Attack! Under the headline "N. Korea Won't Rule Out Pre-Emptive Attack", the Associated Press reports that the North Korean government stated publicly yesterday that it is thinking of making a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States:

"The United States should be aware that the choice of a pre-emptive attack is not only theirs," the North's official news agency quoted the state-run newspaper Minju Joson as saying. "To stand against force with force is our unswerving method of response."

The instant Washington heard that, it should have put into motion plans for a pre-emptive strike against North Korea as soon as it can be coordinated, to destroy the entire North Korean government.
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If a tactical nuclear strike against the presidential palace would suffice, do it. If only a full-scale nuclear attack on Pyongyang and every suspected nuclear installation is likely to suffice, killing millions of North Koreans, do it.
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International scientific observers believe that North Korea has several nuclear weapons, and missiles capable of reaching the U.S. West Coast. I have relatives on the West Coast, and both California and Washington State are of great economic and technological importance not just to the U.S. but also to world civilization. We cannot just sit around and wait to see if the evil monster Kim Jong Il, who has killed over a million of his own people thru famine and repression, will attack us at a time and for a reason of his own choosing.
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Saddam Hussein was never a threat to us. Kim Jong Il is. It's time to destroy him and every North Korean who would defend him.
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Yesterday's announcement that North Korea might launch a first strike against the United States is the equivalent of a declaration of war, and just as Manuel Noriega's bellicose remarks were treated as a declaration of war, Kim Jong Il's bellicose declaration should be regarded as a declaration of war, and met with immediate and overwhelming force, before his generals know what's happening.
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When the stakes are catastrophically high, you don't gamble but act decisively. If it comes down, as it may well, to a couple of million North Koreans dying or a couple of million Americans, I have no difficulty choosing. Does George Bush?
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(The current U.S. military death toll in Iraq, according to the website "Iraq Coalition Casualties", is 1,649.)
- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 4:31 PM