Posted on 07/30/2003 2:14:28 PM PDT by Theodore R.
Bush Could Make A Deadly Blunder
Regardless of how bad a regime North Korea has, its demands of the United States are reasonable. They are four: one-on-one talks, a nonaggression treaty, economic aid and normal diplomatic relations.
The Bush administration's obstinate refusal to consider these could prove to be one of the deadliest blunders in the history of stupid diplomacy.
First, talks are always cheaper than wars. Why shouldn't the United States and North Korea hold one-on-one talks? There is no reason not to. We held one-on-one talks with the Soviet Union and with Communist China during the Cold War.
And why not sign a nonaggression pact? It's clear from the past 50 years that we have no intention of invading North Korea. After all, it has no oil. Bush's refusal so far to consider signing such a pact sends a clear signal to North Korea that he might indeed be willing or even planning to attack North Korea. That, of course, would be a disaster.
Somebody in the White House should sit the president down and explain to him that since he (1) included North Korea in his infamous axis of evil speech, (2) attacked one of those three countries and (3) has proclaimed a new policy of pre-emptive wars, North Korea's fears are quite reasonable and rational. It is certainly in America's national interests to allay those fears — unless, of course, Bush wants to go to war. North Korea is far more dangerous than Iraq. American casualties in a war with North Korea will be measured in the tens of thousands, not in hundreds. It would be clear evidence of terminal stupidity to blunder into an unnecessary war with North Korea. Yet some serious people — including, most recently, the Russians — have warned we are in danger of drifting into a war.
As for economic aid, we've been handing that out to foreign countries — dictatorships included — for more than 50 years. There are even sound humanitarian reasons for economic aid to North Korea, but even if there weren't, economic aid, like talk, is cheaper than war. We have likewise had normal diplomatic relations with regimes far worse than North Korea (Idi Amin's genocidal government, for example).
This prattle about not succumbing to blackmail is typical of the ideological blockheads in the Bush administration. It's not blackmail. We want something from North Korea — an end to its nuclear-weapons program; North Korea wants something in return. A trade is not blackmail.
The irony is that the North Korean regime is clearly doomed in the long run because of its economic failures. Sound diplomacy on our part can make sure it goes out with a whimper and not with a nuclear bang.
What worries me most about the Bush administration is that it seems unable to recognize reality. The administration keeps insisting on multilateral talks, and Japan, China, Russia and South Korea keep saying to the United States, sit down with the North Koreans. In other words, our "allies" back the North Korean position on talks, not the Bush administration's position.
We already know that an administration that perceived Iraq as a greater threat than North Korea has a lot of dim light bulbs to begin with. It is bad enough when any young American has to die for his or her country, but it would be an outrage for thousands of them to die because of political stupidity and stubbornness.
A great and powerful nation does not lose face by acting in a conciliatory manner toward a small one. It is not weakness to avoid a useless war, especially when all North Korea wants is what we freely grant to practically all the nations on the planet. So what if its leader is a nut case. He's certainly not the only one.
The president kind of reminds me of a deputy sheriff I knew once. He was arrogant and a bully, but one day he swaggered over to pick up a mental patient and got a knife in the belly. The fact that North Korea's leader might not have all of his wires connected to the right terminals is a sound reason for dealing with him cautiously. It is never much consolation to the dead that they died on the "right" side.
Since the president has ignored the wise counsel of the Founding Fathers and decided to be an imperial power, he'd better get use to dealing with nuts and less-than-pleasant national heads of state. They are probably in the majority.
That ended my reading of the article right there. Where is it that a "columnist" is an expert on anything. Most know a little about a little and not much about a lot.
Ummm...who made this idiot an "expert" on dealing with NK? If the demands are reasonable, why is it that we have pretty much done all of the listed things at some point or another and NK doesn't want to play by the rules?
How many times do we have to be bitten to wake up? It looks like GW has had enough. IF NK would quit building nukes and making direct threats to Australia, Japan, and the US mainland, then we might be willing to talk.
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