?

What do you do when someone extorts you?  You call the cops, but what happens when the cops don't want to enforce the law — and they're mostly on the side of the extortionist?  Barack Obama just discovered that problem at the UN.  The rocket wasn't the only fizzle yesterday:

The U.S. and its allies sought punishment Sunday for North Korea's defiant launch of a rocket that apparently fizzled into the Pacific, holding an emergency U.N. meeting in response to the "provocative act" that some believe was a long-range missile test.

President Barack Obama, faced with his first global security crisis, called for an international response and condemned North Korea for threatening the peace and stability of nations "near and far." Minutes after liftoff, Japan requested the emergency Security Council session in New York. …

Council members met for three hours, seeking above all a unified response, but broke up for the night without issuing even a customary preliminary statement of condemnation. Diplomats privy to the closed-door talks say China, Russia, Libya and Vietnam were concerned about further alienating and destabilizing North Korea.

"We're now in a very sensitive moment," Chinese Ambassador Zhang Yesui said after the talks concluded. "Our position is that all countries concerned should show restraint, and refrain from taking actions that might lead to increased tensions."

"All countries concerned should show restraint," Zhang says, but he doesn't want to do anything when one of them doesn't — by launching an ICBM in the direction of the US.  Not only did China and Russia block UNSC action again, this time the Security Council couldn't even bring itself to wag its finger at Kim.

 

The UN once again proves its uselessness in enforcing international agreements. People criticized the US and the Bush administration for invading Iraq and deposing Saddam Hussein, but the UN — and specifically Russia and China — left us no choice. Had the UN taken Saddam's violations of 17 UNSC resolutions seriously (and had they not participated in the multibillion-dollar corruption of the Oil-for-Food program), Saddam and his sons would have left the stage years before, and we could have been rebuilding Iraq in the 1990s. Now the UNSC can't even be bothered to issue resolutions when tinpot dictators defy them.

 

Phhhtt...!!!  Nothing.

The U.N. is worthless.  We should pull out and put our tax dollars to use in our own country.  And, by the way, this proves the Great Uniter can't unite anything beyond a string of words on a teleprompter (and even then it's not always a lock).  Given that this guy has another four years to mess things up, we're in deep trouble.

In reality, this foreign policy test may be one of reassuring a key ally rather than dealing with an enemy: Japan.

The Commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, Adm. Timothy J. Keating, asserted that Washington has the capability to shoot down the missile. But before the launch, Secretary of Defense Gates stated the U.S. would not shoot it down unless it was headed towards U.S. territory. The message to Japan was clear: We will protect our territory but not yours.

What will happen to the U.S.-Japan alliance, which provides the stability to the entire Asian region, if Obama continues to fail on North Korea?  Will Obama's inaction and cuts of missile defense alienate yet another ally, like they're doing in Eastern Europe?

Some other comments worth passing along:

Ace of Spades --- Compared to this idiot, I'm starting to miss the days of clear eyed realism and muscular military posture of Jimmy Carter.

Rachel Abrams at The Weekly Standard --- ...surely North Korea already knows with exactly how much impunity it may act—namely, all the impunity in the world.

The American people --- blow them away.

It's too bad Obama stopped paying attention to the American people at 12:01pm on January 20th.  It seems that Obama is bound and determined to fill up that 30% of wrong answers before even getting started on the 70% of right answers.

So what's the real answer to this problem?  Peace through strength.

There's my two cents.