Via Hesiod:

South Korean Leader Criticizes Bush Approach

“We are looking for some peaceful way of solving this through dialogue,” the presidential spokesman said.

Kim Dae Jung reiterated that message in remarks at a luncheon today, in which he took an indirect swipe at President Bush’s refusal to negotiate with the North Korean leader.

“Sometimes we need to talk to the other party, even if we dislike the other party,” he said, repeating versions of the phrase three times. “There’s no other way but to engage North Korea in dialogue. It’s reality whether we like it or not.”

The barbs were aimed at President Bush’s harsh personal rhetoric directed at the North Korean leader, which many in Kim’s administration feel have helped create the current crisis. Bush began his administration by bluntly declaring he did not trust the North Korean dictator, and recently was quoted by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward saying, “I loathe Kim Jong Il”– personal affronts that have great weight in Asian cultures.

(Another instance of Cowboy Bob’s lack of experience and intellectual development leading him to unnecessarily personalize a policy dispute with the most paranoid, proud despot on the planet. Calling an Asian leader names is perhaps the most ignorant and disrespectful thing this moron has done. And he did it at a time when Kim Jong Il was trying to re-establish relations with its mortal enemy, Japan, and its estranged brother, South Korea. Calling him a pygmy and saying he loathed him at that moment was akin to pissing on his head in public.

And, you don’t have to be a career diplomat to know this. You only have to have read something other than the “Hungry Caterpillar” and watched “Combat” re-runs after school.)

In his State of the Union address last January, Bush lambasted North Korea as part of an “axis of evil.” Many South Koreans resented that, feeling it was a gratuitous remark that torpedoed South Korea’s “sunshine policy” and scuttled efforts to coax North Korea out of its isolation and hostility.

As Hesiod says, “Is there ANYONE left on the rest of the planet who supports President Bush?”

He also points out:

The Bush administration’s obsession with Iraq, and the increasing reluctance/opposition from many countries to our machinations, brings to mind the old Groucho Marx joke: “I wouldn’t want to join any club that would have me as a member.”

Why do I say that? Because, Bush is very good at lining up oppressive, ant-democratic regimes to his cause. But he’s terrible at getting Democratic nations to follow his lead with respect to Iraq. The reason is…public opinion. The vast majority of people OUTSIDE the United States don’t want a war with Iraq. Hell…it’s even unpopular HERE!

The Supreme Irony is…one of the very reason Bush claims he wants “regime change” in Iraq: to advance human rights and democracy, the the very thing that could undermine his whole effort.

The people of the world just do not want this war.

This is just one more example of the undemocratic streak that runs through the modern Republican Party. Creeping fas…..