We all know where appeasement leads

Failing Over Korea

Global Security: We've observed often that the United Nations is useless. But its failure this weekend to agree on so much as a condemnation of North Korea for its bombardment of the south suggests something worse.

The U.N. Security Council's emergency meeting to come up with a common stance on North Korea's second murderous foray against South Korea completely failed Sunday.

The 15-member peacemaking body couldn't agree on any criticism for North Korea's unprovoked attack on South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island last Nov. 23 — its second in less than a year — and now South Korean officials expect more attacks.

Against this dangerous scenario, the U.N. result was zilch.

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice announced the Council couldn't agree on even a verbal condemnation. "The majority of council members made clear their view that it was important to clearly condemn the events of Nov. 23rd and the attack by DPRK on Yeonpyeong island but that view did not ultimately achieve consensus," said Rice.

The problem here is not an inability to agree on what happened or state who's at fault, but quite simply a void in U.S. leadership that's left a window open for Russian and Chinese power politics.

The two tyrannies have paid lip service to democracy and wealth creation in the recent past, but their failure to condemn North Korea suggests that they're dropping those masks to reveal their old Cold War identities intact. Both vetoed any criticism of the North by insisting that the only statement they could sign was one urging both sides to show "restraint" equally.

It shows that item one is not preserving peace on the Korean peninsula, but ending U.S. influence in Asia.

North Korea becomes a useful attack dog for that, particularly with a docile U.N. standing by and doing nothing. With veto power in the Security Council, they intend to checkmate the U.S. by wearing it down until it finally ends its military presence in North Asia.

After that? They'll replace it with their own, of course.

"It is time to take a closer look at the damaging power of the U.S. role in Northeast Asia. At this critical moment of war and peace, Asian countries need to escape a Cold War mentality and maintain regional interests at heart," a Beijing-controlled editorial in the Global Times wrote this week, spilling the beans.

But the reality is, if naked attacks on other nations aren't worthy of condemnation, then the United Nations is useless.

The U.S. must either exert leadership there to ensure peace or else end the farce and play on the same terms the Russians and Chinese do, asserting its own interests. To let the inept and hopelessly compromised U.N. handle this crisis is a recipe for war.