Thoughts on "Stop dithering, this dictator's really got WMDs" in today's Sunday Times

I won't even do Andrew Sullivan the honor of posting his opinion piece in today's Sunday Times here as it's just political analysis at its worst.

Honestly, he's not saying anything that hasn't been said before. Is there anyone here who really believes that George W. Bush is handling the Middle East the way he's handling northeast Asia?

Yes, it's hypocrisy. But it was clear that it would come to this should a crisis arise in this region. Unfortunately because I'm an American citizen it's my problem that Americans chose not to listen to people who opposed the Iraq War and instead call people who were being critical "anti-American". I don't support the Iraq War, and I never have. I'm not anti-American for having an opinion and trying to stop my country from wasting resources, time and, most importantly, lives on this Iraq nightmare.

Now we're in way too deep and it's going to take some serious maneuvering to get out. We can't just withdraw and run back home. At the time most Americans were scared to death over 9/11 and chose not to be critical. They believed the story Bush was spinning about WMDs and Saddam's connection to 9/11 which had anyone taken the time to learn about the region is just mad. The American public and other supporters essentially let Bush roll into Iraq to start a war. Now those who supported it, like Mr. Sullivan, are finally "getting it". But instead of saying rolling into Iraq was a bad idea, so let's try real diplomacy with North Korea this man really seems to be suggesting military action.

To sit back and now claim "oh, it's not fair that you treat NE Asia differently" and blathering about feeling "conned" is another level of stupid. The same argument came up before the Iraq War started as a reason to not start a war there and people chose to ignore it. I know a few people who said "wait, how can you say Iraq is this menance to international security when you have North Korea on the other side of world doing the same thing?" I'm not seeing much point in pointing out the obvious now. Now is the time to figure out what can be done, and striking North Korea isn't an option just as striking Iraq wasn't but we chose to ignore that and thumb our noses at international society with our "coalition of the willing". The thing is even if we chose to treat North Korea the same what "coalition" could we build now after making such a mess of Iraq? None.

And now we're in a deeper mess because our resources are spread too thin and the North Koreans know this. Striking North Korea isn't an option which is exactly why North Korea knew it was a good time to set off a few missiles. Due to political blundering and short-sightedness here we are. Now we're stuck in a bad bargaining and diplomatic situation where we have very little power or leverage.

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