h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

>> It's just a ronery hotel...<<

Is it? Or is it ornery. And evil.
What a clever place to hide a doomsday device.
"Hide in plane site", eh wot?

Even the madman grows tired of being the madman
and becomes the mad villain. When brandy-stewed
Kom Yeel comes near to last gasps he'll wanna take
the whirled wit 'im.

"Y'can check out any time y'want
But you can never leave..."
- the Eagles 'Hot-l Clafinornia'


~jwf~

Go Team America, F**K yeah!

So has it been confirmed Kim Jong Il is still alive?

Efferswhat should be done about North Korea and the threats it has made????<

From a UK perspective..absolutely nothing, unless they are threatening us.>

Well, yes, but if the Yanks decide to go in we'll follow just like with Iraq...and the Yanks can always say they've got nukes to give us an excuse to go in. Iraq were not threatening us when we invaded...they were a corralled neurered country.

Cant we stoke the flames of war and sell arms to one if not both sides...we need the cash afterall.

Im not aware of any military intervention that really worked but if there has to be a war lets get out snouts into the trough or some other country will.

There are really only two options, as the 'talking' and santions stuff don't seem to work.

1. invade. Clearly the worse option, it'll result in the deaths of tens of thousands or more civilians, troops on both sides, and not change the situation, plus if they do* have nuclear boms then its the quickest way to ensure they use them. Fail on all fronts; Luckly though, we have a long history of failed invasions of a simular kind, and so no one in their right mind would for a second consider repeating the errors of all those previous invasions of a simular nature, all fo which failed...

2. do nothing...

At least it will be a chance for the Hollywood sequel factory to do another MASH series.

What about the "let China sit on him" option? It has worked before.

Don't forget Gloucester Hill Quote "Things are a bit stickey here at the moment" with customary British understatement - being attacked by 3 battalions of Chineses regulars. The Americams took that to mean everything was ok.

Right... get China to put pressure on them? err is this just an experiment to see how two-faced the rest of the world can be about it all? I mean... because generally China is regarded as a place that doesn't ahve huge military might and which coudln't itself possibly pose a threat.. err... Just leave the place alone... Whatever an intervention might 'want' to achieve, all it'll end up doing is screwing thigns up further... It always does.

Ignoring bullies sometimes works, sometimes they only respect force.
We put the willies up the Chinese leadership 15 years ago by putting a Nuclear attack submarine in their back yard unsupported. The fact is Hunter/killer submarines scare people, that's why we have them A bit of gunboat diplomacy never does any harm. Ultimately, just like in my job, it comes down to "Stop flapping your gums and wasting my time, just bring it on!" That's when the fight started, they soon learn when they get hurt

Call in Mattias Nilsson...apart from nuking from orbit, as mentioned above...it's the only tried and tested way.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_Nations

>>1. invade. Clearly the worse option, it'll result in the deaths of tens of thousands or more civilians, troops on both sides, and not change the situation, plus if they do* have nuclear boms then its the quickest way to ensure they use them. Fail on all fronts; Luckly though, we have a long history of failed invasions of a simular kind, and so no one in their right mind would for a second consider repeating the errors of all those previous invasions of a simular nature, all fo which failed...<<

The Blackadder option ; this is why the above plan is so cunning, they would never suspect we would try this option yet again. How could it possibly fail .
I suspect kimjong ill is playing his usual sick game of pokeing us with a stick and then trying to gain leverage. Could be that blowing the S. Korean navy boat to pieces was further than they intended to go. Perhaps they only wanted to hole it or damage it some other way.

"Ignoring bullies sometimes works, sometimes they only respect force"
Naa that doesn't work.
If they've got nuclear weapons, the quickest way to ensure they detanate them is to use force.
If they've not got nuclear weapons, the quickest way to ensure they go all out to ensure they have them, is to use force.
You can't force 'political' change onto a country without it killing hundreds of thousands of the population, which I don't particularly think is either a good thing, or necessarily a desirable thing.
Of course, if the US is simply looking to spark off some new 'forign enimies' its probably a good plan, but I can't see why they'd need to do that when they're already doing so well at supporting Middle Easturn terrorism, and promoting and expanding it...

Like I said before "Team America"

Yeah!!!!

damn it... I nearly spilt guinness on my keyboard

Thanks alot guys, now I have the theme song "America Yeah!" stuck in my head.

I got the impression that, whenever the world asks China to exert a positive influence on North Korea, the response is always "Why should we?" The current dynamic equilibrium is serving them rather well, as the sole (sic) trading partner.

I suppose the best course of action depends on how the levers of influence work within North Korea.

I'm assuming that The Dear Leader is little more than a figurehead, for all the cult of personality. Consulting W***pedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workers'_Party_of_Korea#The_rise_of_Kim_Jong-il

"For the first time in the history of North Korea's Communist Party, a plenum also was not held before the first session of the 10th SPA. It is also suspected that Secretariat and Politburo meetings have not been held since Kim Il-sung's death. It is likely that not one organization within the party is fulfilling its decision-making function, and thus that the party is not working properly as a system."

Which leads us...precisely nowehere.

But how's this as a hypothesis. Basically, the various arms of the North Korean government are acting somewhere between headless chickens and rabbits in headlights. They sank a ship because someone thought it was the sort of thing you're meant to do. They've (probably) got all these ballistic missiles and...well...you're meant to threaten with them, aren't you? But basically, they're in a bit of a tizz.

Now...I'm told that when people are taught how to manage conflicts with aggressive people, one important rule is to leave a way out. Don't block the exit. Maybe...North Korea just doesn't know how to stop being military? I can see the attractions of The China Solution here. Subtly targeted military aid to knock the comrades back into reality? Which would require The West not to get too scared at increased Chinese involvement.

But if I had a real clue I'd be doing Hilary Clinton's job.