North Korea Fired a Rocket ... So What?

North Korea fired a rocket this week, which might be the basis for an inter-continental missile. "How much should we all care? The answer is not much," writes Simon Jenkins at the Guardian. The most this missile might do is "cause a big bang somewhere." North Korea is nowhere near getting a nuclear warhead, and even if it did, such weapons "are simply too lethal to use. The craziest and most paranoid owners have not dared even to threaten them."

Long-range weapons—including drones, incidentally—"are little more than weapons of terror. War is about holding land, not blowing up people and things." If they pose a threat, it's that they'll cause us to overreact, reduce our liberties, and blunder into wars. Countries like North Korea seek nuclear arms "as machismo. They are expensive toys for boys." But you won't hear that from most politicians or journalists. "No one ever sold a book or won a defense contract by downplaying nuclear holocaust." Click for Jenkins' full column. (More North Korea stories.)