Start the Presses!

So, the Wolfowitz quote in the post below was translated poorly. The Department of Defense transcript puts it thusly: "Look, the primary difference -- to put it a little too simply -- between North Korea and Iraq is that we had virtually no economic options with Iraq because the country floats on a sea of oil."

That's not quite the same thing. But, all the same, I think the original poor translation is closer to the truth of the situation than the actual quote. This post still holds true, in my never very humble opinion, as to the reasons for invasion: welfare for some big American corporations (paid for by Iraqi oil) and permanent use of Iraq as a military staging ground. I really was floored that Wolfowitz would have said so bluntly what we all know to be true (hence the title of the post), so I'm not terribly surprised to discover that he didn't. He's not an idiot, after all.

The North Korea comparison is interesting, though. It's not clear that we really have much economic leverage over them either, given that the leadership seems perfectly willing to allow mass starvation within its borders. And, of course, they have (or claim to have) nuclear weapons and the capacity to wreak havoc all over the Korean peninsula and beyond. North Korea is a situation unlike any other around the globe, as American power projection goes, owing mostly to the extreme isolation they have willingly assumed. As opposed to most of the rest of the world, the NK leadership really is pretty unpredictable.