Political Poker Face

Sorry for the lack of postings lately, I've been fighting off the plague ... or so it felt like. But no need to send soup, although I'm sniffling and coughing, the double vision and shivers have cleared up so I guess I'm cresting the hill. The down time I've been experiencing lately afforded me the luxury of watching multiple news perspectives on the North Korea nuclear poker game that the world is watching for no other reason but than to see who can maintain the best poker face and bluff their way through the hand. An underground detonation deals out the pocket cards, and the promise of economic sanctions starts off the flop. The turn card came today when North Korea said it considered U.N. sanctions aimed at punishing the country for its nuclear test "a declaration of war". And the Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill fired the river card back when he stated that if North Korea did in fact detonate another nuclear test (as they have stated they will), such a test would force the international community "to respond very clearly". Now that we're all one up on each other twice, let's get to the truth of the matter and see the pocket cards. I'm willing to bet that although the U.S. has the better hand, we'll still come out of this kissing the rear ends of the North Koreans because we only like to pick on countries that can't fight back. Are the North Koreans a viable nuclear power ... who knows. But it will be a cold day in hell we invade that place because after all ... their WMD's (if nothing else) made a seismic impression and not a hypothetical impression.