Bush Could Make A Deadly Blunder (North Korea) - Charley Reese

[Dirty Hippie]

http://reese.king-online.com/Reese_20030730/index.php

[TreadNot]

1. Reese slams Bush

"The Bush administration's obstinate refusal to consider these could prove to be one of the deadliest blunders in the history of stupid diplomacy."

Charley Reese may be a conservative, but he is a straight-shooter who more often than not makes sense. In this case, his analysis of the Bush team's horrific policy on N. Korea is on the mark.

Every morning's paper makes me that much more disgusted with the Bush team. It's all I can do to smile at the Republicans where I work, especially the ones who tell me how fine a job the president is doing.

[NYC]

2. This is a scary headline.

Bush & Co. are very much Murphy's Law types. If it can go wrong, they'll make it go wrong. For that reason, "The Bush administration's obstinate refusal to consider these could prove to be one of the deadliest blunders in the history of stupid diplomacy," makes me very nervous.

Welcome to DU, TreadNot. :hi:

[LiberalLibra]

6. Scary?? Yes!! What is worse tho is that Bush may well......

....push this into becoming reality. Don't kid yourself either, the Chinese stepped in and helped out the N Koreans during the first Korean War and will do so again too. Now, that prospect is Scary, VERY SCARY!!!

[NickDanger]

7. 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.

[Resistance Is Futile]

3. Best of all

"What worries me most about the Bush administration is that it seems unable to recognize reality."

The risks of willful self delusion need not be enumerated.

[teryang]

4. There is no reason not to.

<Why shouldn't the United States and North Korea hold one-on-one talks? There is no reason not to.>

There is a reason not to. We breached the agreed framework. We didn't perform our obligations under the agreement. We are once again in violation of international law. This weakens our position at the bargaining table. In order to restore the status quo ante, we would have to pick up where we last breached and honor our obligations, to furnish them reactors and fuel oil. By raising the condition precedent multilateral issue, the neocon regime tries to strengthen a poor hand. This is a diplomatic crisis they created. The nuclear proliferation problem had already been contained. The neocons expected N.Korea to collapse before 2003, that is why the neocons stalled and then failed to deliver the reactors as promised. Then America breached the fuel oil promise and then began "tightening the noose" by cutting off food aid and threatening a blockade on the high seas.

<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.>

The South Koreans have long recognized this but dim son and the neocons have done everything possible to destroy the Unification policies of the South. (S.Koreans do not agree with our policies.)Increased contact with outside nations will result in the collapse of the N.Korean dictatorship within 24 months as leadership recognize the superiority of western business techniques and social organization. Revolutions come from rising expectations not tightening nooses.

<What worries me most about the Bush administration is that it seems unable to recognize reality.>

It doesn't seem like they are unable to recognize reality, they don't recognize it. They think they can create reality with the great Wurlitzer spin machine. Neocon ideologues pursuing world domination are unable to recognize reality because they are the heirs to the morbid undercurrent of European intellectual history that brought us Hitler, Lenin, and Stalin.

[berry]

9. Great post, teryang!

There are so many reasons for the N Koreans not to trust the US, and they are hardly ever mentioned. The fact that the US breached the agreed framework, while not a secret, is not widely known in the US. But everybody "knows" how dangerous N Korea is. (I'm not saying it isn't dangerous, but this "knowledge" makes people think they know what's going on, when there really are SO many questions unanswered.)

I've been wondering for a while now just what masterplan the neo-cons are working to. We know that they consider China a future enemy with whom a sooner-rather-than-later showdown is desired (by them). I have wondered if "we" are happy to let Japan and Taiwan get scared enough of N Korea to shift public opinion enough to help their RW pols get what they want--further military ramp-up and even nukes? We are already encircling China on the west in the old Soviet republics. We're cozy with both Pakistan and India. While all eyes are on N Korea, we are tightening a noose around China (or trying to). And a report was released a few days ago about China's "ambitions" and build-ups. (I am hyper-skeptical these days of all "intelligence"--and wonder why everyone else seems to accept N Korean/Chinese reports as unbiased fact, even after the Iraq fiasco.)

But I'm only speculating about all this. It may well be that the neo-cons are simply blinded by their own arrogance, ideology and hatred of any mouse that roars. I hate the thought, but I guess I'm going to have to go read some of the junk "studies" put out by the RW thinktanks (including PNAC and DoD and War College, etc.) about China and all of East Asia. (I'm just a language&lit person--this stuff is torture. :eyes: )

[LiberalLibra]

5. Someone should read this to Bush since it is obvious.....

....he will NEVER "GET IT" on his own.

[Martin Eden]

8. Bush regime guilty of criminal incompetence/negligence

North Korea is by far the greatest threat, and should have been #1 on the foreign policy agenda. Reese lays it out very well - dim son & gang are alternately ignoring and provoking the NK's towards the nuclear option.

[KG]

10. fuck you anyway, charley reese

[Dirty Hippie]

11. Care to elaborate?

.

[KG]

12. no

:)