To some on the hard left, the American soldier comes in two flavors: Grandpa, who died so France could someday take the month of August off to hit the beach, and the Lt. Calley variety who lights a thatch roof with his Zippo, lights his Marlboro with the same, and shoots the fleeing villagers with his Napalm Super Soaker. Those who do not fit the latter model are poor people who joined the military because they had no other options,...

(If you’re a new reader and don’t know what all this Tokdo fuss is about, here’s some background.) When the motives for the adults’ cynical manipulations have passed, the poison still metastasizes in the minds of their kids. The teachers who orchestrated this state-sanctioned display of hate should be ashamed. Ditto the parents. Much more here (and don’t miss the rest of Gord’s superb photoblog). The art for this show comes courtesy of South Korean schoolchildren. The venue is the...

Bad news in Uzbekistan. The U.S. appears to very interested in keeping its bases there. Karimov will demand a price for that.

I have some bad news for Selig Harrison: John Lennon was wrong, and Machiavelli was right. In Pyongyang, love is not all you need. Fear is. The Washington Post: At the end of a private Oval Office meeting this week, President Bush asked a North Korean defector to autograph his book recounting a decade in a North Korean prison camp. “If Kim Jong Il knew I met you,” Bush then asked, referring to the North Korean leader, “don’t you think...

I have some bad news for Selig Harrison: John Lennon was wrong, and Machiavelli was right. In Pyongyang, love is not all you need. Fear is. The Washington Post: At the end of a private Oval Office meeting this week, President Bush asked a North Korean defector to autograph his book recounting a decade in a North Korean prison camp. “If Kim Jong Il knew I met you,” Bush then asked, referring to the North Korean leader, “don’t you think...

To some on the hard left, the American soldier comes in two flavors: Grandpa, who died so France could someday take the month of August off to hit the beach, and the Lt. Calley variety who lights a thatch roof with his Zippo, lights his Marlboro with the same, and shoots the fleeing villagers with his Napalm Super Soaker. Those who do not fit the latter model are poor people who joined the military because they had no other options,...

Congratulations to the RSF Freedom Blog winners. No, NKZone did not win, but the winners certainly appear to been worthy, and there’s always next year.

Tomorrow is the day Iran holds its sham of an election. To my readers in Iran–and I know you’re there–my heart is with you in a common wish that Rafsanjani’s effort to steal this election will fail. We know that when you are free, there will be peace between our nations. More here.

You say John Bolton is no diplomat? Please write your Senator. I’m increasingly convinced that if there’s any non-violent means of disarming North Korea, it will take John Bolton to get it done.

Congratulations to the RSF Freedom Blog winners. No, NKZone did not win, but the winners certainly appear to been worthy, and there’s always next year.

We have Panmunjom, the inter-Korean talks, the (abandoned) six-nation talks, the New York channel, Curt Weldon, and Selig Harrison. We have Kaesong and Kumgang and several more planned industrial parks that never got off the ground. You wouldn’t think that the missing piece in our diplomacy with self-isolated North Korea is yet another attempt to “engage” them, if “engage” means “pay,” as it usually does, and “North Korea” still just means the North Koreans on the reviewing stand. The Boston...

Tomorrow is the day Iran holds its sham of an election. To my readers in Iran–and I know you’re there–my heart is with you in a common wish that Rafsanjani’s effort to steal this election will fail. We know that when you are free, there will be peace between our nations. More here.

You say John Bolton is no diplomat? Please write your Senator. I’m increasingly convinced that if there’s any non-violent means of disarming North Korea, it will take John Bolton to get it done.

This thing is spreading like head lice at an A.N.S.W.E.R. rally, but how can I decline a friend who honors me with his request? The problem here is that I can’t stick with only five books. How Many Books Have I Owned? Tough question. In my father’s house and in mine, all property belonged to one Marxist-Leninist anarcho-syndicalist commune. Even in the lowest ebb of our poverty in South Dakota, we had at least a thousand books in the house,...

We have Panmunjom, the inter-Korean talks, the (abandoned) six-nation talks, the New York channel, Curt Weldon, and Selig Harrison. We have Kaesong and Kumgang and several more planned industrial parks that never got off the ground. You wouldn’t think that the missing piece in our diplomacy with self-isolated North Korea is yet another attempt to “engage” them, if “engage” means “pay,” as it usually does, and “North Korea” still just means the North Koreans on the reviewing stand. The Boston...

This thing is spreading like head lice at an A.N.S.W.E.R. rally, but how can I decline a friend who honors me with his request? The problem here is that I can’t stick with only five books. How Many Books Have I Owned? Tough question. In my father’s house and in mine, all property belonged to one Marxist-Leninist anarcho-syndicalist commune. Even in the lowest ebb of our poverty in South Dakota, we had at least a thousand books in the house,...

This thing is spreading like head lice at an A.N.S.W.E.R. rally, but how can I decline a friend who honors me with his request? The problem here is that I can’t stick with only five books. How Many Books Have I Owned? Tough question. In my father’s house and in mine, all property belonged to one Marxist-Leninist anarcho-syndicalist commune. Even in the lowest ebb of our poverty in South Dakota, we had at least a thousand books in the house,...

As promised, I’ve updated this post. Our two main negotiators with the North Koreans, Ambassadors Chris Hill and Joseph DiTrani, went to the Senate to testify about the prospects for negotiating with the North Koreans. Amid signs that President Bush gave President Roh one more hard-fought chance to bring the North Koreans back to the table for serious talks, the diplomats aren’t sounding particularly hopeful about diplomacy: The Bush administration’s top negotiators with North Korea said Tuesday that they harbored...