The North Korean government isn't crazy. That word makes us think that they just act irrationally. If they did, they would have already nuked Seoul and hastened their own demise. This is mostly theater. We need to look at what worked and what didn't. Namely, it's world view.
Clinton didn't think of Kim Il Sung as Satan. Yes, the man did painful and awful things to people, and I'm sure the mass graves in North Korea make other genocides look tame in comparison, but that isn't going to make their government stand down on their nuclear ambitions. You deal with them, logically, get an accord, be patient when they cheat on it (and they will), and eventually you'll get what you want. They are not crazy. Case in point, Kim Jong Il's death did NOTHING. Kim Jong Un is young, easily manipulated, and in a very precarious position. No reason to think the country would be in disarray, seeing as how it took more than one man to lead it.
Bush went in and did what most conservatives do: paint their opponent as a cartoon character. Everything is good and evil. No good person stands by and lets evil thrive. Jesus will bring his sword to cast Satan in the lake of fire. Anyone that negotiates with evil is evil themselves and immoral. Maybe even they're a...pacifist!
Well, let's see where that world view took us. 3% of Iraq's population is dead. They died in painful horrible ways. Tens of thousands of Pashtuns are dead, the northwestern region of Pakistan lives in terror, and the region is horribly unstable and not really all that advantageous for the U.S. But we showed strength! We weren't weak! We saw the mission through. We didn't stand idly by and let evil thrive, we showed them our strength and earned peace.
Not. It's not just looking at history, it's looking at the thinking that got us to where we are and changing it.
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