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Within minutes of the announcement of North Korea's nuclear test, CNN paraded talking heads who were quick to denounce President Bush because he failed to prevent it. This despicable display of Democratic distortion ignores the fact that Democrat Bill Clinton sent Democrat Jimmy Carter to North Korea to strike the deal that made the recent test possible.

In 1994, Jimmy Carter met with Kim Jung-il to convince him to abandon his nuclear ambitions. Carter came home a hero, with a piece of paper that said North Korea would stop its pursuit of nuclear weapons if the U.S. supplied two nuclear reactors for electricity generation, fuel oil, and a ton of money. Bill Clinton praised the agreement, sent the goodies, and pretty much forgot about it. Republican opponents warned that Kim Jung-il could not be trusted, and that the agreement had no adequate means of verification.

In 1998, Clinton's military chief of staff testified that North Korea did not have an active ballistic missile program. One week later, according to a 2003 article in NewsMax.com, the North Koreans launched a missile over Japan, that landed off the Alaska coast.

It is now abundantly clear that Clinton and Carter were wrong, and that their opponents were right. Democrats who now call for one-on-one talks with North Korea, seeking another appeasement, are still wrong. It is equally wrong to expect the United Nations to solve the problem.

President Bush was right when he identified North Korea, Iran, and Iraq as the "Axis of Evil." Democrats claim that this proclamation is the reason why North Korea and Iran are pursuing their nuclear arsenals. Hogwash! They were evil states before the announcement; they were pursuing their nuclear ambitions before the announcement, and neither words, nor paper agreements, can change that pursuit.

Words and meaningless paper agreements are what to expect from the U.N. For two years or more, the U.N. has collected a mountain of words and meaningless agreements about Iran's pursuit of its nuclear ambitions. All the while, Iran has been developing its enrichment capability. Those who insist on believing that Iran seeks only "peaceful" uses of its nuclear capability are as naive as Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

It would be a wonderful world, indeed, if disputes among nations could be resolved through dialogue and discussions. For this to happen, the participants have to be in agreement about foundational principles. Some of the developed nations have found that these fundamental principles can serve as a foundation for resolving disputes. These principles include the supreme value of human life, and freedom. Sadly, many nations of the world reject these principles.

Kim Jung-il, for example, used the hundreds of millions of dollars the Clinton administration gave him, not for food for his people, but to advance his nuclear pursuits. Millions of North Koreans starved. Iran continues to supply technology and materials to terrorists in Iraq to slaughter thousands of innocent Muslims, in hopes of killing a few Americans and extinguishing the hope of freedom their new democratic government promises. Africa is awash with war-lords and governments that destroy human life with gleeful enthusiasm, in order to retain their power to enslave their people.

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