Just a minor note on details.
Mark Shields and David Brooks are political analysts who talk on the PBS program NewsHour, and yesterday they discussed Kim Jong Il and North Korea.
Shields said that people don't fear Kim Jong Il because, unlike with Hitler, he has weird hair and is just 5'5" and he's "just seen as bizarre." They agreed that this underestimation makes Kim even more dangerous.
Shields's statement about danger is insightful, but a WWII historian would recognize that in these respects Kim Jong Il is specifically not unlike Hitler, who was likewise a short man with an odd hairstyle (the moustache that he defended from criticism among his early cronies) and was likewise dismissed--in the '30s--with a shake of the head and a "what a silly nut" shrug.
That made Hitler even more dangerous, as 60 million dead would attest if they were able.
Just a minor note on details. Kudos to Shields and Brooks and NewsHour for responsible and interesting reporting that is consistently informative.