And people wonder why America isn’t loved by the global community.

A week ago Thursday, North Korea publicly and explicitly announced it had nuclear weapons. And for the past seven days our administration has tiptoed around the issue like we were not the world’s superpower.

This shouldn’t be the case. Par for the course we should be deploying troops — yanking fathers from their families and sending them overseas to protect us from one third of the Axis of Evil.

That’s what we did in Iraq. We thought there might be the possibility of people thinking about making weapons of mass destruction, so we invaded. North Korea is an enemy that openly admits to having WMDs and we’re going to try to stick it to them economically — because that always works. Wait, no it doesn’t.

That’s why we finally had to invade Iraq.

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan isn’t too worried about the situation, though, because “it’s a regional issue.” Well, Iraq’s problems were the Middle East’s problems, not ours. See, that makes the whole issue a regional one. But we intervened.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is urging the use of legal, diplomatic and intelligence efforts. He also made a broad appeal for support: “By now it must be clear that one nation cannot defeat these extremist alone … and it surely takes a community of many nations to … apprehend suspected terrorists.”

Oh Rummy, what a difference a few years make. It seems like only yesterday you were giving the finger to the rest of the world while you gaily continued your unilateral plans for ridding the world of Saddam Hussein. So the question begs to be asked: If we didn’t need the rest of the world then, why do we need them now?

It might seem I am advocating going to war with North Korea. This is not the case, because I, as well as the government, know these are not justifications for a war. The administration is playing down North Korea’s declaration, believing it is only a lie to boost negation powers.

I am not saying I believe what the government tells me, because it’s a widely known fact the government is in the business of lying. But in this case, I happen to agree that North Korea is more interested in self-preservation than nuclear holocaust.

I do not feel threatened by these nukes, real or not. This is a throwback to Cold War diplomacy where nuclear deterrence was the word. This seems to be the only card North Korea has left and I’d be happy to let them play it out. If we just wait it out everything will be OK.

So the problem here isn’t necessarily North Korea and its nukes. The problem is the United States and its consistency problems.

I realize all countries are self-serving to their interests, but there is some inherent hypocrisy in Iraq and North Korea issues.

And the rest of the world sees this hypocrisy, too. That is where the real danger lies.

In the end, I think we can all learn a lesson from Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Apparently Kim Jong-Il is just a “ritttre ronrey,” and needs a friend — or at least a break.

Sarah Looten, University Daily, Texas Tech University.