A Major Flaw In New U.S. Diplomacy

The Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | 2 Mar 2007 | Claudia Rosett

[Kitten Festival]

It would be wonderful to feel warm and happy about the diplomacy now breaking out all over. Five years ago America was confronting the axis of evil. Today we are offering access to envoys. After years in the cold, North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan is on his way to New York for talks involving U.S. promises of aid and diplomatic normalization if Pyongyang just stops making nuclear bombs.

Later this month, at a "neighbors" conference convened by Iraq, America plans to sit down with Syria and Iran, whose leaders, in the grand tradition of Tony Soprano, are sending delegates to ponder ways of "stabilizing" the region they have been destabilizing with terrorist networks and bombs.

From global superpower and world cop, America is now recasting itself as feel-good therapist for rogue regimes - seeking to know what's really on the mind of Kim Jong Il, and ready to break bread with the ayatollahs. It all sounds so civilized.

But I am more worried now than I have been since that clarifying and awful morning of Sept. 11, 2001. While America's policy may be shifting, the nature of our enemies has not. We are now seeking good-faith deals with governments that rule by terror, and lie and cheat with an impunity that our own leaders cannot afford.

[Kitten Festival]

Claudia Rosett is right on the money.

[Wiseghy]

I'm not so quick to criticize here. Sanctions, even wimpy UN ones, have had an major impact on the corrupt, fragile economies in Iran and N. Korea. This has surprised a lot of people, especially the liberal press.

In both places, the locals and the world in general don't want a collapse so much as as a deflation of radical elements.

Yeah, their governments suck. But we just can't fix the whole world. Sorry, but we've paid a big enough price and we still have commitments to follow through on.

[Wiseghy]

I'm not so quick to criticize here. Sanctions, even wimpy UN ones, have had an major impact on the corrupt, fragile economies in Iran and N. Korea. This has surprised a lot of people, especially the liberal press.

In both places, the locals and the world in general don't want a collapse so much as as a deflation of radical elements.

Yeah, their governments suck. But we just can't fix the whole world. Sorry, but we've paid a big enough price and we still have commitments to follow through on.

[okie01]

Sanctions, even wimpy UN ones, have had an major impact on the corrupt, fragile economies in Iran and N. Korea. This has surprised a lot of people, especially the liberal press.

The UN sanctions on Iraq were among the most sweeping in history. We saw how much good they did.

[livius]

We are now seeking good-faith deals with governments that rule by terror, and lie and cheat with an impunity that our own leaders cannot afford.

I agree. Everybody here on FR keeps telling me that this is just being done for show and that Bush has other plans, but frankly, I don't think it is a show. I think it's the reality of the Rice State Dept (little different from the Powell State Dept) and the reality of the fact that Bush feels he has lost, he feels he has to accomodate all his enemies, and he ignores the fact that they are enemies of the truth and of the citizenry of the US.

I am very upset by this, quite frankly. "Neighbors meeting" indeed. Where did such a silly term come from?

[LibertarianInExile]

"Everybody here on FR keeps telling me that this is just being done for show and that Bush has other plans, but frankly, I don't think it is a show. I think it's the reality of the Rice State Dept (little different from the Powell State Dept) and the reality of the fact that Bush feels he has lost, he feels he has to accomodate all his enemies, and he ignores the fact that they are enemies of the truth and of the citizenry of the US. I am very upset by this, quite frankly. "Neighbors meeting" indeed. Where did such a silly term come from?"

I think Bush has quit trying, and he's just marking time for the next two years. I don't buy the legacy crap. He wouldn't be trying to pay off the Norks if he cared about that.

[grey_whiskers]

"Neighbors meeting" indeed. Where did such a silly term come from?"

Martin, you are able to pull miraculously funny and fitting pictures apparently out of thin air.

Can you find a photoshop of Ahmadijenad's head on Mr. Rogers' body?

Cheers!