My brothers from another mother!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Having one of your troops over so she won't be alone - now that's a CO, well done sir.

And thanks to ALL THE TROOPS today, for making our everyday lives safe. And for being so good at what you do that when I mentioned to my 11 year old that North Korea was firing on an ally that maintains 30,000 US troops he smiled and said 2 words ... "big mistake."

As it's me and the boys here, I'll be cooking the bird today. A four and a half hour endeavour typically reserved for the multiple, multiple, women in my family. Not a problem though - I'm very content to be with my sons, playing football outside later in the crisp cool air, Saints playing at 1:30p Vegas time, Watching episode 7 of The Pacific later, I'm off work ... all is well.

On North Korea, Titus is curious as to why I haven't posted on that developing situation because I zipped a text to him at 4am the morning the story broke. They fired on a South Korean Island, Yeonpyeong, and that tells me something which dovetails into Titus' "pure gold" suggestion to the White House. There's a reason they didn't hit S. Korea proper - the 30,000 US troops there. They don't want to poke the bear in such a direct fashion. They know that the US and the Armistice is the only possibility of real, direct action against them. The UN Security Council is laughable on the issue - they took months to condemn the North's sinking of a South Korean war ship and even then the council condemnation didn't mention North Korea by name, what a joke.

Enter Titus' suggestion. Much like my argument against "new gun laws", we should simply enforce those laws meant to corral North Korea already on the books. It drives me nuts that politicians and pundits look for some clever third way, something "different" in our approach because the status quo isn't getting results. We aren't getting results because we aren't enforcing any of the terms of the agreement outside of the formalities involved at the guard change on the 38th Parallel! Perpetually "new" resolutions and the votes of the Security Council are the status quo, and have a proven track record of failure. We have the Armistice in place to harass the North sufficiently to back them down. The men that set that up knew what they were doing. Their successors have failed at its upkeep (read: civilian leadership, not the military). Were every step Titus mentioned employed, not only would it be effective in corralling the North, it would be 100% legal. North Korea is a signatory to that Armistice, as much as we are, the consequences should begin to reign down rather then waiting on China, whom has zero incentive to see a Western friendly unified Korea on their Eastern border.

And by the way, if the White House wants some bold, new third way while still insisting that China be the governor on Kim Jong Il, then here's how you bring the Great Wall guards in line on the issue - under the same auspices that the Chinese and Russians defend Iran's "peaceful nuclear power ambitions", the US announces Japan's need for "peaceful nuclear power", and that the pens are out to ink that contract ... that'll get Premier Wen Jiabo's attention, I assure you.