Quick Roundup 76

Ending our "Allergy to Self-Assertion"

Via Amit Ghate is an excellent Alex Epstein editorial on the American "addiction" to oil.

Another means of addressing the threat would be to remove Middle Eastern oil fields from Iranian and Saudi control, put them in the hands of private companies, and then employ surveillance and troops to secure that oil supply. Contrary to popular assumption, Middle Eastern dictatorships have no right to their nationalized oil fields, which should be private property--the property of individuals who work to find and extract the oil.

I hope this makes it into a major newspaper. This point, and his other, that reliance on oil is no more an "addiction" than our reliance on good food, are almost completely unknown or ignored in the public debate.

China and North Korea

In yesterday's TIA Daily, I learned of this Niall Ferguson article on the cozy relationship between China and North Korea.

It might be thought that China gains little from having a madman as a neighbor and a dependent. Until now, however, it has suited Beijing quite well -- better, at any event, than a North Korean collapse. Moreover, North Korea has been more than merely a buffer state. It has been a useful proxy, allowing China to probe the vulnerability of South Korea and Japan and to assert Chinese parity with the United States in matters of Asian security.

The big question is whether this might be about to change. For perhaps the most significant thing that happened last week was that Kim fired his missiles in defiance not just of the United States, Japan and South Korea, but of China. Before July 4, Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, explicitly warned North Korea not to heighten diplomatic tension. By ignoring that warning, the "Dear Leader" can scarcely have endeared himself to his patrons in Beijing.

While I think that most of Ferguson's points are good, I disagree that China is all that worried about North Korea's "defiance" of China's "explicit" warning. I think this is wishful thinking on the grounds that the order was given on behalf of the West and that North Korea fully understands that it would collapse without China's support. Just consider the fact that China last year refused to cut off North Korea's fuel supply -- a measure it could also have taken in retaliation for this defiance at any time.

In North Korea, China has a proxy state whose actions are unpredictable, thanks to its being run by someone regarded as a madman. (And if he really is enough of a madman to turn on China, does anyone doubt that China will completely devastate North Korea in return?) Why give up that attractive combination of unpredictability and unaccountability now, when China is on the verge of having several "free shots" at Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and parts of the United States? Our leaders are obviously afraid of an open war. The ability to blame North Korea gives China a way to have a missile strike and provide Washington with an excuse not to do anything about it other than, perhaps, accepting an invasion by China of its client state on our "behalf".

We really need to take out these missiles, and I mean before they're launched.

Zizou, More On

Zizou's excuse for the head-butting that led to his ejection from the World Cup final is, from all appearances, the lamest in the book: Someone insulted his mother. Like that never happens in men's sports....

And like mere words -- other than threats -- ever merit being answered by an assault.

I close with two videos.

The first shows the incident itself. Every clip I see seems to show less than the actual period intervening between when the infraction occurred and when Zidane was ejected. The delay occurred because the only official to see everything was the fourth referee, who is not normally on the field and who had to inform the referee of what had occurred.

And then there's this version, via reader Hannes Hacker.

No wonder Zidane was ejected!

-- CAV