I enjoyed Gregory Clark's Sept. 10 letter, "Common-sense policies dismissed," which was a response to my response to his Aug. 26 article ("First ban the hawks, then the bomb"). As I said the first time through, I am not a fan of rightwing hawks; they do exist and they do make trouble. That said, my main complaint with Clark's original article and response is that he seems too soft on North Korea, among others.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made some progress toward better relations with North Korea. Was it scuttled by rightwing hawks? Did North Korean intransigence have nothing to do with it? Is it true that North Korea has made several clear indications that it wants to resolve the nuclear issue only to be blocked by rightwing hawks? If that's true, at the very least, Clark owes us more conclusive evidence of rightwing interference and of North Korean good will.