The soap I'm being sold by the Left around here is that Clinton brilliantly solved the problem, and cowboy Bush came along and spoiled everything.

This is bullshit.

North Korea was going to go ahead and build its bombs anyway, cheating on the agreement. They started cheating within a very short time of signing it. They would have done this under Clinton, under Gore, under Bush, or under Kerry. Didn't matter to them.

Main difference is that under Clinton, they screwed the U.S. out of millions of dollars, help with reactors, and loads of goodies while the Democrats got to pose with their "kick me" signs. Under Bush, at least we didn't get taken to the cleaners. (For another example of Clinton getting his underwear pulled over his head, look how Arafat screwed him over.)

As far as solving the problem, neither president did the job. No argument there. Difference was, one thought you could make a deal with an insane tyrant, the other knew better. Neither took the kind of action that would actually have stopped North Korea, but then that kind of action would have been highly risky.

The first thing to do now is to make sure North Korea's neighbors will have what they need to defend and deter aggression by North Korea, and make sure we advertise this.

For tyrants, negotiation is a way to buy time while they do whatever they were going to do anyway. You'd think we'd have learned this in Vietnam.