Realpolitik; Realsecuritat?
What to do about North Korea? Blame-Bill is a game that The Regime thinks may take the political heat off of its own failures. For us to protect Bill in response, while not unreasonable, is in effect to play along-- and simultaneously to refuse to look for credible and meaningful plans for what must now be done.
So, I am prepared to spot them the point that Clinton's policies did not permanently dissuade NK from pursuing nuclear weaponry-- as Bill himself was willing to admit that he did not succeed in stopping al Qaeda, either. Nevertheless, it is fairly clear that in the past 6 years, The Regime can not point to any progress in that regard itself. That is the critical point; that has been their responsibility, whatever Bill's failures. And of course they have failed in that responsibility-- massively.
There have been multiple claims over the past 6 years that they knew what they were doing as far as NK went-- Condoleeza Rice, for example, speaking before the invasion of Iraq in October 2002:
And that brings us to the more critical point: because of the Iraq war, the US has limited military resources to brandish, let alone use, against NK. (Not that a war on the Korean peninsula could ever likely have been a cakewalk, esp. for SK.) Consider then the unnecessary nature of that war as it comes home to roost now, along with the lies and deceptions that got us there.
Leave aside the morality of the whole thing, even whether you have 30,000 or 650,000 unnecessary deaths in Iraq. The fact remains that The Regime has not succeeded in deterring NK (to the contrary), and it has painted this country into a corner where we have few options (military or seemingly diplomatic) to protect ourselves against a threat that could make 9/11 look like yesterday's plane crash.
And of course, that carrier is heading toward Iran. Whom should we trust with national security, again?
So, I am prepared to spot them the point that Clinton's policies did not permanently dissuade NK from pursuing nuclear weaponry-- as Bill himself was willing to admit that he did not succeed in stopping al Qaeda, either. Nevertheless, it is fairly clear that in the past 6 years, The Regime can not point to any progress in that regard itself. That is the critical point; that has been their responsibility, whatever Bill's failures. And of course they have failed in that responsibility-- massively.
There have been multiple claims over the past 6 years that they knew what they were doing as far as NK went-- Condoleeza Rice, for example, speaking before the invasion of Iraq in October 2002:
But we believe that we have different methods that will work in North Korea that clearly have not and will not work in Iraq.Right.
And that brings us to the more critical point: because of the Iraq war, the US has limited military resources to brandish, let alone use, against NK. (Not that a war on the Korean peninsula could ever likely have been a cakewalk, esp. for SK.) Consider then the unnecessary nature of that war as it comes home to roost now, along with the lies and deceptions that got us there.
Leave aside the morality of the whole thing, even whether you have 30,000 or 650,000 unnecessary deaths in Iraq. The fact remains that The Regime has not succeeded in deterring NK (to the contrary), and it has painted this country into a corner where we have few options (military or seemingly diplomatic) to protect ourselves against a threat that could make 9/11 look like yesterday's plane crash.
And of course, that carrier is heading toward Iran. Whom should we trust with national security, again?
posted by ChiTom | 12:42 PM
2 Comments:
"Mr. President, whether or not President Clinton's efforts succeeded completely in North Korea, what progress did you make in the last 6 years you have been in office? If you made any progress, why has North Korea detonated a nuclear device?"
Precisely, KissWeb: and briefly.
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