George,

After years of inspections in Iraq and months of occupation and continued searching, we finally know where the most threatening weapons of mass destruction are: North Korea. This information has come from intelligence that should be very difficult to ignore, which is to say the monthly threats of nuclear war issued to the American media from the North Korean government. Perhaps still smarting from the allegations of having ‘sexed up’ intelligence on WMD in the past, the Bush administration shows little sign of having noticed this exclusive intelligence. Which is not surprising given President Bush’s recent admission that he has not read a newspaper or watched the evening news since taking office.

It is difficult to imagine a more clear and present danger than North Korea. We know that they have an advanced long-range missile program capable of striking strategic American air and naval bases. We know that they have several nuclear weapons today and they are in the final stages of building 5-7 more. North Korea faces severe economic problems at home, lacks sufficient arable land to feed its people and feels increasing pressure to invade South Korea as a matter of survival. North Korea repeatedly threatens us with war. The Chinese government has already positioned 150,000 troops along it's border with North Korea in preparation for a refugee crisis. We have too few troops in South Korea to provide deterrence, but just enough to constitute a massacre when the big day comes.

Unfortunately, America is utterly unable to address this threat preemptively or to properly defend ourselves and our allies when it blows up in our faces. Our impotence is directly the fault of President Bush’s obsession with Iraq. We had no compelling national security interest in Iraq. Even the WMD that Saddam Hussein was alleged to possess were tactical, battlefield weapons with short range. Mustard gas and anthrax. Scary stuff, but not a strategic threat to America. Yet our military and our budget are stretched thin for the sake of what is either an iffy humanitarian mission, a treasure hunt or both, depending on who you believe. In either case, the war is not worth the blind eye that the administration has turned to real threats.

The North Korean nuclear threat was clear even before we invaded Iraq. This is not a matter of hindsight being 20/20. The humanitarian situation in North Korea is far worse than Iraq's has ever been. Imagine what Germany would be like today if the Nazis had been pushed back in the invasion of Poland but still allowed to stay in power for the last 65 years. That’s North Korea. The only thing inviting more attention and resources to Iraq over Korea is money, pride and politics. The excessive profiteering and gloating on the part of the Bush administration and its ‘corporate partners’ only serve to confirm that.

Last Spring, George W. Bush had a choice. To either defend America’s national security or bog us down in Iraq. Shamefully, he sold us all down the river. That’s not compassionate, its far from conservative and it isn’t morally defensible. How long it will be until the price is paid in tens of thousands of American lives is up to the North Koreans.

Jackson Landers (electronic mail, October 3, 2003)