Some Sensible Advice

In today's Washington Times, James Hackett has written one of the first sensible pieces explaining why North Korea launched the seven missiles last week.

His advice likewise is sound: The only real solution to North Korea's brinkmanship is to change the regime. That requires continued financial pressure, sanctions to cut off outside aid, leaning hard on China to cooperate, and strengthening missile defenses.

As the piece notes, Howard Dean has argued that the US should provide North Korea with the "food, fuel and recognition" that it's seeking. Why? Kim Jong Il has shown not the slightest inclination to abide by agreements he's made in the past; is there any legitimate reason to believe that he'd behave differently now? Obviously not -- and Dean's approach is typical of a wing of the Democratic party that wants nothing more than simply to pretend, as long as people are "talking," that threats don't truly exist.

That, of course, allows the day of reckoning to be deferred -- but makes it even uglier when it finally arrives.