USS Mustin in Japan and comments on the end of the Cold War

Remember Communist China kicked up a fuss when Taiwan wanted to upgrade its navy by attempting to purchase American-made destroyers loaded with missile-tracking systems. Well, there are now eight now in the Sea of Japan. Remember the Cold War and "MAD" (which stands for Mutually Assured Destruction). From the 1960s to 90s, the Soviet and governments stared at each other across the division of East and West Germany, armed and nuclear-armed to the teeth and "fought" each other with diplomacy, espionage, funding to Third-World countries, industrial production and scientific research. Now the Cold War has been over for fifteen years and countries are left with playing the game of RISK, Real-Time. As in any game, a player sometimes makes a stupid mistake or a questionable move. The latest firing of ballistic missiles by North Korea is an example. For weeks, the Americans knew about someting happening and warned North Korea publicly to refrain from firing. North Korea decided to fire test missiles anyway--it continued to be a sovereign state after all. Well, every action is followed by a reaction. Failed missile test launches were met with diplomacy, protests and talk of sanctions in the United Nations. An enemy declaring itself a nuclear power and testing ballistic missiles made a move resulting in uniting Japan, US, UK and France. North Korea had to contend with Communist China and Russia essentially saying North Korea made a stupid move; so, let's move on. Sigh, plus ça change, plus de la même chose.