First, President Bush led us into Afghanistan for what were, at the time, reasonable circumstances: we were after Osama Bin Laden, we had a good idea he was in Afghani territory, and we had credible evidence that the Taliban régime was helping Al Qaeda and Bin Laden.

Then Bush decided to lead us into a failed mission in Iraq – something that we’re learning was in the works long before the September 2001 attacks on NYC and Arlington, VA. Bush and his administration were claming that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction that were going to be used against U.S. interests, as well as claming that Iraq had some role in the September 2001 attacks – both of which have proven false.

All along, critics such as Howard Dean, Sen. Robert Byrd, Sen. John Edwards and Sen. John Kerry were saying that we had a much larger problem in the nuclear programs of North Korea and Iran.

Now the Bush administration is swinging around dangerous fighting words about North Korea, stating that “one way or another” the régime of Kim Jong-Il is “not going to have these [nuclear weapons] systems.”

This selection of words is cavalier and, frankly, ill-chosen. Our military is severely strained, is having incredible amounts of trouble recruiting new troops, and has leadership in Washington that has very little concept of how to actually run an operation with any sense of strategy. And unlike Iraq, North Korea has multiple nuclear weapons ready to go, and likely has the means with which to deliver said warheads to U.S. territory – not to mention the territory of U.S. allies such as South Korea, Japan, the Phillippines, Taiwan and Russia, as well as their sometimes ally, China.

This is typical of the Bush administration’s lack of tact or genuine intelligence, and shows that they truly don’t know what they’re doing in the international arena. When given the opportunity for both unilateral and multilateral negotiations with the North Korean government, the Bush administration has repeatedly shown a “couldn’t care less” attitude as the North Koreans have forged ahead with the development of a dangrouns nuclear program. Given the way we were virtually abondoned by long-time allies in our conquest of Iraq, I’d be shocked if we recieve any aid from our traditional allies, NATO, SEATO or the UN.

This administration is truly trying to destroy the United States under the banner of allegiance to a warped vision of what our country actually stands for. It’s truly sad.