Mark Thompson, Time: North Korea’s Steady Quest for a Bigger Mushroom Cloud
North Korea’s purported H-bomb test Wednesday makes clear the cost-benefit analysis of dealing with what President George W. Bush called the “axis of evil” shortly after the 9/11 terror attacks. That was his shorthand way of describing North Korea, Iraq and Iran in his 2002 State of the Union address. Since then, the U.S. and many of its allies have dealt with the three so-called “rogue nations” in three very different ways.
When Bush first declared the axis of evil on Jan. 29, 2002, he focused on Iraq. Fourteen months later, the U.S. invaded Saddam Hussein’s country, a war that killed 4,495 U.S. troops, cost more than $1 trillion, and served as a trigger for regional turmoil and a catalyst for the rise of ISIS. That’s the bad news. The good news: Iraq’s nuclear program is as dead as Saddam, executed in 2006.
Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- January 7, 2016
Analysts: Broad Response Needed to N. Korea Test - Pamela Dockins, VOA
Analysis: Sanctions may not affect defiant N. Korea -- Kirk Spitzer, USA TODAY
Kim Jong-un’s Generational Ambitions -- Jean H. Lee, NYT
Nuclear tests, purges mark four years of Kim's North Korea rule -- Jack Kim, Reuters
Rupture with Iran may not have been Saudi aim, but Riyadh has no regrets -- Angus McDowall, Reuters
What’s the Saudi-Iran Feud Really About? -- Uri Friedman, The Atlantic
Can ISIS Gain a Foothold in Balochistan? -- Muhammad Akbar Notezai, The Diplomat
Raid on Air Force Base Reveals India's Dysfunction -- John Elliott, Newsweek
Libya's Peace Efforts in Tatters After Deadliest Bomb Kills 50 -- Ghaith Shennib & Caroline Alexander, Bloomberg
This is How the West Tried to Persuade Gaddafi to Give Up Power -- Eliza Gray, Time
The Danger of a Weak Europe -- Joseph S. Nye, Project Syndicate
For Greece, 2016 Brings New Challenges -- Stratfor
Chavismo Is More Dangerous in Defeat -- Michael Inganamort, The Compass
Why El Salvador Became Hemisphere's Murder Capital -- Partlow, Washington Post
The US world order is a suit that no longer fits -- Fu Ying, Financial Times
