[Filibuster_60]

North Korea now stares into the barrel of the strongest military ever assembled, and yet may be able to defy the United States, owing to nuclear deterrence. As the global arms race ends with the United States so far ahead no other nation even tries to be America's rival, the result may be a world in which Washington has historically unparalleled power, but often cannot use it.

NK has learned a lesson from Iraq, but it's not the lesson we hoped to teach it. In their view, Iraq was attacked exactly because it had too little WMD capability and had staked its reputation on having no WMD at all. That's why NK acts differently: They're totally upfront about their nuclear capabilities (even bluffing when necessary) and won't repent for anything. As a result, not only have they forced us to talk to them, they're making us do it largely on their terms.

[rmlew]

Bingo.
Hence we needed a workable multi-layers SDI system last year.