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Wednesday, May 27, 2009

It ain't over til it's over!

{link » The Six-Party's Over}
Strategic Defense: In the space of two months, North Korea has tested an intercontinental missile and now a working nuke. The really bad news is that experts believe Pyongyang has the ability to put one atop the other. After North Korea detonated a nuclear weapon on Monday with a blast equaling the yield of the Hiroshima bomb, President Obama promptly issued a rebuke saying that North Korea ‘will not find international acceptance’ until it stops its nuclear and missile programs. The problem is that North Korea, a nation willing to brutalize and starve millions of its own people to get to this point, may not care. Both its second nuclear test and its missile test in April were in clear violation of U.N. resolutions. Another resolution won't help. As of a few weeks ago, we still clung to hope North Korea would change. U.S. Special Envoy Steven Bosworth said that ‘there is not a sense of crisis.’ Bosworth also reiterated that the U.S. was ‘committed to dialogue’ and is ‘obviously interested in returning to a negotiating table as soon as we can.’”
 — INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
In my post yesterday, I showed that it is quite plausible for there to be no common ground for negotiation. Unfortunately, there appear to be many people who are of the opinion that if common ground hasn't been found, it must be because the parties haven't looked hard and/or long enough. This is what passes for hope these days.


           Dipshitlomacy

Post #769 It ain't over til it's over!

2 comments:

  1. Dr. LeGrand,

    While I agree that it is plausible for there to be no common ground for negotiations with the brutal regime of North Korea, I do believe that the "Cowboy Diplomacy" of GW Bush has provoked the North Koreans to rush to arm themselves with nuclear weapons. The Axis Of Evil speech was a turning point in US/Global relations in that America became the aggressor for the first time in its history. By no means do I think that America is responsible for anti-American sentiments, but Bush did pour gasoline on the al Qaeda campfire.

    I make no apologies for my pacifist leanings, but I am not exactly anti-war and definitely not anti-defense. I believe our best strategy after 9/11 would have been to take our military and surround 2 countries: Afghanistan and the USA. Keep the terrorists inside Afghanistan and level that shithole to the ground (with all their absurdist anti-women laws, religious extremism, and heroin production), and keep everyone else (illegal immigrants included) out of America. Instead of invading Iraq and gaining nothing but dead bodies on both sides, we should have lead by example and gone on a diplomatic PR tour to show the world that America was a fair and righteous country, and then perhaps North Korea would not have had a reason to arm themselves. Perhaps.

    I think one of the reasons President Obama was elected by such a wide margin is because he does want to engage our enemies as well as the rest of the world. We gain nothing through provocation. We can indeed talk our way towards peace. That's why they are often called "peace negotiations." That's what a leader does--engage, build trust, and lead by example.

    I think there is always time to talk. And the time is now.

    --Sonnyboy

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mr. Sonnyboy,

    Your opening and closing remarks comprise a logical contradiction.

    In between, your unsupported assertions echo the kind of rhetoric I have come to expect from the likes of Teeth D'Olbermann and David Letterman. Though I find their opinions unpersuasive, they, of course, have a Constitutional right to express themselves. But nothing in the Constitution obligates me to listen, let alone provide a platform for them.

    I have said it before and it bears repeating: Truth is not assertion, and assertion is not proof.

    ReplyDelete