Pax Americana
Now is the perfect time for the United States to withdraw from the Korean peninsula. To be sure, North Korea is probably the most qualified member of the axis of evil. Kim Jong-il's tyranny is industrial rather than feudal; it is an obscenity of design rather than accident. The threat of weapons of mass destruction is real. Some might also say that US weakness now, after Kim's saber-rattling, would be encourage further adventurism. So there is a strong case, on the Iraqi model, for intervention, or at least deterrence underpinned by US troops in South Korea.
However, these threats impinge directly upon North Korea's neighbors, and the North Korean tyranny should be an outrage to the entire world, not just to Americans. There are practical objections to Pax Americana: it's costly to the US, and provides a convenient focus for every petty resentment and seething nationalism on the planet. More importantly: by trying to fix the entire world, from Bosnia to Iraq to Iran to North Korea, the US absolves other nations from responsibility. If the neocons get their way, the US will end up as the world's sloppy lender of last resort, spreading moral hazard with its unlimited guarantees, encouraging the very evils it had hoped to prevent.
So it is now, having demonstrated its power in Iraq, that the US must reject the global imperium. What does that mean? Stop threatening countries such as Iran in which time is on the side of reform. Let Europe worry about Bosnia. And leave the problem of North Korea to its neighbors. China, South Korea, Japan and Russia are strong enough to contain Kim Jong-il, or depose him if necessary. Let someone else deal with the mess, for a change.
#
