Shia Muslims mark Ashura

What Dickey has linked to is a not uncommon religious practice found among Shia Muslims. As ugly as this practice looks to me it is not a good reason for an attack. BTW, if one reads the article one finds for instance this sentence: In Iran, the blood-letting is banned and many fatwas, or religious rulings, have been issued declaring the custom forbidden.

The general starvation in North Korea, however, is well documented and not a question of just single instances. It is stupid to attack this piece of information for fear it might be used as an excuse for an attack. The right thing to do is to question the potential use of the correct information as an excuse for an attack. But:

There will be no attack on North Korea, neither with nor without excuse. Regarding North Korea, the Bush government has made some good moves in the last two years that have been answered as it was hoped by the dictator. That case is closed.

Wolfgang