(from John Bolton a few days ago)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124277648950937029.html
If the next nuclear explosion doesn’t derail the six-party talks, Kim will rightly conclude that he faces no real danger of ever having to dismantle his weapons program. North Korea is a mysterious place, but there is no mystery about its foreign-policy tactics: They work. The real mystery is why our administrations — Republican and Democratic — haven’t learned that their quasi-religious faith in the six-party talks is misplaced.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently rejected “linkage” in Russia policy as “old thinking.” Disagreement in one area, she argued, shouldn’t prevent working on “something else that is of overwhelming importance.” Whatever the merits of linkage vis-à-vis Russia, de-linking a second North Korean nuclear test from the six-party talks simply hands Pyongyang permission to proceed.
Even worse, Iran and other aspiring nuclear proliferators will draw precisely the same conclusion: Negotiations like the six-party talks are a charade and reflect a continuing collapse of American resolve. U.S. acquiescence in a second North Korean nuclear test will likely mean that Tehran will adopt Pyongyang’s successful strategy.
Whenever I hear a Bushbot get on a North Korean FR thread and proclaim that somehow this would never happen if the Almighty Cowboy-booted One were still in office, it makes we want to PUKE. They don't know what they are talking about, and that this has spanned BOTH parties; Barack and Hillary, George and Condi, alike.
Cheers to John Bolton! Academically HONEST and independent!!
Interesting article. John Bolton is indeed a great man...