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My, how many times do we have to learn the hard way about Communism, negotiating, tactics in an Asian context, and showing signs of weakness or going overboard on the overstated "we will not invade" nonsense?

I disagree. The U.S. made a reasonable concession in order to facilitate negotiations, and now NK has taken on the role of war-monger.

They've kindly strengthened our hand.

If you would attach the same value to it if it were the Clinton Administration (not the current one) which did this as the Administration did the other day, you might have something there. This FR board is bound to break on both sides; when if this were a Clinton tactic, we would 100% be unanimously opposed.

No, I believed as I do now, that every time Bush said "we aren't going to invade", he only drove their heels in further.

He did not have to say "we will invade". But he did need to hold off on the "we won't invade" rhetoric as well as the actions of the State Department.

If we were working with a Western culture your position would make sense, a concession shows that we all want to work toward living together peacefully. NK is a primitive Eastern culture, a concession is a show of weakness which emboldens the agressor. Primitive eastern cultures, from the Middle East to Korea understand only one thing - raw, overwhelming power applied brutally.

r9etb,
With respect...what you say is Hogwash....when are we going to realize "perceptions" DO NOT MATTER!!!! Do you really believe that Jong ILL is worried about being perceived as a "warmonger!!??"
What matters are the facts on the ground...and the facts, for us, are hard as hell. The NKs are fully prepared for war with at least 700,000 of their 1 million active ready to move in 15 minutes...not in 2 weeks...15 minutes....
The ROK is not prepared for war, having been lead for years now by a man who was at best sympathetic to NK and at worst a DPRK mole. The current President-elect is worse.
The ROK army is riddled with NK subversives and agents....the NK Special Forces are already in place in the South and ready to saboutage key installations immediately....SK Universities and Labour Unions are basically Fifth Columns for the NK...
Our "defense plan" such as it is....is to use ROK troops to hold the line while our airpower helps them and our bulk armoured and mech forces move in in 2 weeks or so to bash the NK back to Pyongyang.....this plan sounds great if you have the forces to back it up.....we don't...the bulk of our airpower is being earmarked for the ME...much of it is still being used in Afghan....we have one carrier in the Korean Theater of Operations......one....I repeat again....one.....for the bravado I hear here on FR....excuse me...but it is simply not based on today's realities of an American military that is hoping against hope that our enemies only throw one war at a time at us.
That's the reason why we are appeasing the North...and let's face reality, that's what we are doing...I am backed by Krauthammer who stated that on Fox tonight.....we are appeasing...hoping against hope that the NK won't attack...because if they do, our position in E Asia takes a sharp, quick bash to the nose.
The pervasive attitude here on FR that Bush, in some Orwellian manner, is actually being tough on ILL by "talking" to him is, I'm sorry, but total, unmitigated bulls#$t.
We are also isolated diplomatically...the SKs are coordinating policies with the Russians and the Chinese....and make no mistake....Russia and China are NKs allies.....to rely, as I've heard many on FR say, on China or Russia to "help us solve this problem" is like hiring a sixteen year old boy to protect your daughter's virginity....ain't bloody likely folks....no matter how many times W stares into Putin's soul :(
And the last pipedream...that we can solve the problem by simply "nuking North Korea" would be fine if North Korea did not have heavily nuclear armed allies who would gladly help us trade Los Angeles for Pyongyang....ever heard of the Topol M folks?? Well....he's heard of you....and he wants to turn your cities into ash heaps...we'd back down from using nukes, if threatened...bet on it, count on it.
I don't state all this just to be a tu*d in the punchbowl folks....I state it because until we recognize that our relative military position vis a vis our enemies is not strong but very vulnerable.....we'll never solve the problem...and we'll continually be backed into a corner like we are now....Thanks, John.