The Invisible Hand

Put Yourself in Kim Jong Il’s Shoes

If the New York Times is a circus, then the Letters section is its sideshow filled with monstrosities so disturbing that they fascinate.

Today’s is a keeper as Times readers share their “thoughts” on North Korea’s revelation that treaties are not worth the ink cartridges they’re printed with.

Jeremy Meyer of Haverford, PA sees grande mal intent on the Bush Administration’s behalf for keeping the startling news a secret until after Congress had voted on the Iraq resolution:

“The Administration’s decision to withhold this information was apparently another cynical ploy to force a vote in Congress about Iraq while withholding critical and relevant facts.”

Is this guy for real? The vote would have been 100 to nothing to ice Iraq if the Senate knew that Kim Jung Il had just dissed us so blatantly.

More likely, Bush figured if he released the news before the vote, guys like Jeremy here would say it was a cynical ploy to force a vote in Congress about Iraq.

That’s why these guys are irrelevant. You’ll never win them over, so why bother?

Next up is David Hayden, of Wilton, CT. David apologizes for Gerneralissimo Kim by saying that Cowboy Bush forced him to seek nukes to defend himself and his Magic Kingdom.

“ . . .the Administration’s declared intention to pre-emptively attack any country that it deems a terrorist threat will encourage many countries to aggressicvely pursue technology that promises protection agianst more powerful foes.”

Well, actually, all countries naturally seek protection against powerful foes. To not do so would make you irresponsible, like Canada.

David has a good point though. Threats without action will indeed encourage the Saddams of the world to seek WMDs. That’s why we must vaporize Saddam. That would then make the Kims of the world think twice about pulling the sort of shit he did this week.

And finally there is Kwan Ha Yim of Purchase, NY who sounds like Kim himself writing under a pseudonym. I’d deconstruct his letter too, but I’m too tired to do any more damage to him that he has not already inflicted on himself.