I am going to shock many of my Christian friends today because I am doing something we are all taught not to do. I am celebrating a death. More monster than man, he was, but we are always taught to think of what it would be like to be in that person’s shoes and say “There but by the grace of God, go I.” If there ever were an exception, perhaps it is found in Kim Jong Il, the petty potentate of North Korea.

Kim, the successor and son of North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung, recently died at the age of 69. Upon his father’s death he took the reins in that isolated country and was responsible for policies that led to mass starvation and cannibalism, while continuing his father’s policies of purging political enemies in concentration camps. The elder Kim (the father), whose mother was reputedly a Christian deaconess, instituted the Juche heresy in which the Father (Kim Il Sung), the son (Kim Jong Il) and Juche (National self-reliance) ideology are literally worshipped as a state trinity. Kim Jong Il expanded this into a full-blown cult while threatening to destroy “the Land of Morning Calm” (traditional name of Korea) and enslave of his southern neighbor, while shaking his nuclear fist at the world.

As a Christian, I would hope and pray Kim Jong Il confessed the name of Christ prior to death—the same prayer I said for his father. This, however, does not keep me from celebrating. Few men have caused more suffering and death through their personal actions. If he confessed Christ, then I will celebrate the mercy of God. If he didn’t, the lover of liberty within me feels there has to be a special place in hell for men like him and his father. They are a perfect example of Lord Acton’s adage, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Anyone wanting to understand life under the Kim regime should read Eyes of the Tailless Animals, by Yi Sun Ok.

Few things can be worse than the entire country of Afghanistan controlled by the Taliban. With this base Al-Qaida was able to train, mastermind and launch the horrific attacks against our soil and kill thousands of Americans whose only crime was showing up for work on time. Who can think of anything worse than that? The latest news forebodes something far worse, nuclear armed Pakistan potentially under the control of the Taliban. Imagine what Al-Qaida could have done with a nuke or two.

Recently, Pakistan has seeded control of a major area of northwestern Pakistan to the Taliban and allowed the imposition of Sharia law. Not satisfied with this (Do deals with the Devil ever turn out as planned?) the Taliban has extended its influence into a neighboring district bringing it to within 60 miles of the capital.

Though I have my problems with George W. Bush, and have written about them here, at least he was willing to fight even when the world said talk and understood how to deal with those who kill innocents. Perhaps having a cowboy who understood oak-tree justice as Commander-in-Chief was a good thing. Is it possible that our new presidents desire to play at peace has led to this? We no longer have a president who will scorn dictators or tell the world: “You’re either with us or against us!” With a president no longer willing to swing the big-stick all we have left in foreign policy is the soft-talk. I fear that when it comes to foreign policy and dealing with the enemy, “the spine has left the White House.”