Home > Jay Bookman > Archives > 2008 > June > 27 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USThe deal with North Korea
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Samuel Johnson made the now politically incorrect observation that “a woman’s preaching is like a dog’s walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.”
I guess that’s how I feel about President Bush’s use of diplomacy to perhaps bring an end to North Korea’s nuclear program. He may not have done it with much style or grace, but the surprise is that he did it at all.
In the early years, Bush had rejected any suggestion of negotiating a deal with the North Koreans, as if talking to our enemies was an act of cowardice. Talk tough, that was the ticket. Make those Korean commies tremble in fear.
That bluster pretty much ended when North Korea exploded a semi-successful nuclear weapon, making it clear that they were less than impressed with macho posturing. After a whole lot of cajoling and convincing within the administration, the president agreed to a less confrontational, more conversational approach that is now bearing fruit.
There is no guarantee this approach will work. What the president announced yesterday was considerable progress toward an important goal, not achievement of the goal itself. But considerable progress is better than no progress or even backsliding, which is what the previous strategy had produced.
Dick Cheney has made it pretty clear he disagrees with this approach. He and others liked the tough-guy strategy because it felt right in their gut, because it confirmed their sense of themselves as moral, uncompromising warriors. OK, fine. Now — explain in a logical sequence how being tough will result in North Korea surrendering its nuclear program.
Silence. Followed by another protestation that “we have to be tough!”
Being tough is not a goal in itself. Being tough is a tactic that under the right circumstances can help you achieve your goal, but under other circumstances can be harmful. President Bush belatedly understands that now.
The agreement with North Korea is an accomplishment for the president, a hard-earned step toward making the world a safer place. But it is also a symbol of what might have been in other areas, including domestic politics, had he been willing to negotiate and compromise instead of try to steamroll.
Comments
By Copyleft
June 27, 2008 8:49 AM | Link to this
And it only took eight years, thousands of wasted lives, and a trillion dollars for Bush to figure this out!
Surely that was worth it?
By h
June 27, 2008 9:00 AM | Link to this
Well, I guess it’s better late than never.
My guess is though that Chaney will not like his puppet out being “nice” and will once again tie on the strings and bring him under control. TALK - BAD! FIRE-GOOD!
By Bosch
June 27, 2008 9:10 AM | Link to this
I wonder how the “appeasers are bad” folks are going to spin this?
By Dennis
June 27, 2008 9:28 AM | Link to this
Is it possible that Bush’s initial hard line and his long term insistance on that hard line, along with other countries do the same, persuaded Korea’s leaders that giving up nuclear enrichment was the only option that would allow them to survive and maintain control of the nation?
By Maniac is accurate
June 27, 2008 10:06 AM | Link to this
Ronald Reagan was tough, but also not averse to diplomacy. He used the two things hand-in-hand to good effect. Good for President Bush and this progress with North Korea. Maybe it can work with Iran as well.
By rightytighty
June 27, 2008 10:14 AM | Link to this
And how did North Korea get that bomb they exploded Jay? I mean, didn’t they sign a treaty with Bill Clinton in which they promised NOT to concentrate uranium or build an atomic bomb? Or perhaps you think that was all done after Bush’s tough talk??
So now, let’s recap..
1) Disarmed North Korea
2) Disarmed Libya
3) New Democracy in Afghanistan
4) New Democracy in Iraq
5) Largest tax cuts in history for all tax brackets
6) Longest economic expansion in history, and still going..
7) Highest home ownership in history, all races. Most of which are still making their payments.
8) Most diverse administration in history
9) NCLB, poor kids have a chance to go to a good school too, today.
10) 57 million people freed from the tyranny and oppression of a few.
Yeah, worse president ever…, if you’re a partisian liberal.
By Donna
June 27, 2008 10:21 AM | Link to this
Longest economic expansion in history, and still going..
You lost me there, babe. I’m conservative and even I won’t swallow that one.
By Dusty
June 27, 2008 10:34 AM | Link to this
rightytighty@10:14
Great post! You have listed the many things President Bush has accomplished. The latest is the diplomacy that worked with North Korea. It shows how Bush is tough when need be and diplomatic when there is a good response.
It also shows his independence in thought and deed. If some of his administration disagree, he has considered their opinions and decided to do what he thinks is best for America.
Thank goodness we have had a strong president for tough times. I think McCain has the same strength and I will bote for him.
By rightytighty
June 27, 2008 10:53 AM | Link to this
The facts speak for themselves Ma’am…
.06% GDP growth, 4th quarter 2007.
1%, 1st quarter 2008.
projected 1+%, 2nd quarter 2008 and beyond.
By Taxpayer
June 27, 2008 10:54 AM | Link to this
I saw an ad for a new disposable diaper the other day. It was called the MightyTidy. This rather conservative salesperson called it that because it gets a right tight grip around the body, even to the point of cutting off blood flow to critical organs. The good thing about it though is that it really holds a lot of crap.
By reebok
June 27, 2008 10:59 AM | Link to this
Bush is an appeaser. Neville Chamberlain. Wimp. Buddying up with dictators who want to kill us. Pathetic.
By T
June 27, 2008 11:16 AM | Link to this
Is this growth after the slow economy?
Great work with North Korea. Step in the right direction.
By Dusty
June 27, 2008 11:21 AM | Link to this
Taxpayer 10:54
U R vulgar.
reebok @10:59
Make up your mind. Do you want to be an anti-war lib or a warlike lib? Oh, if you only had a MIND.
By Swiftboat McCain Now
June 27, 2008 11:40 AM | Link to this
Gee, if Bush hadn’t already decided to attack Iraq before 9/11 even happened, perhaps he could have used a bit of diplomacy over there and saved us a few hundred billion dollars and the lives of thousands of troops. Doesn’t look like Saddam had much to hide, after all.
Funny how the same people who damned Clinton for using diplomatic solutions in North Korea are the ones applauding Bush for doing the same thing. Betcha we’ll never know the full extent of the “concessions” that Bush offered one of the chief “axis of evil”.
Learned from Reagan, did Bush.
By Taxpayer
June 27, 2008 11:40 AM | Link to this
Dusty,
Well now, I suppose that Depends on your point of view. Of course, in your mind, I already know what is deemed vulgar. So, what’s new. It’s not like you have not repeated it enough times.
By the way, did you hear about the economy. Things are really looking up. Personal income in the average 2-person household is moving up by $1200.00. Who would’ve ever guessed. Why, it’s a miracle. Do you think Bush can do it again. Can he. Huh. Huh. Can he.
By T
June 27, 2008 12:30 PM | Link to this
My 1200 goes to food and in the gas tank. That can of creamed corn just messed things all up.
By hillbilly ragger
June 27, 2008 12:35 PM | Link to this
TightyWhitey, you really don’t need to convince Sister Dusty that Bush is the Greatest Preznit Evah.
The historically high level of Americans who think he’s Teh Suck, on the other hand, need some more work.
By Blind Homer
June 27, 2008 12:47 PM | Link to this
Charlie don’t surf, Saddam, in typical Arab fashion, didn’t keep his word, and Al Queda don’t negotiate.
By CommunistAJC
June 27, 2008 1:10 PM | Link to this
JAY NANNY BOOKMAN, Did you ever stop to think that, just maybe, dealing with Saddam had something to do with Kim Jong Il? I mean, Libya even said that our involvement in Iraq caused them to give up nukes. I swear, I really don’t know how you’re employed.
By CommunistAJC
June 27, 2008 1:23 PM | Link to this
NANNY BOOKMAN, Years from now how will you be able to hold a job at the AJC? I mean, Bush is done after this year and you won’t have anyone to blame for all of your problems.
By rightytighty
June 27, 2008 1:41 PM | Link to this
Are you taking Samuel Johnson’s approach to the wire tapping and surveillance too Jay? How about NAFTA and our “lost war” in Iraq??
Obama seems to have found a sudden fondness for them…, you too!?
By Swiftboat McCain Now
June 27, 2008 1:59 PM | Link to this
Ah, you poor righties don’t know which side to defend, when your own beloved President urinates over all of your beloved and intractable ideologies:
“It’s shameful,” John Bolton, Bush’s former U.S. ambassador at the United Nations, said of Bush’s actions. “This represents the final collapse of Bush’s foreign policy.”
“Profound disappointment” was Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s reaction.
The North, Bolton said, has gained “political and economic legitimacy” by the concessions. He said there was “clear evidence” that North Korea has aided Syria in a nuclear program and helped Iran’s missile program — both those countries are also on the U.S. terror blacklist.
“To take North Korea off that list makes a mockery of the president’s notion that cooperating with terrorism means you’ll be treated as if you’re part of the terrorist network,” Bolton said.
Poor, poor Dusty. Poor, poor rightytighty. Adhering to policies advanced by the liberals in order to prop up your failed President…just proves that hypocrisy is the foundation of your politics.
By Sabine Carbines
June 27, 2008 2:08 PM | Link to this
Who trusts N. Korea not to still have an underground nuclear program?
Who thinks Bush has any idea about the capability of N. Korea to hide it’s program?
Oh, W is a genius geo-political statesman for the ages!!~!
We’re completely safe now that N. Korea is blowing up it’s cooling tower.
By Truth
June 27, 2008 2:10 PM | Link to this
It is called negotiating. They gave a little so we gave a little. We are doing this because we hope that they will continue to disarm. You can bet your butt if they degress at all then we will definately tighten the noose again. You all act like Bush has a “Kill All” mentality. Without the threat of military action then North Korea wouldnt have given in!
By hillbilly ragger
June 27, 2008 2:12 PM | Link to this
Swiftboat @ 1.59, I disagree that “adhering to policies advanced by the liberals in order to prop up your failed President…just proves that hypocrisy is the foundation of your politics.”
Rather, it proves that sane people were right, and even incompetent Administrations like Bush’s manage to get something right now and then.
I’m not shy about self-IDing as center-left, but those principles aren’t just advanced by “liberals,” they’re just common sense.
But hey, if you want to claim victory for our side, knock yourself out.
By Swiftboat McCain Now
June 27, 2008 2:22 PM | Link to this
hillbilly
Didn’t really mean to “take credit”, as I too couch myself in the middle left of the aisle. However, characters such as Dusty want their cake and to eat it too…they want to ignore Bush’s shortcomings and even his digressions from conservative principles in order to pat him on the back for doing something the conservatives have criticized Clinton for since the day Bush took office.
My post was meant to underscore their hypocrisy, and not to claim credit for a “liberal victory”, which it assuredly was not.
By Chuckling out loud
June 27, 2008 2:31 PM | Link to this
I see Dusty has just awoken from another Bush wet dream.
Someone really out to let Laura know about those two.
By Dusty
June 27, 2008 2:31 PM | Link to this
Taxpayer,11:40
Most ittle boys get over bathroom humor when they mature. Obviously you have not accomplished either of those things.
Swiftboat,
It’s time to get off the swiftboat and get on shore. Sorry, Bub, but Kerry is not going to win. If he had been in Nam four years instead of four months he still would not have won. The people of America did not want him for President. Too Jane Fondaish..
More news for you. Bush is not running for President this year. I see you ARE working against a real hero of Viet Nam, John McCain. Maybe you ought to vote for Bill Clinton since you are so out of step with nominees. Yeah, to paraphrase a Navy man;”Damn the truth. Full speed ahead with the lies.” How’s that for a new motto for the sunken Swiftboaters.
Sabine,
Run back and ask Bill Clinton what made him sure HIS TREATY with N. Korea was absolutely 99% pure and peaceful. Bush gives a sensible try at diplomacy and you are crying the blues. How often do you change your political philosophy?
I will read all replies when I get back.
By Swiftboat McCain Now
June 27, 2008 2:43 PM | Link to this
Dusty
Seems you would rather spend your time critiquing my screen name than dispelling my points about your blatant hypocrisy.
Doesn’t really matter; your wavering politics undermines any point you would try to make.
By Algonquin J. Calhoun
June 27, 2008 3:22 PM | Link to this
Bush folded up like an accordion! That tough talk got him nowhere. Mission Accomplished, again!
By Bosch
June 27, 2008 3:26 PM | Link to this
I asked this morning how the “appeaser” folks were going to spin this, and surprise, Dusty never fails to lets me down.
By CherokeeDave
June 27, 2008 3:29 PM | Link to this
Re: JB and his loyal-left groupies (ie.Copyleft, Hillybilly Ragger, Taxpayer,etc.) You just keep burying your left-sided brains in the sand and refuse to accept reasoned thinking. Facts are Facts, Clinton and Albright showed Zero foreign policy skills (except when picking up foreign chicks on his trips overseas) WHEREAS Bush used a well planned and solid combination one-two punch with NK caving. Libya ran straight to our door scared to death that we were heading his way after Irag and that CNN viewed “lost war or surge” is and will work to build a more stable economy for the middle east for the long term. When you want to make a real case and not base you world-vision using CNN gray-colored glasses. Pulease try to give us a real arugment. Finally, C’mon Jay, your level of intellectual dishonesty knows no bounds. When backed into a no-win position, you always resort to “but I’m an editorial opinion column” as if that frees you to make less then reasoned comments??? Where Clinton failed this country for 8 continued years of indecisiveness as the leader of the free world, Bush stood resolute and made the tough decisions that you and your little minded blogger minions just can’t fathom. Lest we forget, how many times did Bill have a chance for Osama and was too afraid of negative polls??? Ooops, I believe the number was “3”.
By Taxpayer
June 27, 2008 3:31 PM | Link to this
Dusty,
Thank you.
By Algonquin J. Calhoun
June 27, 2008 3:38 PM | Link to this
dave, it was Bush that had Osama caught at Tora Bora and pulled back the troops! He didn’t want to lose his partner in crime.
By Taxpayer
June 27, 2008 3:50 PM | Link to this
Cherokee Dave,
If you puhleeze, provide me with proof of your claim that I fit into this so-called loyal-left groupie category — whatever that is. Even better, pick out something from one of my posts that you disagree with and we can discuss it. Anything except where I picked on Dusty, that is. Dusty doesn’t count. Dusty is special. Dusty is brain-washed.
By Algonquin J. Calhoun
June 27, 2008 3:55 PM | Link to this
Bush stood resolute and made the tough decisions that you and your little minded blogger minions just can’t fathom.
You are correct! We just can’t fathom why Iraq was attacked for dishonest, manufactured and concocted reasons. We can not and will not ever understand, nor cone the use of torture by United States troops. We can not comprehend how a president, though not legitimately elected, could violate his oath of office and trample the Constitution of the United States. We don’t understand why a president would leak the identity of a CIA agent to wreak vengeance upon her husband who had exposed documents, used to justify the attack upon Iraq, as forgeries. We don’t understand why a president of this nation wants to accumulate information on eveyday citizens. We don’t understand how simpletons, such as yourself, accept and champion the behavior of a madman!
By CommunistAJC
June 27, 2008 4:16 PM | Link to this
Democrats: Defenders of child rapists.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/crime/2008/06/27/todd.child.rape.rant.cnn
By Algonquin J. Calhoun
June 27, 2008 4:24 PM | Link to this
Republinazis: Rapists of an entire nation!
By Chestatee
June 27, 2008 4:25 PM | Link to this
Hey Conservatives, does this mean that it’s OK to talk to our enemies?
By Swiftboat McCain Now
June 27, 2008 4:26 PM | Link to this
Commie
I guess you take the side of child rapists too….
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Klaudt
(when will you wingnuts ever learn?)
By Truth
June 27, 2008 4:34 PM | Link to this
Just curious… How do you swiftboat McCain????
By Swiftboat McCain Now
June 27, 2008 4:44 PM | Link to this
The way to swiftboat McCain is to pass innuendo, lies, and untruths about him and his military service at or near the November election date through a subchannel of the Democratic Party, and then continue to dismiss the merits of those statements after the election by snorting misguided partisan hatred in lieu of the truth.
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
By Truth
June 27, 2008 4:50 PM | Link to this
So you are promoting “innuendo, lies, and untruths about him and his military service “???? That sounds very American of you. Kerry is a disgrace to this country and the military. McCain is a true hero and patriot. The distain you “Lefties” have for the military is horrifying!
By Algonquin J. Calhoun
June 27, 2008 4:52 PM | Link to this
Some of the unreleased pages in McCain’s Navy file may not reflect well upon his qualifications for the presidency. From day one in the Navy, McCain screwed-up again and again, only to be forgiven because his father and grandfather were four-star admirals. McCain’s sense of entitlement to privileged treatment bears an eerie resemblance to George W. Bush’s.
Despite graduating in the bottom 1 percent of his Annapolis class, McCain was offered the most sought-after Navy assignment — to become an aircraft carrier pilot. According to military historian John Karaagac, “‘the Airedales,’ the air wing of the Navy, acted and still do, as if unrivaled atop the naval pyramid. They acted as if they owned, not only the Navy, but the entire swath of blue water on the earth’s surface.” The most accomplished midshipmen compete furiously for the few carrier pilot openings. After four abysmal academic years at Annapolis distinguished, according to his own books, by mediocrity and misdeeds, no one with a record resembling McCain’s would have been offered such a prized career path. The justification for this and subsequent plum assignments should be documented in McCain’s naval file.
McCain’s file should also include records and analytic reviews of McCain’s subsequent sub-par performances. Here are a few cited in two highly favorable biographies, both titled John McCain, one by Robert Timberg and the other by John Karaagac.
Timberg:
“[A]fter a European fling with the tobacco heiress, John McCain reported to flight school at Pensacola in August 1958…. [H]is performance was below par, at best good enough to get by. He liked flying, but didn’t love it. What he loved was the kick-the-tire, start-the-fire, scarf-in-the-wind life of a naval aviator. …One Saturday morning, as McCain was practicing landings, his engine quit and his plane plunged into Corpus Christi. Knocked unconscious by the impact, he came to as the plane settled to the bottom….McCain was an adequate pilot, but he had no patience for studying dry aviation manuals…. His professional growth, though reasonably steady, had its troubled moments. Flying too low over the Iberian Peninsula, he took out some power lines, which led to a spate of newspaper stories in which he was predictably identified as the son of an admiral…. [In 1965] he flew a trainer solo to Philadelphia for the Army-Navy game. Flying by way of Norfolk, he had just begun his descent over unpopulated tidal terrain when the engine died. ‘I’ve got a flameout,’ he radioed. He went through the standard relight procedures three times. At one thousand feet he ejected, landing on the deserted beach moments before the plane slammed into a clump of trees.
One possible reason: After McCain had returned from Vietnam as a war hero and was physically rehabilitated, he was urged by his medical caretakers and military colleagues never to fly again. But McCain insisted on going up. As Carl Bernstein reported in Vanity Fair, he piloted an ultra-light, single propeller plane — and crashed another time. His fifth loss of a plane has vanished from public records, but should be a subject of discussion in his Navy file. It wouldn’t be surprising if his naval superiors worried that McCain was just too defiant, too reckless and too crash prone.
There’s more to come!
By Algonquin J. Calhoun
June 27, 2008 4:57 PM | Link to this
Here’s some truth for you: McCain is an American zero! He’s going down!
By Swiftboat McCain Now
June 27, 2008 4:59 PM | Link to this
Truth
I’m promoting the use of the same vile and deplorable political pornography that the “compassionate conservatives” unleashed on Vietnam veteran John Kerry.
It’s rather disingenuous of you to wax poetic about my lack of character when you yourself are stained profoundly by your own party’s tactics in 2004.
I am not a Democratic; just an American sick and tired of the partisan hypocrisy and prosletizing.
By Truth
June 27, 2008 5:12 PM | Link to this
“I am not a Democratic; just an American sick and tired of the partisan hypocrisy and prosletizing.”
You are promoting what you are sick and tired of. There are things I disagree with Bush and McCain about, but I also know that I am against socialism, Marxism, and any other ism that Obama is for. It is time to promote individualism and quit rewarding people for stupid mistakes they make. All the Democrats wanna do is pander to the stupidity of people and keep taking from the people who make good decisions and give to the people who dont. This is America and we need to start acting like it!
One a lighter note, I hope that all of you, left or right, up or down, in or out, all enjoy the 4th of July and for one day we all put aside our differences and celebrate the freedom we have. Republicans and Democrats alike have sacrificed their lives making sure that keep the freedom. God Bless America!!!
By Algonquin J. Calhoun
June 27, 2008 5:14 PM | Link to this
f you are tired of partisan hypocrisy and proselytizing now, what will you be feeling in November? it’s going to be a bumpy ride!
By Swiftboat McCain Now
June 27, 2008 5:30 PM | Link to this
Truth
In truth, I’m really not promoting swiftboating, or lying, or political pornography. I believe that it demeans the political process and that we are all compromised in the end.
However, that’s also a bit of fantasy. We are a nation divided, left versus right, Democrat vs. Republican, conservative vs. liberal. And although most of us probably find ourselves somewhere in the middle of the political spectrum, we are herded into the most extreme corner of our ideologies and ridiculed thusly by the opposing side.
You may have hated Kerry and his policies and his politics and bought into the Swiftboat Veterans hook, line and sinker. You may have decided that their accounts were factual because you wanted to believe them in the first place.
But for every one of the Kerry-haters, there is someone ready to hate on McCain, and it would be rather hypocritical for you to cry foul when they use the same tactics as the Republicans did in 2004 to assassinate his character.
Frankly, I think we need to add a viable political party or two to the mix, in order to get away from the us versus them mentality we presently suffer from, and to actually engage our electorate in a meaningful exchange of ideas, instead of the garbage that passes as political debate these days.