The New York Times’ editorial “North Korea Blinks” makes this preposterous assertion:
The breakthrough came when North Korea stopped insisting on one-on-one talks with Washington. The Bush administration wanted a broader regional meeting. The invasion of Iraq may have given North Korea second thoughts, but pressure from China was probably more significant.
What?! I had to write a letter to them:
Dear Editors:
We just witnessed the overwhelming and swift destruction of an “Axis of Evil” regime, then North Korea suddenly is willing to have discussions about its nuclear program–on American terms. Yet you arbitrarily, without any evidence, assert that “pressure from China was probably more significant” in forcing North Korea to reconsider its bellicosity than the North Korean regime’s fear that it too might be toppled.
This assertion is incredible. It contradicts the most obvious reason for this change of heart, and it flat-out contradicts what your own reporter, James Brooke, has been writing: that Kim Jong Il’s regime is terrified that they are next on America’s list. It seems to me that you have chosen to discard the obviously true rather than to admit that Bush’s war against Iraq is actually having positive effects elsewhere.
I encourage others to email them at: letters@nytimes.com.