HUH?  WE DEBATE?  WATCH OUR FOREIGN POLICY COLLAPSE BEFORE YOUR VERY EYES – AT 10:38 A.M. ET:  We're still waiting for North Korea to receive severe punishment for the sinking of a South Korean warship.

Looks like we'll be waiting a long time.  It's reached the point where the fearless Obama administration is concerned about upsetting the northerners too much.  From WaPo:

The Obama administration is wrestling over whether to send an aircraft carrier to take part in military exercises with South Korea in what would amount to a significant show of force after the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship in March.

The back-and-forth over the USS George Washington reflects the precarious security situation in Northeast Asia after North Korea's sinking of the Cheonan on March 26. It underscores a huge issue facing U.S. and South Korean officials: how to stop North Korea, which is believed to possess nuclear weapons, from conducting conventional attacks such as the torpedoing of the Cheonan.

Oh yeah, and we also might try to stop North Korea from going further with its nuclear program.  Wasn't that the purpose of all those talks back then?  Guess they forgot.

Some within the administration are arguing that dispatching the 97,000-ton carrier to the Yellow Sea off the Korean Peninsula, where the Cheonan was sunk, could anger China or cause North Korea to react violently, according to officials involved in the discussions. Others say the United States needs to send a clear message to its allies and to North Korea and China that the United States is standing firmly behind the South.

"It's a very tough call," said Susan Shirk, a former State Department official and an expert on Asian security at the University of California at San Diego. "You don't want to be too proactive. But you need to send a clear message."

Geez.  It's an exercise.  We're not exactly planning to lob test missiles into Dear Leader's swimming pool.  This administration thinks the way European diplomats thought in the 1930s.  The result might be the same.

June 19, 2010