The Ultimate No-Win Situation
And so, it's happened. North Korea tested a nuclear weapon. And the world is united as one to proclaim that a madman cannot be allowed to possess nuclear weapons and this will not be tolerated.
No, wait... I should say the world is united with the exception of Iran and the Democratic Party... who both proclaim that this is all President Bush's fault.
It's been a non-stop parade since the test was conducted two days ago, and there is one common thread amongst all the statements and columns by the Democrats and their liberal columnist buddies: none of them have said what they would have done differently.
Just to recap, here's how this whole mess developed... in 1994, Kim Jong Il came to power in North Korea. He immediately made it clear that he wanted to develop nuclear weapons. The Clinton administration worked out a deal where North Korea would receive certain "incentives" and in return, North Korea would play nice and give up its nuclear weapons program. Except they didn't. In 2002, North Korea came out of nowhere and announced to the world that they duped us. Not only had they NOT given up their nuclear program as promised, but they were close to their goal of developing a nuclear warhead, thanks in part to one of Pakistan's top nuclear scientists who gave Kim Jong Il everything he needed to make one.
President Bush announced that this would not be tolerated... and for that, he was immediately derided by columnists and cartoonists everywhere. They proclaimed that this was just another example of Bush's "cowboy diplomacy" and that he was going to send us to war in North Korea, one that would probably end with U.S. soldiers dying in a mushroom cloud. The North Koreans played along and said that they were building nuclear weapons because they knew we would attack them. So with the world already hysterical over our looming invasion of Iraq, we backed off and said we would negotiate with North Korea.
And where has that gotten us? In four years, North Korea showed up at a few meetings with us, China, Japan, South Korea, and Russia to talk about "denuclearization" of the Korean peninsula. The meetings usually went something like this: the KCNA (North Korean news agency) would make a threat the day before the talks began, the 6 nations would talk productively, everyone (North Korea included) would leave saying progress had been made... then a week later the KCNA would say nothing was accomplished and they didn't want to talk anymore. North Korea wanted bilateral talks... just us and them. We refuse because we know what will happen... they will demand we give them everything they want, we will refuse it as unreasonable, and they will go to the world media and proclaim that this is more proof that we just want to attack them. And the world will believe them. So there's been a lot of "talk" and nothing has happened... except North Korea continued working on their nuclear weapons.
So now they have nukes... and it's OUR fault? If it's our fault, it's because we listened to these liberals who continue to preach that talking to your enemies and trying to understand them is the only way to resolve conflict. The real question is what do we do now? Well, for once, all the major world powers have agreed that North Korea must be punished. They are preparing to vote on further sanctions, which has drawn the predictable response from North Korea. They have said any sanctions passed would be "a declaration of war" and would be responded to as such. This worked last time when we wanted sanctions passed after they test-fired missiles aimed at Japan a couple months back. North Korea said sanctions would be an act of war, and China and Russia forced us to back off.
I really don't know what we can do about this. We obviously cannot tolerate a wackjob like Kim Jong Il having nukes, especially when we have plenty of troops and plenty of allies within his striking range. What's more, he's shown he's willing to sell these weapons to anyone... which makes me believe that the first two calls he got after the nuclear test were from Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and the president of Iran, both saying congratulations and "when do we get our bombs?" But it's clear that North Korea will not accept punishment and will not talk. Eventually something will have to be done, and it probably won't be pretty. Therefore, no matter what does get done, you can bet that the Democrats will criticize it, as they love to be on all sides of an issue, even ones that contradict each other, as long as it's opposing the president.
No, wait... I should say the world is united with the exception of Iran and the Democratic Party... who both proclaim that this is all President Bush's fault.
It's been a non-stop parade since the test was conducted two days ago, and there is one common thread amongst all the statements and columns by the Democrats and their liberal columnist buddies: none of them have said what they would have done differently.
Just to recap, here's how this whole mess developed... in 1994, Kim Jong Il came to power in North Korea. He immediately made it clear that he wanted to develop nuclear weapons. The Clinton administration worked out a deal where North Korea would receive certain "incentives" and in return, North Korea would play nice and give up its nuclear weapons program. Except they didn't. In 2002, North Korea came out of nowhere and announced to the world that they duped us. Not only had they NOT given up their nuclear program as promised, but they were close to their goal of developing a nuclear warhead, thanks in part to one of Pakistan's top nuclear scientists who gave Kim Jong Il everything he needed to make one.
President Bush announced that this would not be tolerated... and for that, he was immediately derided by columnists and cartoonists everywhere. They proclaimed that this was just another example of Bush's "cowboy diplomacy" and that he was going to send us to war in North Korea, one that would probably end with U.S. soldiers dying in a mushroom cloud. The North Koreans played along and said that they were building nuclear weapons because they knew we would attack them. So with the world already hysterical over our looming invasion of Iraq, we backed off and said we would negotiate with North Korea.
And where has that gotten us? In four years, North Korea showed up at a few meetings with us, China, Japan, South Korea, and Russia to talk about "denuclearization" of the Korean peninsula. The meetings usually went something like this: the KCNA (North Korean news agency) would make a threat the day before the talks began, the 6 nations would talk productively, everyone (North Korea included) would leave saying progress had been made... then a week later the KCNA would say nothing was accomplished and they didn't want to talk anymore. North Korea wanted bilateral talks... just us and them. We refuse because we know what will happen... they will demand we give them everything they want, we will refuse it as unreasonable, and they will go to the world media and proclaim that this is more proof that we just want to attack them. And the world will believe them. So there's been a lot of "talk" and nothing has happened... except North Korea continued working on their nuclear weapons.
So now they have nukes... and it's OUR fault? If it's our fault, it's because we listened to these liberals who continue to preach that talking to your enemies and trying to understand them is the only way to resolve conflict. The real question is what do we do now? Well, for once, all the major world powers have agreed that North Korea must be punished. They are preparing to vote on further sanctions, which has drawn the predictable response from North Korea. They have said any sanctions passed would be "a declaration of war" and would be responded to as such. This worked last time when we wanted sanctions passed after they test-fired missiles aimed at Japan a couple months back. North Korea said sanctions would be an act of war, and China and Russia forced us to back off.
I really don't know what we can do about this. We obviously cannot tolerate a wackjob like Kim Jong Il having nukes, especially when we have plenty of troops and plenty of allies within his striking range. What's more, he's shown he's willing to sell these weapons to anyone... which makes me believe that the first two calls he got after the nuclear test were from Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and the president of Iran, both saying congratulations and "when do we get our bombs?" But it's clear that North Korea will not accept punishment and will not talk. Eventually something will have to be done, and it probably won't be pretty. Therefore, no matter what does get done, you can bet that the Democrats will criticize it, as they love to be on all sides of an issue, even ones that contradict each other, as long as it's opposing the president.
Labels: North Korea
posted by Dave | 5:32 PM
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