"JH" == Jay Honeck writes:

JH While the world's attention has been diverted to Iraq and
JH Gaza, I think the real nightmare scenario is developing in
JH North Korea.

Hmmmmm.....no. N. Korea is an isolated society controlled by a few
kooks without a cause that inspires followers. True, the worst case
is they shoot a couple of nukes off, let's say one in Asia, another to
the US...followed with massive retaliation by the US. A much more
likely scenario is they keep making threats until we can get some
practical people in the White House, replacing the current idelogues,
who will actually talk to the kooks and see what they really want (my
guess is some assurance they won't be invaded).

But the islamo-facist scenario is more profound, longer lasting, and
insidious. There are, what, a billion+ followers of Islam, the large
majority of which don't much care for what they think Western culture
is. There are probably many hundreds of thousands who would eagerly
take up arms against us, and many thousands who would volunteer to die
against the "crusaders and jews".

Furthermore, pretty much all countries (except a few extremists)
understand NK is a problem. But Bush and crew have managed to convert
a great deal of world sympathy and support against terrorism into
something between hostility and indifference to our unilateral
"efforts", which, in the case of Iraq, have almost certainly
encouraged and aided the islamic fanatics.