Kerry says U.S. ready to "reach out" to North Korea

[Tamas]

The correct attitude toward NK by the US should be: bring it on!

at the very least ignore them completely once some kind of military buildup is done. This fucking thing must end one of these days, and it might as well can end now to ignite some wartime spending for all the Keynesians out there

[Razgovory]

It's the Koreans (South), who are going to have shoulder the burden here.  I imagine we should let them lead.

[PDH]

The only thing worse than having a politician figure out military strategy is to have a wargamer figure out strategy.

[Neil]

Rationalize much?

You saw how well Iraq went over.  I'd rather us be the Good Guys this time around.

If your plan is for Europeans to love America, it would make more sense for you to focus on destroying America so that it becomes weak and poor.  Their peculiar morality is that weakness makes right.

[CountDeMoney]

If your plan is for Europeans to love America, it would make more sense for you to focus on destroying America so that it becomes weak and poor.  Their peculiar morality is that weakness makes right.

Luckily that isn't my plan.

[Neil]

If your plan is for Europeans to love America, it would make more sense for you to focus on destroying America so that it becomes weak and poor.  Their peculiar morality is that weakness makes right.

Luckily that isn't my plan.

So, by 'good guys' you just mean 'have a Democrat for president'?  Then why go through all the diplomatic effort?

[Ed Anger]

The only thing worse than having a politician figure out military strategy is to have a wargamer figure out strategy.

I pile all Waffen SS divisions into one big stack.

[CountDeMoney]

If your plan is for Europeans to love America, it would make more sense for you to focus on destroying America so that it becomes weak and poor.  Their peculiar morality is that weakness makes right.

Luckily that isn't my plan.

So, by 'good guys' you just mean 'have a Democrat for president'?  Then why go through all the diplomatic effort?

I'm more concerned about regional players. This is the Pacific.  It's ours.
You can mock Europeans about this issue, but I'd rather ignore them.

[Sheilbh]

Why do you think Kerry would have had specific acts in mind if the statement had been intended for North Korea?

Because I think if the US had really decided to reach out to North Korea it would've been decided by Obama. His message would be from Obama and it'd be clear he was speaking for the US government. Kerry wouldn't have to go back to Washington to check.

That suggests to me there's no shift, he's not been sent to reach out to North Korea. I think it was in response to a question and I think, given that he was about to go to China, that chances are he was told to sound more emollient without actually changing anything. Which is what he did.