Kim Jong-il, Obama and the Elephant in the Room

Well, North Korea's done it again: another nuke has been successfully tested. This time the size was estimated to be approximately 20 kilotons, roughly the same size as the bombs that flattened both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The international community, including China and Russia, have unilaterally condemned the test and Obama has said that the U.S. would work with its allies to "stand up" to North Korea.

Ok, I can't be help but be skeptical here. Are the UN and the U.S. going to stand up to Kim Jong-il just like they stood up to Saddam prior to Bush's famous invasion? Saddam had broken security resolution after security resolution and, as far as I could tell, the U.N. refused to take any action beyond what it was already doing. Not that I'm an advocate of war, especially when it Communist countries are involved, but I can't help but wonder where the teeth are behind these resolutions? Sure, they provide certain punishments, for lack of a better word, but if the offending behavior continues, what then?

Like it or not, the world and its economy are becoming less and less separate and perhaps it makes sense to more aggressively move in the direction of a central world government. I know, I know, Bible thumpers will start screaming anti-Christ but the move makes sense. We're at the point at which we realistically need a governing body that will represent the interests of all countries in the world. We simply can't allow any rogue countries like North Korea to go off on their own and develop weapons of mass destruction. Consider also situations like Darfur, just to name one. A more ferocious set of chompers is desperately needed to enforce the rule of law areas such as that. Whose rule of law? I dunno, I'm just here to throw out the easy ideas. I'd much prefer to leave the hard decisions to others. =)