There are some posters coming out of North Korea that show just some of their true colors. These posters are very similar to the propaganda produced by many countries before. It resembles Soviet-style iconography, ubiquitous hyperbole, and U.S.-style emotional impulses.

Sure, I think it proves that we have our sights set on the wrong group of people. As President Bush measures our military’s forceful entry inot Iraq, “in a matter of weeks, not months,” we find that our communist Korean friends are bolstering their population into a fervent, vocal enemy. It’s one thing to fight in a country where the people have few resources and the leader of the country represents the greatest danger. But when an entire population is at your throat, the going gets rough. Think Vietnam.

What then are Bush’s true motives? Everyone cries oil, some say it’s a personal vendetta, others believe that he is doing what he knows to be right based on secret intelligence. What if it’s much easier than that? Winning a war, even an unpopular one is a great boost to the reelection hopes of any president.

Maybe Bush goes in and takes down Saddam fairly easily. But he knows, that the North Koreans are a much tougher foe, so he handles them with kid gloves. Later on, when a diplomatic end to the North Korean question comes about, he is seen as the president who can talk a big game, and play one as well. In the end, it’s about reelection, it’s about legacy, it’s about history.

These posters are a small, narrow periscope into the consciousness of a nation must of us, including me, know very little about. They show us that, perhaps, they are more united in their goals than we. They may be coerced into that unity by a ruthless socialistic system, but it works. Remember what the scared Russian soldiers did to the Germans in WWII. They faced German guns at the front, and their own guns should they retreat.

The US seems faced with a similar position: between a rock and a hard place. Anyone got a sledgehammer?