Eric Margolis: Playing Chicken with North Korea

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who seems the primary voice in US foreign policy these days, just warned the US will not allow North Korea to become a nuclear power. Not to be out-threatened, North Korea warned back that if attacked, it would turn South Korea's capitol, Seoul, into `a sea of fire' and bombard Japan.

After much angry posturing, the US, Japan and South Korea usually pay off North Korea's `Dear Leader,' Kim Jong-il, to stop making trouble.

One wonders how Secretary Gates intends to prevent North Korea from having the nuclear devices it already possesses. The Pentagon has run out of troops and borrowed money, and is reluctant to tangle with North Korea's tough, 1.1-million man army. Ever since Vietnam, the US has preferred to use its military only against small nations with limited defense capability, like Grenada, Panama, Somalia, Libya, Afghanistan and Iraq.