It took a group like the editors of the Wall Street Journal
to make it possible having the two words “delusion” and “knee-jerk” in the same
sentence. They did it by writing a piece under the title: “North Korea 's
Nuclear Breakthrough” and the subtitle: “Now it can put a warhead atop a
ballistic missile. The U.S.
needs defenses.” They published the piece on October 25, 2014 in the Journal.
Like they say in the subtitle, North Korea has achieved the
technological breakthrough to make the warheads small enough to be carried by a
rocket and delivered to far away targets. And the editors admit they know about
that because General Curtis Scaparroti, who commands U.S.
forces in South Korea ,
said so. What they omitted saying, however, is that the General added he had no
proof of what he was saying. It means that his apparent assertion was a hunch
he could not suppress or a deliberate act aimed at starting a debate on the
subject.
And so, the editors of the Journal took the bait by plunging
into the debate and by delivering what was to be expected of them – the
knee-jerk reaction which came in the second part of the subtitle: “The U.S. needs
defenses.” To make it sound like this is an important event (somewhat
unexpected or at least unexpected to have happened so soon) they go into the
brief history of a similar debate that took place a year and a half ago in
which they also participated. To make it sound ominous, they begin this part of
the conversation with the following: “Shocked? You shouldn't be.” Well, they
are not really asking if the readers are shocked; they are using a
psychological ploy to suggest that the readers ought to be shocked.
The purpose of taking the readers to a high level of anxiety
before proceeding with their presentation is that they know what comes at the
end of such a debate. It is that sooner or later, the North Koreans will have
miniaturized the bomb enough to place on top of a rocket. In fact, they make
that point themselves and try to use it to their advantage before someone else
does so, and uses it to neutralize their argument. Here is how they do that:
“the important point is that a country with the technological wherewithal to
enrich uranium in advanced centrifuges will figure out how to miniaturize the
bomb. The technology is nearly 60 years old.”
We are back to square one because the mental gymnastics they
performed, starting with a knee-jerk reaction, has added absolutely nothing new
to the debate. In fact, the masters of the psychological ploy now make the
fatal Freudian slip that buries their argument. Before moving to the second
phase of their presentation, they try to consolidate the first phrase but end
up shooting themselves in the knee. They do that by quoting the Foreign Minister
of North Korea who said something that is in itself irrelevant. But what is
relevant is that they start this part of the conversation by referring to the
possible miniaturization of the bomb with: “that expectation ought to inform Washington 's policy
making going forward.” Pow! They now admit they cannot be certain North Korea has
achieved the breakthrough but they “expect” that it must have.
They now move to the second part of the presentation which
is the delusional part. Having kneecapped themselves knee-jerking into and out
of a discussion that came to naught, they counsel the abandonment of the
“illusion” that carrots can induce Pyongyang
to a better behavior. They want to see the economic boycott of the country, the
targeting of its leaders' finances, and a policy that seeks regime change which
will include campaigns informing the people of North Korea how bad their masters
are … as if they didn't know already.
But the editors of the Journal
know that all of this is idle talk because no option was kept out of
consideration, and nothing that can be tried was neglected. So why are they
advocating something they know will be ignored? They did it to pave the way for
what comes next. It is this mother of all delusions: “Israel proved
the worth of one BMD [Ballistic Missile Defense] system … and now would be a
good time for the Obama Administration to make a similar major investment.”
The fact is that there is no such
a thing as a BMD in Israel .
There is an ordinary warning system that is coupled to a network of sirens
alerting the population of incoming missiles. It gives the people time to hide
in bunkers till the danger is over.