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I'm afraid I don't agree with your analysis.

The first bad sign is that you took my example of Saudi Arabia literally, as if it were a suggestion.

The second bad sign is that your argument on why we won't attack Pakistan is because "they're our friend, and that's the way it is" (emphasis removed). I really don't like to dignify this kind of non-thinking with an answer, but I'll stoop anyway: Iraq used to be our friend too, until they became our enemy.

Your reasoning behind not attacking North Korea is funny when you compare it to the situation in Iraq. In my opinion, though some of the points you make are grounded, you conclusion is specious. I think attacking Iraq is more dangerous than attacking North Korea. You have a unilateral American invasion sparking the kind of anti-American sentiments that could drive a revolution in Pakistan (and put nukes in the hands of fundamentalists) - fomenting conflict and ultimately revolution in Pakistan has been one of Al Qaeda's big missions (ref. the recent terrorist attacks in India). You have the ability of Iraq (or another regional power technically "at war" with Israel) to do something nasty in former Palestine which will draw the Israelis into the conflict. That will cause a variety of alliances among the U.S. and the arab states to unravel. Then you have the chem/bio wildcard. What do you think the Israelis will do if a flight of SCUDs carrying chemical weapons hit Tel Aviv? If you have nothing to lose, and you're looking at "regime change" (death and/or American prison, not just for Saddam, but for his officers), that's exactly when you contemplate doing that kind of stuff.

You point out the troops in the Korean DMZ that are at risk for a missile strike... hmm... yeah... those troops in the DMZ are just immobile hostage-troops, from the special "Human Target" brigade (unlike our troops deploying to the gulf right now, of course).... North Korean missiles really make it impossible to confront them militarily...

In fact, unlike in East Asia, a messy, spiraling conflagration in the Middle East will do nasty, unpredictable things to the oil supply, and thus, the global economy... But we can risk all that - it's not as worrisome to you as South Korea throwing a "shit fit."

Anyway, North Korea will rest much easier tonight, upon hearing that they have nothing to fear militarily from the U.S..