At The Crossroads*

*Image courtesy of AP Images.

The time for feeble diplomacy and warmed over appeasement approaches is over. Really. North Korea is not serious about disarming, and likely never has been, as should be clear from today's reported underground atomic blast by that member state of the Axis of Evil--a labelling sober Americans should be happy to revive, even if it is so hated by the intelligentsia on the Left. Bush, when all is said and done, seems to have had it right.

And President Obama should continue to push for a Security Council resolution from our friends at the U.N., though we should note here that there already was a resolution supposedly blocking the very kind of action taken today by North Korea. And while we are pursuing multi-lateral support from a group of nations largely lacking any sort of upright spine since the end of WWII, we also need to be earnestly preparing for regime change. After all, the point here is not diplomacy for the sake of some deluded feeling of civilized sophistication--the point is to annihilate Pyongyang's nuclear program and foster the installment of a leader less prone than Kim Jong Il to human rights abuses on a grand scale. To do less is to invite real catastrophe for South Korea, the region, and ourselves for much longer than Obama is likely to stay in office.

And neither should we fear a two front war should it come to that. Such a war was waged quite successfully and honorably by Americans roughly sixty years in the past, and more recently, in an ongoing war taking our good troops to both Iraq and Afghanistan. In fact, on this Memorial Day, perhaps we would do well to remember the price of indecision when a war can and should be fought.

On that topic, Obama's words so far have been on key, but it remains to be seen whether or not clear and undeniably firm actions will follow should the Security Council decisively fail in disarming this bloody tyrant. My guess is that we will be feeling the inadequacies of both the U.N. and our President very shortly. 

Finally--and oddly enough--there seems to be an almost uncanny adoption of Bush-era real politics when it comes to handling these dictators of late. Perhaps Obama shouldn't finish up with the lease at Guantanamo just yet. We may need the space.

UPDATE: It's been condemned. Now Obama needs to roll up his sleeves and get to work dismantling the program, by force if necessary.

IN OTHER RELATED NEWS: As if those other enemies filling out the rest of the Axis of Evil weren't getting enough attention, Israel reports that communist rabble-rouser Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and the fine country of Bolivia have been supplying Iran with uranium. And no, that's likely not for peaceful purposes.