President Bush should have ignored North Korea completely from the start. The nuclear bullshit was all bluff in an effort to extort food and money from as many countries as were sucker enough to buy in. President Clinton was the biggest sucker of all. He actually sent them 500,0000 tons of oil in exchange for an agreement that Kim laughed at immediately. North Korea cannot feed itself. If they make anything of value, they must keep it for themselves because it does not show up at Wal-Mart. Even China which is near enough geographically to be concerned about what the crazy bastard "might" want to do was not worried. We have more nuclear weapons sitting on the top of rockets in Rhode Island than North Korea could build in the next ten years (which is none).

While North Korea's nuclear threat way well be blown out of proportion (I don't know), that still leaves the humanitarian concern over N Korea's enslaved and oppressed "citizens", whom are only able to protest anonymously (if at all) for fear of severe reprocussion as well as over those whom had futilely tried to seek refuge in China, of whose affliction willful ignorance seems neither to be a proper nor acceptable solution.

For those of us who were sympathetic towards the plight of the Kurds and their wish to be free from Hussein's criminal regime (reglardless of the Bush admin's obviously impure or selfish motives, and the underestimated and mishandled religious shitstorm that followed notwithstanding), it's disappointing to see Bush pass up yet another opportunity to give something more than (or in this case, at least some) lip-service to the implications of his self-proclained policy of "compassionate conservatism" as opposed to this head-in-the-sand tuning-out. (And by expressing this sentiment I'm not pining for him to start a war with North Korea, but there's many solutions infinitely better than willful denial).

Just nuke the bastards!

"..that still leaves us with humanitarian concerns..."

North Korea is not for the US to sort out. Japan, China, South Korea and Russia now have channels open to manage what will undoubtedly be a long and painful process determined by 1) near-term realities in the North Korean population; 2) the ability to break the vast and far reaching criminal network of financiers and "mafiosa" that extends across Japan, China, Russia and into the US Korean diaspora; and 3) the priorities of the South Korean to avoid destabilisation of their own society and economy.

A generation ago, one would expect the US to take a lead. Not today. In fact, there are arguable imperatives to keep the US out of discussions.

As for "humanitarian" affairs, the US State Department seems not put much brain power on such mandates. Look at the failed efforts and outright incompetence of Jendazi Frazer in the Horn of Africa.

The US needs to fix the US.

Nicely said hommesuisse, something that troubles me is if this were about Barry Bonds, or who is going to win the Super Bowl (I am a big sports fan) there would be thousands of posts and continuous comments. Sad - huh?!

This administration has done an immense disservice to this nation. In a relatively short time they have taken the U.S. from being the worlds last greatest hope to being an international pariah which endorses torture and pre-emptive war. We as a people have always striven to be better than those with whom we disagreed and to make our system of values such that the oppressed of the world would be inexorably drawn to it. Ideas can change the world forever wars , fear mongering, threats, and political thuggery are transitory. This morally bankrupt administration has not advanced the U.S. domestically , internationally or economically ,we trade with Chinese slavers and have them finance our debt, we embrace repressive dictators in Saudi Arabia , Pakistan, China and throughout Africa and until we again can hold the torch of freedom high we will wander in darkness.

JKHayes writies: "...and until we again can hold the torch of freedom high we will wander in darkness." Europeans lament the decline of the American idea more than I can express.

Two evenings ago, I found myself stunned by a comment from a ten-year old. We were dining at friends in Berne who had a Taiwanese couple and their two children arrive from Milan, where they live. The Taiwanese have lived in Italy a very long time and their two boys (10 and 13) were born there. They spoke Italian, German (reasonably well), Mandarin and English (fluently), but not French, which was the first language for the other guests. It is a Swiss custom to go into English when there are more tow languages gathered. This evening swung into English when the Taiwanese arrived.

Later in the evening, I was demonstrating some features on my mobile phone for the ten year old and began explaining in English. He responded in perfect English, as follows: "I don't speak English. I speak Italian. I don't want to speak English." He seemed quite strong in his feelings. As Italian is a Swiss language, I struggled to comply.

His father then remarked that the children don't like English as it is American. I sensed the parents were in accord, and in my mind I had to question what I would think if I was raising children in Italy. Certainly, English would be the second language. I would assume my children would easily function well in French as a result of being in a bilingual+ family, but English would certainly be obligatory and I would expect Italian only to the level neceassary to live in Italy. Perhaps I still feel this way, but was set back to realise how far the US has slipped in the eyes of the next generation.

My viewpoints are not based on political affiliation, I am coming straight from the middle. President Bush will shrug at N. Korea as he has shrugged at Darfur. Basically there is nothing to gain in either country and both struggle immensely. Recall Iraq's attack on Kuwait...........there was absolutely no time wasted in packing up our troops and heading for the gulf...........I was one of them. Recall the weapons of mass destruction that were clearly evident in Iraq, the ones that never appeared. The mass destruction to the country of Iraq was clearly about taking care of unfinished business that daddy started...........not about 9/11. Bin Laden has so little to do with Iraq and it's not a secret that he headed the 9/11 attacks, so what do we do? Attack Iraq. Darfur is not a question of legitimacy, it is real, there is no hiding the extreme measures that this country lives in. N. Korean torture, starvation and famine is real, no hiding that. When Hitler tortured the Jew's, it was real. Why is it that when there is a "real" need for US interaction, there has to be materialistic values behind it like oil, trade or monetary negotiations? What about aiding in actual peaceful resolutions and adding value to the lives that are suffering......isn't that what God would cry out for? Our actions are senseless and other countries recognize that our leader lacks real compassion for others, and puts entirely too much focus on issues that we matter much less. My 2 cents. Larry Miller - Newport News, Va.

I am not too sure of the timeline of events that occurred but Kim starved to death approximately 2,000,000 people while Bill Clinton was President. That may have been why he gave them the oil in the form of financial support in order to help feed Kim feed his people. Is it our problem to feed the inhabitants of North Korea? No! But it is our moral obligation to do something.

Remote Neural Monitoring is a form of functional neuroimaging, claimed[1] to have been developed by the National Security Agency(NSA), that is capable of extracting EEG data from the human brain at a distance with no contacts or electrodes required. It is further claimed that the NSA has the capablility to decode this data to extract subvocalizations, visual and auditory data. In effect it allows access to a person's thoughts[2] without their knowledge or permission. It has been alleged that various organizations have been using Remote Neural Monitoring on US and other citizens for surveillance and harassment purposes.[3].