President Obama was woken up shortly before 4 a.m. by his national security adviser, Tom Donilon, and told of the North Korean artillery barrage that has killed two South Korean soldiers and injured civilians.
Is the president prepared for what might come next? He already has a full-fledged war going in Afghanistan, a half-war in Iraq, a global war against terrorists, and now this. North Korea’s motives are completely obscure, but there is no point in avoiding the obvious conclusion that one factor in Pyongyong’s calculus in this act of aggression, and in the sinking of the Cheonan in March with the loss of 46 lives, is that South Korea’s major ally, the United States, might well be perceived as militarily overextended, mired in economic crisis, and led by a weak president.
