More visceral reactions  

We've heard a lot lately about Rumsfeld's attempts to fast-track missile defense. With all we know about the effectiveness of these systems, I'm not sure having one in place is going to make me feel a lot safer - especially if it hasn't even been tested. The whole thing may be a bluff (or maybe it's serious) but what amazes me about it is the timing. After all, this has been Bush's pet project since 9/11, and even before. But we're hearing about it now, because all of a sudden North Korea is in the news, flying MIGs into South Korean airspace and launching missiles into the Sea of Japan.

The problem with all this is that we've known all along about North Korea's nuclear machinations - or at least, our leaders have. And instead of engaging them in dialogue, or even taking preventative action a la our new preemption strategy, we've called them names and pushed for a missile shield to protect us when they take offense. The fact is that this missle shield is part of the problem. It creates an atmosphere of escalation and proliferation instead of negotiation and diplomacy.

By the way, there's another problem with the missile shield, besides just the fact that it doesn't work. Even before Tenet revealed that the North Koreans have missiles that can hit California, the Bush administration was still paralyzed by fear and indecision. The problem was that the North Koreans had the capacity to level Seoul or Tokyo if we attacked them preemptively or imposed a meaningful sanctions regime. But even with a missile shield, we'd still have this problem - even if we built missile shields to protect every country in the world, the North Koreans could level Seoul with artillery. No, his is a situation that will continue to escalate until we make a credible threat against the Pyongyang or sit down to negotiate. Instead, we're hiding under an improbable future technology. Will Kim Jong Il call our bluff?