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As the Washington
Monthly’s Kevin Drum put it today, Let's recap: “The Bush/Cheney administration took a bad situation with
Iraq and made it even worse. They've taken a bad situation with Iran and made
it even worse (see here, here, and here). They've taken a bad situation with North
Korea and made it even worse (see Fred Kaplan here). At every step along the way, they've
deliberately taken actions that cut off any possibility of solving our
geopolitical problems with anything other than military force. Once is a singular
event. Twice might be a coincidence. But three times? That's a policy.
Encouraging these "clarifying events" appears to be the main goal of
the Bush administration. This is not the way to make America safer.” http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2006_10/009706.php Review the play-by-play
of the largely reluctant ‘ping pong diplomacy’ by the Bush43 administration. N. Korea’s Test Fundamentally Changes the Landscape for US Policy by Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, October
9, 2006 Excerpt that has got
the attention of journalists and bloggers today: “Yet a number of senior U.S. officials
have said privately that they would welcome a North Korean test, regarding it
as a clarifying event that would forever end the debate within the Bush
administration about whether to solve the problem through diplomacy or through
tough actions designed to destabilize North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's grip on
power.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/09/AR2006100900047.html You can bet
those senior US officials who would welcome a NK nuke test were speaking into
and out of the VP’s office. The Cheney warhawks, loyal troopers from Project
for a New American Century (Empire) PNAC, scuttled the Agreed Framework policy,
which had kept nukes offline from 1994-2002. Largely, they did it because
Clinton had set it up so successfully that in the days before Clinton left
office, there was talk he could go to NK, the first for a US president. Now that another erratic, shrewd despot
is saber-rattling, the warhawks who wanted confrontation in Iraq hope a new
Cold War will provide more than just another October surprise, but the basics
for decades of military-industrial-complex success and unilateral dominion. From today’s
WaPost blog Post
Global: Former U.S. National Security Advisor Donald
Gregg Bush’s Blunder in North Korea: “First: Don't panic. Kim Jong Il's objective is survival and eventual change
in North Korea, not suicide. The diplomatic situation in Northeast Asia will be
immensely complicated by the North Korea test, which I think was a huge mistake
on their part, but missiles are not about to start flying. The test may indicate
the rise in influence of a hard-line faction in the KPA, which is holding sway,
at least for now, over others more interested in transformational change in NK.
The initiation of a strong bilateral dialogue between NK and the US would
strengthen the moderates, and ease the situation in general, but that is not at
all likely to happen. Second: Why won't the
Bush administration talk bilaterally and substantively with NK, as the Brits
(and eventually the US) did with Libya? Because the Bush administration sees
diplomacy as something to be engaged in with another country as a reward for
that country's good behavior.
They seem not to see diplomacy as a tool to be used with antagonistic countries
or parties, that might bring about an improvement in the behaviour of such
entities, and a resolution to the issues that trouble us. Thus we do not talk to Iran, Syria,
Hizballah or North Korea. We only talk to our friends -- a huge mistake. Donald
Gregg was a former CIA official, a liaison to President Carter's National
Security Council and National Security Advisor to VP George H.W. Bush, and US
ambassador to South Korea from 1989 to 1993. He's now chairman of the board of
the Korea Society http://blog.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/needtoknow/2006/10/bush_made_a_big_mistake.html Which is what former
Sec. of State James Baker III is saying about our Iraq policy, not talking with
our enemies has been bad strategy. I’m thinking there will be at least one,
maybe two personnel changes in the Bush Cabinet soon. |
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