Another consequence of the mistake of war in Iraq?

MSNBC reports that N. Korea may be ready to test a missile. Of course the work that nation has done on nuclear weapons is widely known. The missile they plan to test, according to a US government official, is a long range missile capable of striking the US.

When President Bush some years ago spoke of the "axis of evil" nations, he listed Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. Of the three, Iraq was, then, considered to be the least developed in terms of WMD. But Iraq was the fight that would be "easiest," in the eyes of administration officials, to win. Sec. of Defense Rumsfeld wanted to take the "war on terror" to the world beyond Afghanistan, so off to war we marched.

As a result, Iran and North Korea have had more opportunity to develop their WMD programs while the US has been bogged down in Iraq. Now the US is in a poor position to do anything about Iran and North Korea. We have lost standing in the world community due to our intelligence failures and Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. Our diplomatic position, as a result, is weaker than we need it to be to provide either "carrots" or "sticks" as an effort to deal with a growing danger.

We also really have no credibility to threaten military force at this point because everyone knows that we are over extended militarily. Furthermore if Iraq was the easiest fight, and we can't get it finished, we certainly aren't prepared to go to war with either North Korea or Iran.

This is an example of how the US has been left weakened, not strengthened or safer, by the war in Iraq. This is the legacy of the Bush administration.

GP