Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[goodluck]

Nice. I hope Byrd runs again when his term is up (in '06, I think).
Beyond North Korea is the looming question of Iran's nuclear intentions. It is more than troubling that while the United States was focused on eliminating the apparently nonexistent nuclear threat from Iraq, both Iran and North Korea were secretly pursuing their own nuclear programs. I do not believe it is coincidental that North Korea and Iran accelerated their quests for nuclear weapons at precisely the moment that the president invoked his new doctrine of pre-emption to attack Iraq before that nation could develop nuclear capability.

The actions of North Korea and Iran expose the essential danger of the doctrine of pre-emption. Iraq could be attacked at will because it did not have nuclear capability -- despite administration hype to the contrary. The situation in North Korea called for restraint because that country did have (and continues to have) a nuclear weapons program. Iran was a question mark.

Predictably, both North Korea and Iran, seeing the writing on the wall, began to scramble to accelerate their efforts. In retrospect, the doctrine of pre-emption is beginning to look increasingly like a doctrine of provocation.