Provoked, Provocative, Provoking

From various news services:

• White House press secretary Tony Snow said in a statement released late Tuesday night. "We urge the North to refrain from further provocative acts . . .”
• "Should North Korea take the provocative action of launching a missile . . . ," Julie Reside, a State Department spokeswoman, said. . .
• U.S. officials have called the launch a provocation . . .
• 'We do consider it provocative behavior,' said (White House national security adviser Stephen) Hadley . . .
• U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said countries around the world have expressed concern "about this provocation."
• Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said any such launch by North Korea would be regarded as "a provocative act. . . . "
• MR. HADLEY: What I would say is, look, we have said that this was -- we have been concerned about this as provocative behavior.

OK.

I get the message. We’re being provoked. But provoked to do what? I get this strange feeling this administration is setting the stage for something crazy. I sure lost any faith in diplomacy when Bolton was placed in the UN. Does he understand that a nuclear winter is not a cure for global warming?

Here’s another thing – despite the talking points – North Korea didn’t decide to test those missiles because they wanted to spoil our 4th of July or because the space shuttle was launched or as Alex Forrester would say " I WILL NOT BE IGNORED" !! -- Kim Jong Il watched our clueless leader last week entertain and go sight seeing to Graceland with a person he perceives as his enemy, Junichiro Koizumi. Kim is doing his own style of “bring it on” – and clueless will dance Kim’s dance just like he’s been dancing Osama bin Laden’s dance. Just think how better prepared we would be for Kim had clueless treated bin Laden like the criminal he was and avoided getting sucked into this Iraq adventure.

ARGH!