Bloody Bloody Nose

You certainly do not stop to read this woeful tosh. The paper addiction remains strong, you have flicked through the usual blather and the eyes fall on suchlike. You are a foreigner, an ignorant foreigner. Curious, conscious of limited input. In the time honoured way the street, individual encounters, eavesdropping &etc. have delivered the best, the richest and most trustworthy of information: delivered the rhythm of life, the telling nuances and particularities. Research has limited value, only the bare minimum can be undertaken; all of that can be left to those other toilers in the field. It was only once in the region that the relevant key and seminal texts were taken up: the Analects, the Gita, a volume of the Hadith. That kind of deeply embedded culture was worth investigating. The newspaper added political shenanigans, the social outlook, commentary and interpretation. But golly! The twaddle with which one was confronted in the process. No complaints. No point. The more artfully turned trash, the complacent guff most places elsewhere had one retching just the same. You could often laugh at some of this here; not quite in the example ahead. This filler arrived from the US Bureau Chief in Washington who will remain nameless. Sub-editor we will blame for the headline: “Concerns mount over possible ‘bloody nose’ strike on North Korea.” A wallop there immediately in itself. Then we had the highlighted excerpt: “One of the biggest dilemmas the US faces in striking, say, a North Korean missile facility, would be whether to evacuate American families from Seoul and other places in South Korea within range of retaliation from North Korea.” Oh yeah, that’d be right. Perhaps that was on the table currently at Trump Tower this very minute, the Bureau Chief intuiting with his sharp, well-honed skills after years of journalistic ferreting and investigation. Isn’t that precisely what any responsible, right-thinking government would have forefront of their mind in such circumstances? Scrupulous concern for their own precious citizens. Might the Chief have noticed the recent displeasure in the US at the warming relations on the peninsular over there, the possibility of a dangerous separate peace breaking out in the wings. Gingerly steps in that direction. But best get real, the trigger button and the various contingencies to consider. Light nuclear options for the Ruskis too to cover that troubling quarter, recently mooted by other strategic specialists and commentators. US citizens over in Poland, Germany and the rest would need consideration.