(War Games on the Korean Peninsula. Image from the Patrick Cronan article “How This Starts” in Foreign Affairs magazine.)

The internet ether is sizzling this morning. Several close friends checked in, mystified by what is happening on the Korean peninsula. It is predictable, actually normal in times of leadership transition, but the parallel changes in North and South have made the amplitude of the thing quite extraordinary, something that more than one learned colleague thinks could spiral quickly out of control.

I hope not. I have told you before that I have met some of the leaders of the DPRK and actually liked some of them. I have a little- very little- bit of confidence that this is just political theater on the grand scale. But sadly, the Northerners have been permitted to sink South Korean warships, shell islands, conduct infiltrations, and otherwise act out without repercussion. That cannot go on forever. Just being a realist.

The situation could go south, and I don’t just mean geographically.

The ether was filled with apprehension and invective this morning- from as far away as Australia, New York, Louisiana and Colorado. I will not make you suffer through the list. Let’s just say everything is fine, and by August we should have things pretty well wrapped up.

Still, this exchange forwarded to me this morning is illustrative of the splintering of the body politic. It is matter-of-fact in tone, and originated by a colleague from Pentagon days:

“We are living Atlas Shrugged. The US is becoming a dystopian society.

I was having lunch with (redacted) yesterday, discussing the topic of “comes the revolution”. I took the position that we are in the throws of a society coming apart. We no longer have agreement on the American Dream and we have (insert attribution for how we got here, here) a large segment of society that believes not in working to earn a reward, but in entitlements. I opined that there probably will be blood. The saving grace I thought would be that in the Red States, the governors would not call out the Guard. Local LEAs would probably attempt to keep down violence coming from any source, and the military would probably not come out of the barracks. Martinets though many of our current senior leadership in the military may be, the bulk of the force will side with the strict constructionist’s constitutional position. In that event, it is unlikely that (redacted) will prevail. The wild cards are DoJ and DHS.”

This is from a couple grumpy old guys who spent lifetimes in the government. Completely matter-of-fact. The mind reels.

So, a tip of the topper to the North Koreans, who appear to be the wolves nearest the sled this morning- and naturally I was distracted from Danny’s account of how things worked in the Irish Mafia that I listened to in amazement at Willow the other evening.

I may get back to it- Irish thugs are sort of quaint, considering what else is going on. Like I say, should be wrapped up by August. Or not.

For how the Korean thing might play out, check this link from Foreign Affairs and Patrick Cronan’s take on “How This Starts.”

For a neat forecast on what is really happening to America, see former Reagan Budget Director David Stockman’s analysis here.

What could go wrong, right?

Copyright 2013 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com