The New York Times and other media resources reports that the North and South Koreans exchanged artillery fire earlier today.

The US public today woke up to the news that the situation in the Korean peninsula is in a “crisis status” when it learned that North and South Korea exchanged artillery fire resulting in two South Korean marines being killed and at least 15 other military personnel and civilians being wounded.  This latest “provocation” comes on the heels of an American scientist’s report that he had recently been shown a secret and modern North Korean nuclear enrichment facility.  The following days and months will probably bring further escalation of a deteriorating situation, and nothing good can come of this. 

What we do know is that some policymakers and military staff can kiss their Thanksgiving holiday goodbye as they monitor the “crisis” and prepare options for policy makers and senior military commanders.  And so it might serve them well to take Thucydides’ history of the  Peloponnesian War (431- 401 B.C.) off the shelf and re-read it.  Maybe they will finally understand what happens to great empires when they fight a generational war focused on limited objectives that sap the resources and power of great civilizations, and after empty victories emerge exhausted and are unable to respond in kind to a greater threat that ultimately leads to their demise. 

What US policymakers probably fear the most is this realization, that our military is strategically exhausted with limited options due to overstretched US national security commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan and the never-ending war against terrorist organizations.   Kind of like Athens.