Peter Jennings Blaming North Korean Nuclear Weapons On Bush!!! Ignores Clinton Treaty Fiasco!!!

ABC/NY | Peter Jennings (by ghost writer)

[MindBender26]

The Bush administration has been thrown a very dangerous, potentially explosive curveball today. What is the president going to do about North Korea's admission that it has been going ahead with efforts to build nuclear weapons.

You can see the potential here. What is the administration going to do about the Koreans even as it insists that it may have to go to war against Iraq for allegedly similar activity? We are looking at this in a variety of ways tonight. How great is the threat, and what does the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, hope to achieve by making this announcement now? Especially since he seemed to be making significant overtures toward the outside world in recent weeks.

Faced with such a brazen, unapologetic declaration, why hasn't the Bush administration reacted more aggressively? Is diplomacy a more effective route in this situation, or is there a double standard here, dealing with one state that violates the Bush doctrine on terrorism differently from another?

[Paul Ross]

I disagree. It is well known that substantial editorial control of the 'message' is under the direct control of at least two of the three news anchors listed. Both Jennings and Rather have almost absolute control. They are, in effect, the writers.

[mikhailovich]

It is being reported by the AP that Pakistan was the main supplier of materials and technology to North Korean for its nuclear program.

Makes one wonder who else has nukes. The world is becoming a frightening place to live. The book of Revelations is worth a read.

[pgyanke]

You wrote: I don't see how it's reflective of any of Clinton at all.. in fact I think your comments are overreactive and defensive. He poses some very serious and real questions. The problem is they can't be answered today.. they will be answered as this curveball finds it's way into policy. Individualy North Korean is still a much different situation than Iraq... as can be seen in the fact that they seem to want to come clean and actually make progress with the west.. which is evident by their capitalism experiment about to unfold in their special economic zone.

You might want to think before you act here.
____________

I hope you're sincere and not just a "seminar" poster...

How can you not see how this has everything to do with Clinton? NK was a threat when Reagan and Bush, Sr were Presidents. They practiced a policy of containment (as had been our design against communism for a long time). Things got even more heated under Bush, Sr for the reasons we're now seeing become far too apparent.

Clinton, on the other hand, practiced "head in the sand" (or head in his lap) diplomacy with the world and especially NK. Instead of confronting their aggression in 1994, he attempted to BRIBE them with the things they most desired. Like all appeasers, he was looking at a bully with his fist raised and cowering not to be hit. The result is that Bush, Jr is now looking down the barrell of a gun instead of just a fist and the conversation is far more serious.

If Clinton had done his job as president instead of just doing his interns, he could have controlled the situation instead of throwing gasoline on an obvious fire.

NK doesn't desire to "come clean." They have not changed their official national policy of "one Korea." The only thing that has changed is they have learned the effectiveness of our power and want to wield it.

Individually, NK is a much different situation than Iraq - true. Iraq is NK 8 years ago. We still have a chance to stop them before they can blackmail the world. We're going to have to approach NK much more cautiously because they may already have that ability.

Thinking before acting is the only way to proceed.

[dirtboy]

Faced with such a brazen, unapologetic declaration, why hasn't the Bush administration reacted more aggressively?

So if the Bush Administration acts brazenly towards Iraq, the leftists demand they tone down the rhetoric. But if the Bush Administration is dealing with North Korea through diplomatic means, the leftists ask why Bush isn't being more brazen.

And then they wonder why so many people don't even bother watching them any more.

[dirtboy]

Is diplomacy a more effective route in this situation, or is there a double standard here, dealing with one state that violates the Bush doctrine on terrorism differently from another?

Uh, Peter, they just got confirmation of this a couple of days ago. It usually takes a fair amount of time to clean up Clinton Administration foreign policy blunders.

[need_a_screen_name]

What Jennings failed to realize, as well as many Freepers, is that North Korea is not an Arab state which wants to inflict the "religion of peace" on the rest of the world.

[eleni121]

Has anyone thought that maybe, just maybe, Saddam and Kim Jong Il are working together?

Good point...Actually of course unholy alliances have been made before. Evil paranoic tyrants have always gravitated towards each other. History is full of examples. More recenly we have Hitler-Stalin; Hitler-Mussolini; Stalin-and any number of communist Marxist Leninist tyrants); Castro-Mengistu...Mao-Pol Pot...the list goes on...

[sheik yerbouty]

Send him back to the arms of Hanan Ashrawi, the beast of bir Zeit.

[Almondjoy]

Agreed and also more importantly we do not know how NK is going to react down the road. It's all speculation but maybe the sunshine policy is actually working. Pakistan is apparently the country that has put NK over the top in their weapons program(so I read today in the news). The situation is this. Is NK afraid that we are going to bring the dogs of war onto them like Iraq? Hardly. Going into Iraq will cost us some lives and Iraq some lives but the collateral damage outside of that(to our best guesses) will be minimal. NK if threatened could flaten Seoul and well would truely ruin Asia econcomically for centruries(granted they have one or two nukes to lob into Japan to sweeten the pot). Regardless you can't aruge that the "sunshine policy" is any worse or better then the containment policy usually demonstrated by Republican administrations. Who knows.. maybe NK is really just trying to come out of their shell. The fact of the matter is that NK was well on their way with a Nuke program under Republican adminstrations. The 1994 agreement may have helped them along but the choice was there anyways.. war.. or give them the benefit of the doubt. In 1994 NOBODY in this country would of chosen war. So what do you do?

[pgyanke]

Actually, in 1994, Clinton was rattling his saber like the republican administrations before his. The difference is that no one took Clinton seriously. Far from a former policy of "allowing" NK to proceed, we use to take a very hard stance with them and have even threaten to bomb suspected nuclear sites.

Clinton's actions (aided by the Nobel Peace Joke winner) changed that dynamic immeasurably.

[Almondjoy]

Aye but that policy would of never have worked. Iraq which didn't have the capacity to flaten Israel during the Gulf War obviously choose not to take it to the next level with chemical and bio weapons in order to compensate for that. NK however does have the ability has they have threatened in the past to turn Seoul into a "sea of fire" with 10,000 artillery units and plenty of missles we would never bomb suspected sites. The casualities that would have occured would never have been worth it to South Korea. Therefore the policy was moot. Saber rattling had no effect on NK. Ultimately what it came down to was a gamble. Hope that NK would move towards the goodwill of the sunshine policy.

[1ofmanyfree]

"Has anyone thought that maybe, just maybe, Saddam and Kim Jong Il are working together?"

Exactly! Since we have access to one of the two, I think it is in the highest interests of our national security to find out.

BUMP

[JimRed]

Resurrected any old threads lately?

;^)

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[tiki]

Umm, let's see, Peter. I don't think Bush even thought of informing you what he's going to do with NK.

[pax_et_bonum]

Dang. You've resurrected Peter Jennings?