You know, of all the things the Bush Administration has fucked up in its bottomless incompetence, the North Korean bomb has to be the worst. If there were ANYTHING that might finally wake up Bush's deluded followers and right-wing acolytes, it's this.

Because, as Mr. Cirincione so aptly notes, there is not one goddamned thing we can do about that bomb. And if the North Koreans are even a little bit clever, they can probably weaponize and miniaturize their bomb without a whole lot of difficulty.

And even if they can't, they could probably make it light enough to transport fairly easily. Then? Hell, they could sell it to just about anyone they cared to. The borders are porous as sand, and it'd be child's-play to get a bomb out...and if a small device happened to detonate in an American city, just how in hell would anyone prove it came from North Korea?

Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld have weakened our country to the point where we have no usable leverage to deal with this situation.

If a small nuke is ever used by our enemies inside the United States, the responsibility, and the blame, will be sitting on their doorsteps. And if there were any justice in this world, all three of them would be rotting in Federal prison by now.

They are traitors, pure and simple. It's just pathetic that their right-wing cultists can't see that. Not to mention Congress, who should have impeached them long ago, and removed them from office.

But, the GOP quislings in power have no balls, no more balls than the Dems do, and they've let Bush and Cheney destroy our ability to respond in the world.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I am very angry, and very sad, tonight. It's a dark, dark day in the history of our country, and of the world. All because of a drug-addled, oedipally-challenged rich-man's-son frat-boy who failed at everything he ever did (except as glorified PR flack for a baseball team), and who never should have been allowed anywhere near the levers of power, any power.

It's a sad day. I just hope it's not too late to avoid the worst: nuclear terrorism inside the United States.

GHEE SaDAMN Guy, give up those SCUDS!

GHEE UN, you mean NOTHING to the ALL POWERFUL PNAC.

We know who those EVIL DOERS are, and Regime Change is much needed for "EMPIRE USA". BUSH Knows who: {RE: GEE I am ME}.

We, me and PNAC have enough NUKES for all of you, China, the Supreme (So Be It) Court of Appointers, and even for those RUSKIES. Thanks Vlad for your visit to my Private Property in Crawford, Texas. Ya'll betta be with us, or ya ain't invited agin', no more wood choppin for you, no sir.

ONLY IN AMERICA are TERRORISTS allowed to be KING, eh George.

How did the "ANTICHRIST" get a hold on the Christian Coalition and set himself up in residence on Pennsylvania Avenue?

sub sole sub umbra virens

Do you consider it shrewd when a US President cites a policy of "regime change"? (e.g. Clinton '98, Bush '01, 02, 03, 04, ...)

Are you proud of the "tough stance" when a US official questions a wacky regime's "right to exist"?

When Cheney asserted twice in 2002 (to VFW audiences) that "we need a policy of pre-emption", did you feel a gnawing sense in your gut that this stark violation of principle could reap a whirlwind?

Would you feel the President was a "weak negotiator" had he said as Clinton suggested several years back, "North Korea, if you drop your nuclear weapons program, and give the UN broad inspection priviledges, we'll agree to leave you alone"?

Was it savvy tactics when the US invited N. Korea to negotiations and then 2 days later invoked biting banking sanctions upon it?

Hmm.... What about that "Axis of Evil" line... Lessee, we invaded the weakest of the three, but still established the other two as being in the line of our fire... Now they're actively purusing nuclear weapons ---

If you were President of Suburban Street, USA, and the President of Urban Alley told everyone he wanted you taken out, that you were evil and had no right to rule, and then invited you to discuss relations between your streets, would you take him seriously?

Figure it out America.

You won't hear more than transient whispers about the Foreign Policy Implications of Nuclear Non-Proliferation on C-NBC or CNN or Fox or Time. We should have been discussing this for the past 5 years in the national conversation, but unfortunately, talking about it it doesn't sell automobiles or pharmaceuticals. The FCC will be attempting once again to relax corporate media ownership restrictions this January.

Buy a clue, America, while our children still have a reasonably secure future.

The Repubs rather let their country and its popu-

lation's disapear from the earth than vote for a

Dem or sit this election out. They are blind, dumb, stupid, but most of all traitors. They are

ready to sell this country out to the highest bidder.

veronka

This article's argument is reasonable, sound, aware and informed -- and as such appears completely at odds with the Administration's raison d'être.

This close to the midterms with nothing but bad news dominating headlines, my money is on Rove to recast this whole debacle as a rallying cry to support, not condemn, the Republican party. Ostensibly, with the right spin, this situation could be amplified to represent the latest threat that only the Administration and its manifold tendrils can answer or contain. North Korea could be a rallying, bellicose call to arms.

First, get the message out: We're not going to be threatened by this regime and its desire to kill Americans, kill freedom and kill the world. The Senate and Congress pick it up, make central themes of a menacing, hostile North Korea in their campaigns for reelection. The talking heads are given talking points and the mainstream press begins to echo the message. North Korea must be stopped and we must stop them - even if acting alone.

The UN is then depicted as pointless weaklings, perhaps even appeasers. Democrats are ridiculed for not having an answer to the threat. Without a coherent message the Dems scurry and look for the right message while the Republicans effectively take over the airwaves. The public, drifting through the noise, lose sight of the Foley scandal, forget Iraq temporarily and panic. In the noisy, media filled blur depicting this newly cast, most grave threat, enough Americans vote for fear, vote Republican.

For Bush and his coterie of doom it would not matter if we actually acted against North Korea, only that the House and Senate stayed in friendly, enabling hands.

Could this prediction be off base? Could the US be at a place, at long last, that we will not be fooled, not be scared? Let's hope so. But if I've learned anything over the last six years it's that this Administration and its party would do anything to preserve and augment their power; and that a healthy swath of Americans are uninformed and fearful and voting accordingly. It is this cocktail that has brought our country, indeed the world, into a very dark age.

It is a truly sad and cynical hope that we've finally suffered enough to demand change, starting at the ballot box. But it may be that this is the only real hope we've got.