Make no mistake--this North Korea crap is the fault of the Bush Administration.

[TwilightGardener]

11. I've said this on DU at least ten times--the danger isn't really their current threats.

Although we have to pay attention to them, at least the DoD does, because they actually do have some degree of nuclear weapon capability, and there's no way to safely assume they won't try anything. The danger is that they like to stage sneak attacks on South Korea, and South Korea is having none of it this time around. The US convinced South Korea not to retaliate in 2010, which may have emboldened NK and has certainly angered the people of SK. They are now going to retaliate, but we don't want it to escalate into a full-scale war. And KJU, needing to prove his manhood and impress the military, is almost certainly going to try something at some point after the exercises--we are trying to head this off by making public shows of our willingness to defend SK and by revealing our rules of engagement when NK decides to provoke with some minor skirmish. It's doubtful that they would actually commit national suicide, but it's likely they'll repeat their behavior from the past, and I think Obama is trying to head that off. It really is an attempt to avert war by the US.

Also, this, from a RW website, but may be relevant:

http://american.com/archive/2013/april/the-bluffing-blowhard-kim-jong-un