Korean Mushrooms Glow in the Dark

North Korea exploded a nuclear bomb – a small one that was more “fizzle” than shizzle but still scary. Five years after Bush placed it on the "axis of evil", North Korea has gone from a wanna-be to a bona fide member of the nuclear club. Containment is another miserable failure of the Bush administration. Why did this happen? Three reasons: pride, fear and desperation - theirs and ours.

Pride. Their national pride is boosted by this demonstration of technical skill. The Bush administration is too proud to abandon even clearly failed policies – in this case, the refusal to negotiate face-to-face with the North Koreans. They have crossed line after "line in the sand" without consequences, yet Secretary Rice has the temerity to draw another at them supplying the bomb to others. Maybe she and her boss should coordinate better – Bush says he doesn't accept the status quo. Instead of drawing (another) line in the sand, he has his head in the sand.

Fear. Having seen what the US did against Iraq, every dictator in the world knows that conventional arms won't deter the US. The North Koreans can hold the South hostage even without a proven missile. The fear of a nuclear armed Korean missile is unfounded but played up by the Bush administration seeking to justify the white elephant missile defense system. The fear of adverse consequences have been gutted by this administration's decision to welcome India and Pakistan back as favored nations despite their violations of the non-proliferation treaty.

Desperation. The North Koreans are desperately poor and isolated. This administration stopped food and fuel oil shipments, sinking the poorest even further. The Bush administration is also desperate and growing even more desperate with every report of a probable Democratic take over of Congress.

Diplomacy is the sole arena that this administration won't “go it alone”. We go to war practically alone. We ignore the world on climate change. We unilaterally abandon international rules on prisoners of war. But we refuse to negotiate. President Kennedy said

Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.

Kennedy and his administration were capable, confident people who were comfortable with free exchanges of ideas, not cronies who are (rightly) afraid that they are out of their depth. The current crop rely on bluster to silence opposition. This is lethal against their arch enemies, the Democrats, but impotent against the real enemies of America. A measure of how low we've sunk is that former Secretary of State (and permanent Bush family consigliere) James Baker 3rd, who led the illegal Iran-Contra idiocy of the Reagan-Bush administrations, looks like an eminence grise.

Secretary Rice, Representative Bolton, and the administration are thrilled that they got a UN agreement supporting sanctions against North Korea. These sanctions will block luxury items shipped to North Korea on the grounds that they are destined solely for dictator Kim Jong Il. As if we could actually regulate the tiny trade volume this represents! Let's call this is the Marie Antoinette 'solution': let them (not) eat cake.