Getting the Message - success with N. Korean & Iran

FROM OPINION JOURNAL.COM - LOOKS LIKE THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION IS HAVING GREAT SUCCESS HERE, TOO

Getting the Message

Another pro-Saddam trope is going the way of the erstwhile Iraqi dictator's statues. Remember how opponents of liberating Iraq said we should deal with North Korea instead, because it was a bigger threat? "The United States' destruction of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime may have induced North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Il to hasten to the negotiating table to resolve the Stalinist country's nuclear crisis," Agence France-Presse reports.

America had rejected Pyongyang's demands for one-on-one U.S.-NoKo talks, arguing that other regional actors--China, Japan, Russia and South Korea--should also be involved. Those four countries, eager to shirk their responsibilities, said they wanted the U.S. to act unilaterally. Now Seoul is changing its tune too. "South Korea gave the United States a 'road map' of ideas on Monday to help resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis," Reuters reports.

What accounts for Kim Jong Il's change of heart? Well, there are a lot of statues of him and his father in Pyongyang, and it'd be a shame if anything were to happen to them . . .

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports from Tehran that Hashemi Rafsanjani, Iran's hard-line ex-president, "expressed support Saturday for holding a referendum on restoring ties with the United States, marking a significant shift as his fellow hard-liners nervously watch U.S.-led forces take control of neighboring Iraq." The liberation of Iraq would seem to be as great a didactic success as a military one.

There have been a lot of good results coming out fo this was so far, but these results are the unintentional side effects of Dubya's desire to grab oil for his buddies and get back at Saddam for Daddy.

Do the ends justify the means? Does the motivation mean nothing? Much like eveyrhting else that Dubya does, he lives up to the sobriquet, The Accidental President.

It sounds like more wishful thinking or propoganda to me. With respect to North Korea, they formally pulled out of the non-proliferation treaty last week. Was that, I suppose, a success of the invasion? AS for Iran, as far I can see there position on WMD remains the same today as before the war: (a) they are not developing WMD; and (b) Israel should sign the non-proliferation treaty and other WMD treaties and be subjected to the same inspections regime that Iran has already comitted to. Iran has been prepared to normalize relations with the U.S. for some time now, but not if that means: (a) abandoning support for Palestinian liberation movements based in Lebanon; and (b) reaching an appropriate financial settlement to remaining claims against it. I see no evidence that the War on/invasion of Iraq has changed any of those positions.