North Korea's being awfully provocative. Kruschev only said that they'd bury our grandchildren. If he meant under a sea of pro-Communist, anti-US propaganda put forth by US teachers he was right. But I think "we'll make the cinders dance" talk was pretty limited from the USSR.

In light of this, talk of pulling out of S. Korea kinda worries me, especially since pulling out of Somalia and so forth was illustrative to the militant Muslim world that the US would wuss out when things got a little hairy. I do think we should leave S. Korea--that country can take care of itself against conventional N. Korean forces and its leadership and citizenry aren't boiling over with gratitude. In the words of Howard Johnson from Blazing Saddles: "Why should we get our own men killed?"

Oddly, I don't even think Clintonian foreign policy is to blame for this rock/hard place problem. The phrase, "It's easy, post 9/11, to consider" is ubiquitous in talks like these, but you know... who'd have thought? Kim Jong Il's getting nuttier by the day. Early on I hoped his jabber was an artifact of translation, but no, he's crazy. There are times when I wonder if Kim's going to nuke an image of the N. Korean flag into the world just to see what it looks like.