Packs a Merry Canner
Of course it’s about missile defense… and Florida…and hubris…and one supremely unqualified President.
These guys screw up so often and with such potentially catastrophic results that I’m beginning to think that nobody can be this stupid. They must be doing it on purpose. The Bush Doctrine ( aka PNAC’s Rebuilding Americas Defenses aka Cheney Defense Dept review 1992) is for real and the radical neocons are getting what they’ve always wanted. William Kristol was seen recently ordering a martini, shaken not stirred, and it wasn’t pretty.
But, in the interest of whatever history may be gleaned from the post-nuclear rubble, let’s be clear about this long range missile threat before Colin and Condi turn it into yet another chuckleheaded link with Al Qaeda and the Cannes Film Festival.
Clinton said when he left office that he thought he’d pitched Bush a diplomatic home run at the very beginning of his term with Kim Jong Il. But, as with everything else, Junior and the Retreads adopted their sophisticated and nuanced policy doctrine known as “I totally like hate Clinton like sooo much.”
On March 5, 2001 Michael Gordon/ NY Times
How Politics Sank Accord on Missiles with North Korea.
1999 through the end of December 2000:
[…]
The episode remains vitally relevant because the North Korean missile threat has been the driving force behind the debate in Washington over missile defenses, and because President Bush has yet to declare whether he plans to carry through or modify the Clinton strategy.
The Bush team has been generally skeptical about North Korea, and it is not clear how much they will use diplomacy to try to head off missile threats, instead of relying primarily on their plans for missile defense.
The South Korean president, Kim Dae Jung, who will meet with Mr. Bush on Wednesday, is expected to press the new administration to engage with Pyongyang. And while the negotiations are still shrouded in secrecy, they apparently made more progress than generally thought.
According to current and former government experts, Kim Jong Il promised in confidential talks not to produce, test or deploy missiles with a range of more than 300 miles. That offer would prevent North Korea from fielding missiles that could strike the United States.
North Korea, the experts said, also offered to halt the sale of missiles, missile components, technology and training. The pledge would ban systems that North Korea had already contracted to provide to aspiring third world powers.
The Clinton Administration had doggedly pursued an accord that would have ended North Korea’s long range missile threat. As you might imagine, this was not a very popular policy with the PNAC and CSP missile defense spin hustlers.
The moment of truth unfortunately occurred during that marvelous exercise in GOP media mastery and incestuous string pulling known as the Florida recount.
[…]
As the weeks dragged on, Dr. Albright and Ms. Sherman kept an anxious eye on Florida. At one point, they were monitoring the Florida events from Mauritius, wondering if the Korea operation would proceed.
After the election was decided in mid-December, Ms. Sherman and the White House Asia expert, Jack Pritchard, briefed Colin L. Powell and Condoleezza Rice. The Bush team made it clear that it would not undercut Mr. Clinton, but not would it endorse a deal, former Clinton aides said. That attitude was one factor that led the Clinton team not to send Ms. Sherman, according to a former ranking Clinton official. The concern was that the new administration would not support or even complete a deal hammered out then.
Finally, the Clinton administration announced on Dec. 29 that there was no longer enough time for its talks.
2 Months later, March 2001
Did Bush bungle relations with North Korea?
Jake Tapper/Salon
[…]
The case study begins March 6, the day before South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung, honored with last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, met with President Bush, hoping to influence the new administration’s views on the region before any policy had been set in stone.
That day, Secretary of State Colin Powell, during an appearance with European Union President and Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh and others, seemed moderate in tone and tenor when he mentioned that he and Lindh had discussed, among other matters, “how to encourage North Korea to comply with its nonproliferation obligations.”
“As I said previously, and especially in my confirmation hearings, we do plan to engage with North Korea to pick up where President Clinton and his administration left off,” Powell said. “Some promising elements were left on the table, and we’ll be examining those elements.”
This enraged GOP hawks, who view Clinton’s policy toward North Korea as dishonest and disingenuous, and as coddling North Korean leader Kim Jong Il as he builds up an arsenal. Clinton administration foreign policy experts praised Kim for his steps toward peace. And though Powell called Kim a “dictator” during his January confirmation hearings before the Senate, his remarks about “picking up” where Clinton left off surely raised continued fears that Powell is too moderate.
The next day, the Bush administration’s position seemed completely turned around.
[…]
At the joint briefing minutes later, this newer, more hard-line stance against North Korea — the one advanced in the administration by Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld — reared its head in comments made by President Kim. Bush had been “very frank and honest in sharing with me his perceptions about the nature of North Korea and the North Korean leader,” Kim said, “and this is very important for me to take back home and to consider.”
Bush then elaborated on his concerns. “Part of the problem in dealing with North Korea,” he said, “there’s not very much transparency. We’re not certain as to whether or not they’re keeping all terms of all agreements.” This was not his most carefully enunciated statement of the day. As it turns out, the U.S. has only one agreement with North Korea — the 1994 plutonium agreement that Wit supervised. So which “agreements” were the president referring to? White House spokesmen told reporters that Bush was speaking about possible future agreements.
“That’s how the president speaks,” one told the New York Times
July 2001:
U.S. Toughens Terms for Talks with North Korea
Michael Gordon/NY Times
[…]
Just six months ago, American and North Korean diplomats appeared to be closing in on a deal to ban the development, production and sale of North Korean missiles. But now, reacting to the changed signals from Washington, North Korea has also publicly staked out a tough stance.
The two sides have yet to set a date for high-level talks. And Bush administration aides have told the South Koreans that the chances of Pyongyang’s agreeing to all of its demands are low.
Some senior Bush administration officials hope that economic pressures will lead North Korea to seek a far-reaching accommodation with the West. But some experts worry that unless both sides indicate a willingness to compromise, the result may be deadlock while North Korea exports medium-range or even long- range missiles. In the face of a prolonged stalemate, they say, North Korea might also threaten to resume testing long-range missiles, thereby developing the means to strike the United States.
The basic position of the Bush administration, worked out after an intensive review, is that an accord that focuses on missiles is no longer sufficient. Only a comprehensive program to limit North Korea’s military potential, administration officials say, can serve as a foundation for improved relations with the West. So North Korea must make simultaneous concessions on nuclear issues and conventional arms, and any missile agreement must be subject to extensive verification.
“We need to see some progress in all areas,” a senior administration official said. “We are prepared to wait. We don’t feel any urgency to provide goodies to them in response to their rhetoric or threats.”
That’s exactly the kind of attitude isolated, paranoid Asian dictators respond to. One certainly sees why our dealings with the North Koreans have been so successful. And, it’s just great that our insistence on dealing with them “comprehensively” has led them to “comprehensively” resume their long range missile program AND re-open their nuclear power plant. And they said Clinton was slick…
George W. Bush and his gang of paunchy, wild-eyed Imperialists seem intent upon starting WWIII, one way or another. Since it doesn’t look like we can beat them, I think I’ll join up for the French campaign. I just love that brie and cheese.