If Donald Rumsfeld had seen
Vice President Kamala Harris
at the 38th parallel on the Korean Peninsula, he’d have been amazed to discover a new unknown unknown.
The late lamented
secretary of defense
divided international challenges into “
known knowns
…known unknowns…and…unknown unknowns.” Harris has made it hard to know what she knows and, perhaps more acutely, doesn’t know.
KAMALA’S NORTH KOREA BLUNDER LATEST IN LONG LINE OF AWKWARD GAFFES
Speaking at the demilitarized zone separating the democracy of South Korea from the tyrannical hermit kingdom of North Korea, she said, “The United States shares a very important relationship, which is an alliance, with the Republic of North Korea, and it is an alliance that is strong and enduring…”
Some people dismiss this as just a verbal slip using “north” when the intention was to say “south.” But “North Korea” isn’t just a geographical description or a country’s name — it’s a term loaded with associations weighing heavily on the awareness of all engaged politicians. Coupling “alliance” with “North Korea” should have set off an alarm in the veep’s mind immediately, and you’d expect her to follow up by saying, “Excuse me, I mean, South Korea.” Instead, the howler was left hanging there as though Vice President Harry Truman had extolled America’s “alliance with the Axis powers” — a thing impossible to imagine.
The issue of what we don’t know or think we know arose at about the same time, too, because of
deeply suspicious explosions at different points along the Nord Stream pipelines
upon which Europe recently depended for Russian gas supplies. At three points in the Baltic Sea between Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and Poland, in international waters close to the Danish island of Bornholm, briny geysers suddenly bubbled to the surface of the blue sea.
A helpful guide in divining perpetrators is usually to ask, “Who benefits?” But in the immediate shock of what appears to be an outlandish act of sabotage, the answer is not clear. Despite speculation that it was perpetrated by Russia’s enemies, including the U.S., suspicion naturally falls on Russia and its erratic tyrant Vladimir Putin.
Russia denied it and blamed state-sponsored terrorism. But Russian denials are worthless. Putin had ships and submarines in the area, although he always does. Perhaps he wanted to signal a willingness to attack pipelines just as a new undersea line was opening to send Norwegian gas to Poland. He wouldn’t lose sales, having cut off gas supplies to Europe already. Pipes can be easily repaired, and an explosion is so much more compelling than turning off a faucet. But other than spectacle, what did Putin stand to gain?
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In Rumsfeldian terms, though, the real culprit is surely a known known. The U.S. has satellites over the Baltic, especially with war in Europe. Surely analysts have rewound the tape and seen who was there. NATO’s undersea listening devices will have detected movement toward the targets, and these could likewise be traced back to the guilty source.
The sophistications of international affairs can sometimes be dazzling. Within a couple of days, we’ll know who carried out a surreptitious and apparently pointless attack at the bottom of the sea, and we’ve also learned that Washington has a strong and enduring alliance with North Korea.
