Posted on 03/30/2009 11:21:08 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
N.Korea Offers Obama His 1st International Test
"It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy." This is the prediction of U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden when he was a candidate last October. The supposition by Biden, whom some consider one of the top diplomatic and national security experts in the Senate, is turning into a very accurate prediction due to the North Korean missile crisis. Perhaps nobody knew it would be North Korea that would be the first to put Obama to the test.
The prevailing view is that North Korea does not rank as high on the list of priorities of the Obama administration as the Bush government's. Unlike other special U.S. envoys, Stephen Bosworth, the special representative for North Korea policy, is handling the role as a side job, while retaining his academic position. The assistant secretaries of key offices under the Obama administration, who are the arms and legs of his government, have been confirmed, but the one in charge of East Asian and Pacific affairs at the State Department has not even been named.
Not only does Obama have little interest in North Korea, he has a different perspective on the communist country than his predecessor. George W. Bush and other ex-U.S. leaders dealt with North Korea from the perspective of maintaining peace and stability in Northeast Asia. Problems involving North Korea were given high priority by the Bush administration and Bill Clinton, and the State Department's assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs played a major role.
In contrast, the Obama administration has a tendency to treat problems involving North Korea as a subcategory of a broader issue of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. For Obama, extending the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia, which has close to 10,000 nuclear weapons, is more important than North Korea, which has secured barely 40 kg of plutonium, enough to produce five to six nuclear weapons. And North Korea’s missiles, which are still deemed incapable of reaching the continental United States, are a secondary problem. The fact that Obama has yet to utter a single warning to North Korea more than a month after the missile plans surfaced says a lot.
That is why the latest situation could be seen as a battle of the minds between North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, seeking to enforce his own paradigm, and Obama, who is trying to focus on other issues, including Afghanistan. Kim, beset by serious health problems, is probably looking for some kind of short cut rather than continuing to bet on the six-party talks that have dragged on for the past six years. The North Korean leader may even be thinking of striking a grand compromise through the "Revival 2000" plan, which involves a visit to Pyongyang by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton being followed by a visit by Obama.
But what will Obama's response be? We are seeing an increasingly tense situation develop in North Korea that requires focused attention. If Obama continues to leave the crisis in the hands of other officials, he could end up becoming the target of criticism from conservatives. Obama has already taken a direct hit from former vice president Dick Cheney, who said America's national security was being threatened since the president's inauguration. Throughout his election campaign, Obama was plagued by criticism from Republicans that he was "weak" and "inexperienced" in diplomacy and national security issues. If he appears weak in this latest crisis, his leadership could be shaken.
The basic framework of North Korea policy will not only be formed by the policy directions given by Obama once he breaks his silence but will also serve as gauges that evaluate his risk management skills.
By Lee Ha-won, the Chosun Ilbo's correspondent in Washington
Ping!
BTTT
As much as an idiot John McCain is, he DID in fact warn us of this in the debates, and now it is about to come true.
Yeah, baby, CHANGE WE (AND CHIA HEAD) CAN BELIEVE IN!!
They are starved for attention.
Harry Truman had a sign on his desk that said “The buck stops here” Meaning that when everyone else passed the buck, he had to answer to it.
Obama should have one that says “the buck stopped with one of my minions, go find them”
He’ll want to talk. And talk and talk and talk. Because there’s nothing he loves more than the sound of his own voice.
As someone said, he is in line for HIS “bailout” from D.C.
Zero failed his first real test on his first day in office, when he picked up the phone and called Hamas.
Zero and his crews are still acting like a bunch of grad students hanging out at a student lounge, bitching about Bush and Rush Limbaugh.
“N.Korea Offers Obama His 1st International Test”
And he will FAIL....because he is EXTREMELY weak in foreign policy.
As I said, he belongs to a student lounge at Harvard, not Oval Office.
Personally, I don’t think he even belongs there....nor even in this time period of history.
And he will FAIL....because he is EXTREMELY weak in foreign policy.
Whatever happens, he will fail. He's already shown he's EXTREMELY weak on domestic policy, too.
Correct! I also don’t think he’s any “brilliant” speaker either. I never have thought so....
Biden next said that during this crisis Obama would look like a fool, but hang in there.
His first “international test” was a simple matter of not dissing our most loyal ally. And he failed even that miserably.
The NERVE of the President and his amateurish advisors. Major foul up, five ways to Sunday. HAS ANY REPUBLICAN SENATORS TAKEN TO THE FLOOR OF THE CONGRESS TO POINT THIS IDIOCY OUT!!??
(C'mon "Hill* legislative assistants, I know you are out there lurking this morning)....
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