But with the President demanding Iran accept our terms to talk and Secretary Rice warning North Korea not to fire off a missile, are we seeing a post-Iraq War foreign policy developing? A policy no longer constrained by the prospects of needing to commit a third of our active combat brigades to Iraq to fight?
The President still has two years to deal with the Axis of Evil he named in 2002. I don't believe he wants to leave this job completely undone.
North Korea can be contained, I think, until it collapses. Shooting down their missile if they test it would be a good start.
Iran, however, represents a far greater threat that we will destroy before January 2009.
Tough talk may well reflect a new confidence in our ability to deal with our enemies forcefully after taking their diplomatic BS for years, now.
UPDATE: And the Europeans seem a little more on board on both questions:
President Bush on Wednesday won a robust endorsement from European leaders for his tough approach to nuclear standoffs with Iran and North Korea, despite trans-Atlantic differences on Iraq, Guantanamo Bay and trade.
European Union leaders emerged from a summit with Bush in this capital of cafes and cobblestones to back U.S. demands that North Korea abandon a long-range missile test and that Iran quit dragging its feet in responding to a Western plan aimed at getting it to suspend uranium enrichment activity.
So just how supportive are they?
