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SPICY MEATBALL. Isn't it time we stop making threats that we have neither the intention nor the capability of carrying out?
North Korea announced today that it plans to conduct its first nuclear test, sharply escalating its standoff with the United States and setting off ripples of alarm in Japan and South Korea...As sensible people have proceeded under the assumption that North Korea has had nuclear weapons for some time now, an actual test serves to change nothing other than to reduce the North Korean stockpile by one weapon. If military action against North Korea was a plausible option, it would have been carried out years ago. Reports like this tend to bring out my inner Mearsheimer, temporarily making me contemptuous of the flurry of diplomatic nonsense associated with the revelation of truths that everyone had already accepted.American officials have said that if North Korea were to conduct nuclear tests, the United States would seek Security Council sanctions through a procedure that carries the threat of military action.
--Robert Farley
