Famous curse wrongly attributed to Chinese is often quoted, and it says: “May you live in Interesting times”. In fact, it was extracted from the speech given delivered by a British politician and statesman Joseph Chamberlain in 1898, and it unsurprisingly belongs to our modern, too modern times.

“I think that you will all agree that we are living in most interesting times. I never remember myself a time in which our history was so full, in which day by day brought us new objects of interest, and, let me say also, new objects for anxiety.“

So, we are reaching that point in history, and people are feeling the storm approaching again.

History seems to be a random experiment whose outcome is never known in advance. From the standpoint of imperialism, the clash with DPRK could end up being a new Japan. On the other hand, it may well prove to be North Vietnam all over again.