[daviddennis]

I have as open a mind as anyone, but I'd really love to hear Jimmy Carter give precise examples of "progress made" with North Korea, Iran and Iraq over the last decade or three.

North Korea regularly blackmails us into sending them aid in return for empty promises to stop missile development. Or slow it down. Or something.

Iraq still celebrates the "Mother of all Battles" as a major victory, complete with a $400 million mosque designed as a monument to its successes.

I don't know that much about Iran, but what I've heard recently is not exactly encouraging. And certainly Carter's record on Iran wasn't encouraging, either.

So tell me: What progress? Seems to me we've made more progress by blowing them up. Not that I think this is a wonderful thing or anything, but we can't say that people aren't listening to us a lot more carefully now.

D

[Eric in the Ozarks]

North Korea still has a storehouse of bones of American war dead, collected from the Korean War. Every time they want something, they agree to repatriate some remains and we're a sucker for this every time...