North Korean Missile Fallout

During Wednesday's White House press briefing, in reponse to a reporter's question about the Bush administration's plans to deal with North Korea, Tony Snow said, 'You don't want to punish the people of North Korea, they've been punished enough'.

Flash back to 2002-2003 and the run up to the Iraq war. No such sentiment existed in the halls of the White House towards the people of Iraq who had lived under horrendous conditions thanks to Saddam Hussein. In fact, attacking a country that the government knew did not have any WMD and which was not a direct threat to the United States trumped any concern for innocent civilians who might be killed as a result. And to date, estimates of the number of dead in Iraq due to this illegal war hover around 50,000 - a figure no one seems to be able to confirm and which may be substantially lower than the actual body count.

Further, Iraqis still live in conditions that mirror what they suffered under Saddam's rule: little or no electricity, a desperate need for clean water, extreme fear and terror and hopelessness.

Hadn't the people of Iraq been 'punished enough' before Bush invaded their country?

There is no doubt that the US response to N Korea will be different, mainly because that country has a huge army and the ability to defend itself aginst any outside threats. Despite the fact that it actually has WMD and launched a huge show of force on Tuesday, the Bush administration knows it cannot simply declare war and invade that country. So, almost any action it does take will punish the N Korean people. Bushco's refusal to participate in direct talks with the country - the tactic it is also using with Iran - and its probable push for sanctions against the country guarantees that the people will not see any change in their living conditions.

Tony Snow's purported concern for the human rights of the N Korean people is not an accurate description of his boss's thinking. He may want to believe that Bush is capable of compassionate conservatism but, if he'd actually been paying attention for the past 6 years, he would know better than to even make such a statement on behalf of an administration for which human rights and civil liberties are at the bottom of the priority list.