North Korea and dealing with stress

The North Korean test this weekend is cause for concern. So far, two strategies for dealing with stress have emerged: (1) minimizing (denying) the threat and (2) placing blame on someone else.

Using the first approach is the NY Times which minimizes the threat. They write:

If the test occurred as the North claimed, it is unclear whether it was an actual bomb or a more primitive device. Some experts cautioned that it could try to fake an explosion, setting off conventional explosives; .... Even then, it is not clear that the North could fabricate that bomb into a weapon that could fit atop its missiles....

They also write that "A one-kiloton blast would be extremely small for a nuclear weapon." Actually, The North Korean blast, variously estimated at 0.5 to 15 kiloton, is not "extremely small." It is the normal size for fission bomb. (The larger bombs are fusion (H) bombs.) Claiming that such a bomb is "extremely small" is, as the survivors in Japan would likely testify, an act of denial.

The other approach is to admit that it is a problem but to blame is all on Pres. Bush, as Sen. Reid and Sen. Clinton did today. This strategy can work because both senators can be confident that no one in the MSM will ask them any difficult questions about the Carter-Clinton-Albright policy of giving N. Korea money and nuclear technology in exchange for empty promises.