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An editorial in the National Review explains why the North Korean missile crisis is typical of that regime, and why it’s time to stop playing games with, as Tammy Blog puts it, the insane little midget running the show.

Shoot It Down

Why would North Korea prepare to test a long-range missile in plain sight of U.S. satellites and the world? There is much head-scratching over that, but it really shouldn’t be a mystery. Aggressive and erratic behavior is pretty much what the North Korean economy is based on. It is what has allowed Pyongyang to extort aid from the rest of the world as a prop to its criminal regime.

The proper response is to make it clear to the North Koreans that we aren’t playing that game anymore. That means eschewing the Clinton approach of shoveling help to North Korea in the hope of ending the provocations. It also means using our missile-defense system against a North Korean missile launch, should it come to that…

As for the immediate threat, it is very unlikely the North Koreans would put something nasty atop their missile. But this is another North Korean gambit in coercive diplomacy in which the message is most important. With the test, the North Koreans want to tell us, “We can threaten you.” We should try to say back, through a defense, “No, you can’t.”