Is Kim Jong-Il on Karl Rove's salary?

North Korea's dictator, Kim Jong-Il, is not politically savvy.

In fact Kim isn't fashion savvy, people savvy, economically savvy, war savvy, or savvy in just about any way possible. He must not be after test firing at least six missiles yesterday, on the Fourth of July, which included one long range ballistic missile that failed some 40 seconds after takeoff.

"Hey folks," he said in a press briefing, "not only am I an asshole, but I'm an incompetent asshole! So why don't you put that in your pipe and smoke it!"

Truer words haven't been spoken since President Bush told Saddam he'd have 48 hours to get out of Iraq.

Needless to say, the administration's response has been quick, efficient, and a happy relief as Rove and co. has been running out of things to distract the American population from the Iraq war. Unfortunately, this is a topic that runs nearly at the top of our currently failing foreign policy. Unlike immigration, the Dubai ports, and the VP shooting his friend in the face, the precarious NK situation threatens millions of lives and possibly could trigger a major war. From MSNBC.com:

"The political reaction was swift. The White House called the tests a "provocation,"while the U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting for Wednesday and Tokyo warned of economic sanctions against the impoverished, communist country."

"NATO condemned the tests, saying the move threatened the stability of the region and beyond, and Russia expressed "serious concern"."

There's tons of speculation regarding the timing of NK's testing. Some believe that they wanted to take the spotlight away from Iran's nuclear program, while others believe that this was aimed directly at threatening the US. But, regardless of any explanation, the latter is exactly what Jong-Il accomplished. This is exactly the type of incident that GWB prays for every night, and expect to see his poll numbers jump in the next couple of days. It doesn't matter whether the tests were successful or not, and so far it sounds like it was a foul tip rather than a home run, it won't take much to reignite the fires of fear that had been smoldering for the last couple of months, and you can be sure that Bush and Cheney will be there to fan the fire with an abestos blanket of tough talk, and aggressive rhetoricic. Of course, the problem with this strategy isn't the damage it will make with their political numbers, but rather the damage it will make to the American psyche, and human life. For the last five years or so we have needed to engage NK and Iran in a serious diplomatic dialogue that has been substituted for mere saber-rattling. Jong-Il has decided to rattle his own, but what he doesn't understand (besides the fact that it doesn't look good when your sabers shatter when they shake) is that this administration is more than ready to escalate any issue into violence.

Then again, maybe he does. We may think of Bush and co. in many negative lights, but simply because they're inept and a tad evil don't think that the world is lacking others with the same, and perhaps more intense traits of their own. Our foreign policy has encouraged the worse in peoples' nature rather than the best, but when that happens we shouldn't be surprised when you bring out a couple of demons. Hopefully a settling breeze will blow through and cool these hot heads.