By now the bombing of the United Nations compound in Baghdad is hardly news; the president's response, while inevitable, was memorable and rhetorically precise:

The terrorists who struck today have again shown their contempt for the innocent. They showed their fear of progress and their hatred of peace. They are the enemies of the Iraqi people. They are the enemies of every nation that seeks to help the Iraqi people.

By their tactics and their targets, these murderers reveal themselves once more as enemies of the civilized world.

Every sign of progress in Iraq adds to the desperation of the terrorists and the remnants of Saddam's brutal regime. The civilized world will not be intimidated. And these killers will not determine the future of Iraq.

A far cry from the diplomatic standard du jour of "the strongest possible terms," this posture can be duplicated. It must be. Even though Iraq is where the White House is physically obligated to spend political capital, the world is hurting for a similarly clear enunciation on Iran and North Korea.

UPDATE: Fantastic - it's online (sign-in-only today [that's your cue to take fifteen seconds and sign up]). Henry Sokolski critiques the administration's general passivity on the North Korean question and infers a widespread defiance of atomic treaties by dictatorships - with startling results.