North Korea is not iraq

Those who would have peace at any price are up in arms (sorry 'bout that) at the alleged inconsistency. That is, in our stated willingness to wage war to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, as contrasted with our "engagement" approach to North Korea. One can never truly know the interior landscape of those who would have us tackle North Korea first. This quotation from an op-ed piece by Warren Christopher is a nice summary of where this appeaser claims to stand:

the threats from North Korea and from international terrorism are more imminent than those posed by Iraq

The whole point of this piece is to convince the reader that Iraq does not pose an imminent threat to us, period. In Christopher's case, based on his appeasement credentials, it could not be more clear that his intent is to simply have us jaw jaw forever, regardless of past events or provocations.

Let's review the bidding, but let's keep it in simple terms. Here is why we must remove Saddam Hussein from power and disarm his regime:

1. In 1980, Iraq started an unprovoked war with Iran, with hundreds of thousands of resulting deaths; in 1990, Iraq invaded and annexed Kuwait. This resulted in a U.N.-sanctioned war, which has not ended; there was only a cease-fire with conditions, which Iraq has repeatedly ignored or willfully vioilated.
2. Iraq has used WMD on its own population
3. Iraq continues to be a strategic threat and have desires to be the region's hegemon; none of its neighbors is strong enough or engaged enough to counter that threat
4. Iraq's proven oil reserves are of strategic importance (yes, we need an assured supply of oil; deal with it).

In contrast, here is the situation for North Korea:

1. It has not invaded or attacked any neighbor since 1950, and then it was a cat's paw for Communist China and Soviet Russia. Times have changed; today there would almost certainly be no such backing.
2. North Korea, while still a threat to South Korea, has no aggressive designs on China or Russia, and is very unlikely to even consider attacking Japan. In fact, Russia, China, and Japan are all working to defuse and disarm North Korea, if perhaps not with the alacrity we would prefer.
3. This is strictly speaking, only of great interest to the Korean Peninsula, where one great people have been divided in two, with the North a self-destructing basket case of a nation that must liberalize or die.

North Korea is a vile, cult-like state, with zero prospects for its people without shedding its ur-Stalinist government. It has minimal natural resources; just like its prosperous neighbor to the south, its only true resource is its people.

So, let's take care of crazy man Saddam and his merry henchmen, keeping a weather eye on North Korea, and using our friends of convenience, China and Russia, to keep Kim Jong Il and his real army (1-million strong; and they will not turn and run like Saddam's Sappers would most likely do) under control.