Slouching towards Gomorrah,Or goose-stepping to Armageddon? When neo-cons label North Korea “evil,” it implies that hawkish posturing is the moral high ground; they’re fighting evil after all. It makes diplomacy sound like a character flaw. North Korea may be evil, and appeasement is certainly not virtuous, but it seems now is a time for genuine diplomacy. We need allies, and consensus, and probably (gasp) compromise. Our morality (or self-righteous pretense) doesn’t hold much sway with Kim Jong Il. He has no use for morality and US belligerence only validates his paranoia. After years of deriding the UN, we need to hope they can broker a conversation. We need to hope that China can influence their rogue neighbor. And we need to assure Japan and South Korea that they needn’t dive into an arms race with North Korea. We should also give some thought to current nuclear non-proliferation policy. We’ve decided to overlook India’s non-participation in control treaties and supply them with civilian nuclear technology. If the non-proliferation treaties are only selectively enforced, how does our rhetoric against North Korea and Iran stand up against claims of hypocrisy? Let’s see more engagement, less isolation and inflammatory posturing. Let’s see partnerships with China and others, and less unilateralism. Let’s see diplomacy; not self-righteous rhetoric aimed at the home audience. Michael Previous: Prude wants Harry Potter banned. -- Next: Political blogs you might like… Comment from CAcorn4: Unfortunately, Mr. Smith, I am pessimistic to the nth degree about the United Nations’ ability to punish North Korea for this test. This is the same United Nations that bungled the Rwandan Genocide and the Balkan crisis, started the Oil-for-Food deals with Saddam Hussein, excoriated the United States of America for not handing control of tsunami relief efforts and operations to Turtle Bay, and WATCHED Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard train and resupply Hezbollah against Israel this past summer. As for China, retired Lt. Col. Oliver North recently proposed an interesting solution to “induce” that country to rein in Kim Jong-il in addition to threatening to jump-start nuclear programs for Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan: possibly threatening to humiliate China as it hosts the 2008 Summer Olympics. Such are the considerations I have cited. I certainly agree about six-party pressure rather than direct diplomacy with North Korea. Who can forget watching Madeleine Albright “dance the macarena,” as Col. North put it, with Kim while he was cheating on the treaty that rightly disgraced former President Bill Clinton negotiated? The late, great President Ronald Wilson Reagan had the right idea in proposing a global missile defense system and alliance—augmented by strict border security, I may add—to effectively deter any further threats from China, North Korea, and any other dictatorships and terrorist groups who would boast against us. Untold millions are starving on Kim’s watch while he and his elites hold lavish—and narcissistic—tributes to their own glory. Repression of human rights continues on there. Finally, his biggest customer is an outright practitioner of Holocaust denial in order to fulfill a messianic mission to use nuclear weapons to wipe Israel off the map, thus ushering in a totalitarian caliphate commanded by the Shiite messiah, a.k.a. the Mahdi. Mere policy differences with North Korea and Iran? I don’t think so. Posted by CAcorn4 Oct 10, 07:26 PM # |
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