North Korea has already deterred America

Stop talking up a pre-emptive strike on a nuclear-armed rogue state

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un watches a missile test.
(Image credit: KCNA via REUTERS/File Photo)

For the last several decades, the idea that Iran is run by "Mad Mullahs" has been one of the most common racist stereotypes in American foreign policy discourse — and that is saying something. The idea is that the Iranian leadership is so brown and Muslim that if they get a nuclear weapon, they would immediately use it on Israel or the United States, despite the certainty of overwhelming retaliation. The desired conclusion, obviously ordained in advance, is that we must immediately invade to stop them from getting one.

Not only is this utter hogwash (Iran acts pretty much like any middle-ranking power would in its place), the only people in the world in positions of high influence who actually behave like foreign policy suicide bombers are American neoconservatives, like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). He has been agitating for a pre-emptive strike on nuclear-armed North Korea if they don't stop their long-range ballistic missile program.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.