Diplomacy....You Have to be Kidding!

This week the United States celebrated a huge victory. It sent hundreds of thousands of ground troops, several thousand aircraft, and two carrier groups to invade North Korea. The result: Pyongyang agreed to shut down its main nuclear reactor and resume talks on ending its nuclear program. Wait, you didn't see the invasion on the news? Oh, thats right, we decided for some strange reason that invading another soveirgn state without first exhausting diplomatic options was not such a good idea. It seems that instead of hundreds of thousands of troops and billions of dollars, all it took was one little man named Christopher Hill. The result is that we have one of the worlds most rogue nations (and a member of the notorious "Axis of Evil"...I think they have their own show on cartoon network) ready to sit down at the negotiating table and have a real dialogue with the rest of the world. Seems like a pretty big success to me, but for those of you who still are skeptical, lets compare this with our other recent exploit into international action.

So a few years ago we knew that North Korea was trying, if not already successful in enriching uranium. We knew that Kim Jung Il was at best an unstable leader, and more likely was a complete lunatic. We knew that North Korea had no real economy to speak of, and would be more than happy to generate a little revenue by selling weapons to the highest bidder.

In the same "Axis of Evil" bubble-gum card pack as you would find Kim Jung Il, we had another leader named Sadaam Hussein. There was a little bit of a question as to whether he had weapons of mass destruction. In fact so much of a question that we figured that instead of finding out, we would just overrun his country with our Army and Marines. Now, this was not such a terrible idea, outside of the fact that we really didn't make any plans as to what to do in the event that there were no weapons of mass destruction, or in the highly unlikely event that the entire country collapsed into civil war.

Now, I am no foreign policy expert, but it appears to me that we invaded a country that posed less of an immediate threat, while leaving little Kim Jung to continue cooking up his nuclear recipe. Of course, as we all know diplomacy was not an option for dealing with Saddam because we don't negotiate with terrorist (and it was Iraq that was responsible for 9-11, oh wait, maybe not). Good thing for us that the regime of Kim Jung IL is far more humane (they kill their own citizens, but they don't brag about it) than Saddam.

I guess my point in all this is that if we would have pursued diplomacy, through international channels, we very may well have been able to avoid this war. Imagine being able to use those hundreds of billions of dollars on health care and education. Imagine being able to close the deficit gap for our children and grandchildren. And most important of all, imagine being able to bring back the lives of the thousands of young men and women who have perished in the service of their country. Hopefully, this has taught us that diplomacy, while not as expedient or glorified as war, is often the best solution. It is an increasingly small world that we live in, and if we can't figure out how to be pragmatic in our foreign policy dealings, the world is bound to get worse not better.

I Am Thoroughly Disgusted!

It seems that I have picked a fine time for my triumphant return to the bloggisphere. I return because I could no longer ignore the hoards of adoring fans marching in the streets, the mountains of letters and post-cards, and the occasional pair of lace panties that seem to be piling up in my parlor room (okay so I don't really have a parlor room...but I don't really have any adoring fans either, so that former seems to be a mere technicality in comparison with the latter). Unfortunately, for me, and I suppose ultimately for you (if you are actually reading this), I find myself yet again thoroughly disgusted with all things having to do with current events, public policy, politics, stupid whales, lost puppies, and last but most putrid of all Paris Hilton. This final piece of my disgust (think the dirty tampon atop a mountain of toilet refuse) leads me to want to compose another painstakingly boring piece on the current state of our news channels and on the pathetic state of our society as a whole. However, as I have taken the liberty of exploring that literary channel once if not many times previous to this, I shall spare you the rant and instead try to find something to fill the rest of this page that will hopefully reinvigorate you with hope, or at the very least make you forget about my earlier tampon analogy.

It is now summertime and along with summertime comes a myriad of problems from heat rash, to county fairs, however, amongst all of this suffering there is something that we should all be grateful for. No I am not talking about the end of the hockey season (yes professional hockey still exist), I am talking about BASEBALL. Now for the uninitiated let me take a moment to educate you as to why baseball is the single greatest invention (sorry ice cream-I love you too) in the history of not only this fine (but misguided) nation that we live in, but in fact, in the history of the world.

Baseball is a purest of games (even if everyone takes steroids...which i think they should...get big boys....well i guess that is a subject for another time). Yes, I know that football has become America's obsession (see earlier comment on misguided nation), but this is simply because the average American seems to lack the intellect to appreciate the nuances of a game that does not include ramming one's head into a 350lb giant (yeah, good thing there are no steroids in football). Baseball is a thinking man's game, a game that blends strategy with athletic prowess and that requires consistent precision. It is a game that could only have originated in America. It was likely the rally point for the winning of both World Wars, it helped bring us victory in Vietnam (we did win that war right?), baseball outlasted the Cold War, and ultimately it will give us victory in our war with the Axis of Evil (whoever the hell that is)!

Okay, so maybe baseball can't do all that. But take a couple of hours this summer and head to a game, maybe even pick up a scorecard. With all the things going wrong right now, from time to time it is nice to remind yourself of something that we do right!

I'm BAAAAAAACK!!!!

So I know that you have all been anxiously awaiting my return....yes I have been in exile for nearly ten months. Fear not dear readers, I have returned, and over the next few days will be filling your time with amazingly boring, utterly unimportant, completely self-aggrandizing pieces of complete literary bullshit! I know you can't wait, don't worry, neither can I!

-Rudee