What's the difference?
North Korea has no oil; Iraq does. After a bloody war in North Korea, you would have nothing but a poor, devastated country. After a much easier war in Iraq, you would be sitting in charge of the second-largest known oil reserves in the world.
Saddam Hussein is cruel man, but he seems - to me, at least - a lot saner than Kim Jong Il. Recalling the image of Kim in what looked like a 1970s leisure suit cavorting with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright makes me nervous to think of him with nuclear weapons. Saddam looks like actor Walter Matthau; Kim John Il looks like a character out of an Austin Powers movie.
Of course, another reason the president prefers diplomacy in dealing with North Korea, despite its now-revealed lying and deception, is that this little country is one mean, tough little dragon with very sharp teeth. A military officer friend of mine who has seen the U.S. estimates of casualties in the event of a war with North Korea said the estimate for the first few hours of combat is 72,000.
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