Sorry, I wasn't subscribing to the notion that the US has pulled the British chestnuts out of the fire twice, so they should be grateful to us. More that the US acts like other powers have in the past and was using an example most here can relate to.

My main thesis in this remains that the US has no vested interest in attacking North Korea and that the price for the result would be too high for any administration to contemplate even if we weren't otherwise occupied. One Korean war was enough. That calculation should be clear to any rational government, particularly one that's got China's security guarantees.

On the other hand, paranoia is a good way to keep a starving, poverty striken population under control. See [i]1984[/i]. We make a great bad guy for North Korea so most of what they're saying about us is really for domestic consumption.