Remember the phrase "axis of evil," uttered by Dubya but in fact coined by Canadian David Frum? They were supposed to represent the three worst countries in the world, in the minds of the neo-cons, the countries most desperately in need of regime change: Iraq, Iran and North Korea.
There was no real reason to go after Iraq and Iran other than for their oil. North Korea, however, is a different story. It does pose a serious threat to its neighbours, including South Korea, China and Japan. And it's really been no secret that they've had a nuclear weapons program -- I learned in high school they had weapons twenty years ago. No matter what the international community says, this should have been no surprise to anyone.
As late as last night, the White House was telling everyone that the Putz of Pyongyang, Kim Jong-Il, wasn't serious when he said that they were going to launch a missile. Yet this afternoon, that's exactly what Kim did. In fact, he fired six of them.
If he had it to do all over again, I suspect Dubya would be wishing now he went after North Korea first and liberated it. It would have beeen a far more worthwhile cause -- after all, the country has been in famine for over a decade, and the Korean people on both sides of the DMZ belong together no less than the Germans do. That's what I would have done -- after all, anyone who leads a personality cult of the scale that Kim runs deserves to be sent to the Hague for war crimes prosecution.
But it's too late to do a do-over, and on top of trying to control a civil war in Iraq he now has to deal with this. If he's willing to solicit advice from even a few members of the progressive movement, it would be this: No appeasement, period. It didn't work with Hitler. It won't work with Kim. The only difference is that this time around, Kim actually does have the bomb. And Seoul is just 50 km or so away from the DMZ.
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