An excellent piece, and I fully agree with the conclusion regarding the, "...long-term threat posed to America's liberties and survival, and to the future of Liberal Democracies everywhere." I hope this sort of warning gets wide dissemination.
Two minor corrections (which I sent to the author);
* Kim Jong-il officially derives his leadership authority from his post as the Chairman of the National Defense Commission, which makes him Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army, but he's not the president. He is also the General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea. His late father, Kim Il-sung, is the "eternal" president of the DPRK.
* The agency more likely to find anomalies in the routes of North Korean fishing vessels in the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA), rather than the NSA, which focuses on signals (communications) intelligence and analysis.
People have been in prophet mode all my life (think baby boomer--getting to be a pretty ridiculous appellation for people entering their late fifties and early sixties, but there it is.) End-of-the-world scenarios and disaster warnings permeate the culture. Pick your poison--nuclear war, ecological collapse, epidemic disease. I suppose all the warnings serve a function--but mostly I just think that scaring people is a way to grab people's attention. The morning shows specialize in it, though they tend to be less apocalyptic in their warnings.
Not that I'm optimistic, mind you. I just decided that unless I intend to do something about it (whatever "it" might be), there's no point in scaring myself--or others.
All comments are subject to approval before they are published, so they will not appear immediately. Comments should be civil, relevant, and substantive. Anonymous comments are not allowed and will be unceremoniously deleted. For more on my comments policy, please see this entry on my other blog.
An excellent piece, and I fully agree with the conclusion regarding the, "...long-term threat posed to America's liberties and survival, and to the future of Liberal Democracies everywhere." I hope this sort of warning gets wide dissemination.
ReplyDeleteTwo minor corrections (which I sent to the author);
* Kim Jong-il officially derives his leadership authority from his post as the Chairman of the National Defense Commission, which makes him Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army, but he's not the president. He is also the General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea. His late father, Kim Il-sung, is the "eternal" president of the DPRK.
* The agency more likely to find anomalies in the routes of North Korean fishing vessels in the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA), rather than the NSA, which focuses on signals (communications) intelligence and analysis.
People have been in prophet mode all my life (think baby boomer--getting to be a pretty ridiculous appellation for people entering their late fifties and early sixties, but there it is.) End-of-the-world scenarios and disaster warnings permeate the culture. Pick your poison--nuclear war, ecological collapse, epidemic disease. I suppose all the warnings serve a function--but mostly I just think that scaring people is a way to grab people's attention. The morning shows specialize in it, though they tend to be less apocalyptic in their warnings.
ReplyDeleteNot that I'm optimistic, mind you. I just decided that unless I intend to do something about it (whatever "it" might be), there's no point in scaring myself--or others.