Victory Without a War by Robert Kuttner , Boston Globe, February 26, 2003

...Anything other than an easy, costless victory and a clean aftermath will be a political nightmare. As reports from Korea make clear, the Iraq war has not even commenced and the ancillary damage is mounting. While the administration keeps obsessively focused on Iraq and alienating key allies, more serious dangers loom.

If Iraq were not dominating the news, the incipient debacle in Korea would be on the front pages. In case you missed it, Colin Powell was rebuffed on Monday in Seoul, when the Chinese, Australians, and South Koreans flatly rejected administration entreaties to bring multilateral pressure on North Korea to disarm.

Multilaterialism is a two-way street. Bush should appreciate that he can't blow off the Chinese in the UN and then expect them to do his bidding when the United States finds a multilateral cloak convenient.

Instead, Powell was urged to reverse US policy and begin direct talks with the North Koreans. In the meantime, the South Koreans, longtime US allies, are so disgusted with US policy that they are proceeding, over Bush's objections, with their own bilateral entente with the North, weapons of mass destruction of no. [...]
- posted by ARYABHATT @ 3:41 pm