Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall

"Point two: One of the most important rules of foreign policy is not to let yourself get pushed around. An even more important rule, though, is not to make threats or issue ultimatums that you either can't or won't follow through on. That not only makes you look weak. It also makes you into an object of contempt. That's just what the administration has done in this case.

The White House called the Clinton policy craven and dishonorable. That policy was essentially to pay the North Koreans to behave and hope that in the medium-term a better solution -- perhaps a soft landing in the North -- would arise. Not pretty certainly, but it was a difficult situation.

The Bushies told the North Koreans that they either had to shape up or we'd take them out. Now the North Koreans have called our bluff. And the administration -- as signalled by Powell's comments over the weekend -- has caved, enunciating a policy which is now substantially more dovish than the Clinton policy.

Tough talk sounds great until your opponent calls your bluff and everybody sees there's nothing behind the trash talk. Then you look foolish. That's where we are right now with North Korea. As Nelson says, no doubt the NKs are the bad guys. And this is an extremely complex problem with no easy solutions. But the Bush administration has pursued a keystone cops policy on the Korean Peninsula for two years now, mixing think-tank braggadocio with feckless inconstancy. Now we're all going to pay the price. "

I especially enjoyed the contrast of Rumsfeld assuring the North Koreans that we could take them out if we really really had to and then 7 days later Powell claiming this is not a crisis and it can be resolved diplomatically.  I think it paints a nice portrait of this Administration's internal confusion.

North Korea is actually doing everything Bush is using to justify war with Iraq, and they're bragging about it, daring us to do something.  The difference is, we're fairly certain North Korea isn't lying, so nothing is done about it.  North Korea is a prime source of weapon proliferation, probably has nuclear capabilities, and is telling us not only that they plan to continue making weapons, they're going to sell them to whoever they want to, and they can do it within 30 days.  Its only a matter of time before North Korea ships a nuke to Saddam. 

And all of this is a direct reaction to Bush's national security strategy, which while sounding nice, and keeping the neo-con hawks in the background happy, obviously was a bit premature.  Oops.