PrintNovember 24, 2010
Undesirable?
In March of this year the South Korean Naval vessel, the Cheonan, was torpedoed in international waters and sent to a watery grave by a North Korean submarine. The ship carried forty six innocent South Korean sailors to the bottom with her.
Monday, North Korea fired approximately one hundred artillery rounds at the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong killing two ROK Marines and wounding dozens, including civilians.
Fortunately for President Obama, Stephen Bosworth, 1987 winner of the American Academy of Diplomacy's, Diplomat of the Year Award, and the President's special envoy to North Korea was already on the scene and could therefore respond decisively to this outrage.
With the full backing and fierce determination of President Obama behind him, Mr. Bosworth unleashed a scathing verbal attack against the North Korean terrorists. It must make Americans chest swell with pride as the Envoy's voice forcefully booms the words, "Such conflict is very undesirable."
Huh?
Mr. Diplomat of the Year, as anyone who has been under rocket or artillery fire can tell you, ‘holy crap, that was undesirable', is most assuredly not the first thing out of their mouths when the world blows up around them, if they can even speak.
Undesirable is when the steak you ordered is overcooked or your car refuses to crank on a cold morning. Undesirable is when a barking dog keeps you awake at night.
High explosive projectiles falling out of the sky and landing close by cannot be fully described with mere words but suffice it to say ‘undesirable' would have no place in an attempt to do so.
How about terrifying, appalling, gut-wrenching, shocking, debilitating, ear-shattering, bowel-loosening, life-changing? We could start there and it wouldn't even come close to describing the utter terror and helplessness one feels when on the receiving end of this screaming curse from above.
Undesirable would probably not come to mind when your ship is struck under the keel by a twenty-one foot long steel monster carrying hundreds of pounds of high explosive that breaks your ship in half, throwing it thirty feet into the air and sending the bow and the stern heading in different directions. Undesirable would not be the word screaming through your panicked brain when you discover the watertight door to your compartment is warped and jammed and you can tell by the popping noises and the pressure in your ears that you are on a one way trip to the bottom.
Don't get me wrong, the word has its uses.
It is undesirable when maniacal, murderous, tyrants are allowed to make us and our allies the laughingstock of the world. It is undesirable to retreat and cower when the situation calls for righteous vengeance. It is undesirable to offer up the blood of our friends and allies on the altar of appeasement. And it is undesirable to have a morally confused coward living at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
