I blogged about this yesterday, to no comment, but with the monthly blog rollover, it's worth bringing up again as the first entry of August.

Apparently, North Korea has agreed to multilateral talks with the U.S., Japan, Russia, China, and South Korea.

So now Bush will be hailed for his diplomatic prowess, yes? Praised for bringing about a multilateral approach to a delicate international situation, right? (Um, somehow I doubt it. What did he do wrong again? Oh yeah...he didn't cave in to nuclear extortion.)

See, this is the impetus for small militaristic dictatorships to develop nukes, not to "protect themselves" from the United States, but because extortion works, and because the international community doesn't have the will to collectively confront petty thugs like Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong Il.

Hell, in North Korea's case, the U.N. can't even pass a resolution chiding their withdrawal from the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The North Koreans booted out IAEA inspectors, ripped out the cameras, and basically wiped their asses with the treaty, and the U.N. mumbled and told the Americans to go deal with it.

Nice.

So tell me again:

Why can't the U.N. at least pass a single resolution on North Korea?

Is the best course of policy basically to pay the extortionist, giving food and fuel to support a million-man army while the countryside eats bugs and grass?

If Bush's approach is so feeble-minded, how exactly would you improve on it?