The American Spectator

: /p> p>Yes, a diversionary tactic by a valued member of the Axis of Evil (N. Korea) to confuse American strategists and commentators as we prepare for war on the most proximate threat (Iraq). Exactly the thought I’ve been mulling since Pyongyang started acting up, only Ben wrote it first and wrote it more cogently. That illumination needs to get out, especially to such as the editors of the L.A. Times , who can’t get beyond the sophistry that Korea merits more urgent attention. If the Bush administration understands this, that would explain the downplaying of the “crisis” in its weekend media outings. Baghdad first. Then we take care of the peninsula’s playboy potentate. br> — K. E. Grubbs Jr. br> Irvine, CA /p>

Ben Stein, bless him, is thinking like a lawyer when he asks whether Iraq and North Korea are in cahoots. Perhaps he wonders, as do many thoughtful folk, whether there is an evidentiary basis, a paper trail perhaps, supporting the prosecutorial theory that the two states conspire against us. He, and they, need not trouble themselves with this question.

In geopolitics, as in jazz, coordinated actions by multiple parties do not require sheet music. The actions of states on the global chessboard are driven by interests. Whether or not North Korea and Iraq have ever exchanged memos or taken meetings to plan the current gambit against the United States, they are perforce acting in concert since they have a common, overwhelming interest: victory. It is entirely unnecessary for there to have been explicit planning, or for there to be ongoing conferencing for cahoots to be cahoots. Jazz musicians improvise exquisitely, each responding to the others, anticipating melodic and rhythmic ploys with no explicit forewarning. Bees build architectural marvels, in concert, with not a single feasibility study or planning memo. Likewise, our enemies and adversaries.

The axis of evil is real. There may never come a day when somebody can produce the sort of documentary evidence of this conspiracy that would satisfy an Orange County jury — there may well be no such material.

There are, however, and, sadly, will be many more smoking guns. Of course Iraq and North Korea are in cahoots, and it matters not a whit if these cahoots are de facto rather than de jure. From our point of view, there is no difference, nor is there any other point of view that is of any interest to us in this matter.

p>Bravo, Mr. Stein. Shout it loud, shout it often. br> —