Our brilliant Bush administration: “You make nukes that endanger the world? Okay, Dear Leader! Just for that, no jet ski for you!”

This just in from Reuters, “The United States on Friday issued a formal rule banning exports of luxury items to North Korea, including jet skis, I-pods, jewelry and fancy cars, in an effort to put pressure on the communist leadership in Pyongyang.”

Wait a second! Isn’t this the same North Korea where Kim Jung Il rules the roost while the mass of people are starving? Depriving them of Jet Skis, I-pods and other luxury items (perfume, for example) must really be dealing that nation one hell of a body blow. I mean, how’s the average starving North Korean woman gonna get by without her Miss Dior Perfume?

Oh, I see. Further down in the Reuters article, there was an explanation that, “U.S. officials argue that this will help to erode support among the elite for North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who enjoys the finer things in life and uses such gifts to curry favor with the military while most North Koreans live a subsistence life.”

You mean – you mean that we have to wait for some general’s wife to run low on toilet water before this even begins to have some kind of effect? And what’s that effect going to be? She’s going to whine to her husband, “You never buy me perfume any more!” Yeah, that’ll really stop the North Korean nuclear program dead in its tracks. And heaven help Kim Jong Il’s wife or girlfriend if she tries kvetching to her Dear Leader about how she’s kept.

Oh, wait, I see. The General and Dear Leader will have an additional problem because they won’t be able to jet ski. Jet ski where, Mr. U.S. Secretary of Commerce and Madame U.S. Secretary of State? I just checked the Pyongyang weather report for today and the temperatures are 27 °F / -3 °C. I can imagine some North Korean general putting on a pair of bathing trunks and zipping around in the icy Pacific.

This kind of idiocy is typical of the Bush administration. They refuse to negotiate with the North Koreans and talk them (or okay, bribe them) out of becoming a worldwide nuclear menace. Instead, they “get tough” by depriving them of jet skis.

Who are they kidding?

Oh, right. Themselves.

You'll find the Reuters article here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070126/ts_nm/korea_north_sanctions_dc