Letters: Nov. 13, 2006

(2 of 5)

Hell will freeze over and the devil will be on ice skates before the South will ever support a mixed-race liberal Democrat for President. There are still a lot of people down here who believe that miscegenation (which, like abortion, used to be a crime) remains immoral and sinful. Add to that Obama's al-Qaeda-sounding name, and it's plain that he has no chance of being elected President.

MICHAEL P. DELANEY Pasadena, Texas

The Scramble for the Bomb

"When Outlaws Get The Bomb" [OCT. 23], on the aftermath of North Korea's nuclear-weapons test, overlooked the significance of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), the only binding, multilateral commitment to the goal of disarmament by nuclear-weapons states. Signatories are obligated to negotiate and achieve the elimination of nuclear arms. To have any hope of creating security, the world's powers have to work toward disarmament.

FREDRIK S. HEFFERMEHL Oslo

Like all nuclear-weapons programs, North Korea's should be a concern for everyone. The notion of who is an outlaw and who occupies the moral high ground on enforcing nuclear nonproliferation isn't as clear to me as your article makes out. I suspect that the U.S.'s current work on tactical nuclear weapons and our unwillingness to reduce our inventory of warheads are in violation of the NPT--making the U.S. an outlaw. If we're including violent tendencies in an analysis of risk, the U.S. is the only nuclear power to have used those weapons on human beings. I would say our role in leading nonproliferation enforcement efforts is somewhat hypocritical. We need to set a better example.

TIMOTHY C. HOHN Lake Forest Park, Wash.

In the run-up to the Iraq war, I recall National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice stating that, in lieu of solid proof that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, "we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." I also recall getting into heated debates and insisting that North Korea was the actual case of a dictator working toward acquiring WMD. While the Bush Administration pursued a war in Iraq, the smoking gun turned into a mushroom cloud in Pyongyang. The Bush Administration has failed miserably in addressing the North Korean threat, and its policies (or lack thereof) have made us all less safe.

NANA KWAMIE Toronto

NorthKorean dictator Kim Jong Il has clearly shown with the recent nuclear test that bilateral negotiations are meaningless to him. He has made laughingstocks of Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, whose administrations engaged in direct talks with North Korea about nuclear proliferation. Kim has also made fools of South Korean Presidents Kim Dae Jung and Roh Moo Hyun. Who else in the world is going to dream of engaging in bilateral talks with Kim Jong Il again, unless in delusion?

KE PARK Anaheim, Calif.

Is the U.N. Obsolete?