It is a lesson most of us learnt during our school days before the time of over intervention in education by the state, and parents to protect and cosset young people. If you don't want to have a loathsome time you have to stand up to bullies. Take a pasting if you have to, break a piece of three by two over their heads if you must, but show them there are easier targets than you. It is time to relearn that lesson.
The epitome of a bully is Kim Jong un. This spoilt, scared and hate-filled dictator of North Korea has been allowed to obtain such power that he now feels free to openly threaten the United States, Japan and South Korea with nuclear weapons and totally disregard China into the bargain.
The United Nations, a misnomer if ever there was one, decides to impose sanctions, ignoring the fact that this leader believes it is his peoples' delight to suffer for him; worse still his brainwashed and rightfully terrified subjects keep proving him right. The total power of the civilised world seems helpless against this tubby tyrant.
It is true this is now a complex issue to resolve
In Japan, they have held their first air raid drills since the conclusion of World War Two. A country that more than any other knows the consequences of nuclear horrors. The South Korean people have lived in fear of the madcap actions of the North for decades now. They understand that it will most likely be a price that they, even more than others, will have to pay when the threats issuing from this unstable idiot finally provoke an inevitable violent response.
USA Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has remained measured to this point, offering talks that have been flatly refused. How long this tolerance can and more importantly should prevail is of no interest to the beloved leader. Kim Jong un has decided he wants to be a nuclear power. He wants intercontinental ballistic missiles. He wants to show he has testicles as big as a prize bull.
And yet, he spends much of his life hiding away, certain that USA Special Forces are coming for him; he dreads an ignominious end similar to Bin Laden. His family rarely appear in public.
The problem is that this terrible situation has been allowed to develop for too long. He, like the previous ancestor dictators he descends from, has been appeased because initially North Korea was regarded as a joke and then because the consequences of stopping him became significant.
But these things almost never get better. Now he seems to have developed a nuclear capability and a viable, if relatively primitive method, of delivering these warheads to Japan and the western USA
So what do we do now?
Not wait until he refines the weapons and becomes even more of a threat. Not hope that sanctions or Chinese influence will deter him because they clearly will not. I am not a military expert but perhaps the special forces solution he is so terrified of may be best. If not, perhaps a drone or Hellfire missiles delivered with overwhelming force to his missile and nuclear facilities as well as his residence. Perhaps the military and political leaders of the world have better, more effective plans.
Great, put them into practice soon.
In the end, the lessons of history taught at every level, from dealing with Hitler and his Nazi murderers to a pre-emptive strike against the school bully don't change. If you let them take one step forward they will walk all over you.
