We Need to Bust Out the Whomping Stick

Forget for a moment that the test of the nuclear bomb that the NORKs were developing didn't work. At best, it was a dirty bomb. It is more important that they are close enough to try a test. Much hay has been made over who is responsible. Is it the previous administration of Little Willie Clinton (LWC) who was impotent in all of his foreign policy measures (but obviously not in the oval office hallway)? Or is it the current Bush administration that is mired in a three front war, Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Democratic party that would wage war against its own country to regain power? Let's see.

Clinton tried to negotiate with the madman with the bad hairdo. No one has seen hair that bad on a dictator since Hitler but I digress. LWC sent over his crack state department team and they negotiated the "Agreed Framework". Here is what they offered according to Wikipedia:

• DPRK's graphite-moderated nuclear power plants, which could easily produce weapons grade plutonium, would be replaced with light water reactor (LWR) power plants by a target date of 2003. Construction halted in Dec 2002, far behind schedule.

• Oil for heating and electricity production would be provided while DPRK's reactors were shut down, until completion of the first LWR power unit. Oil provided, Nuclear weapons production went underground. Oil shipments halted in 2003

• The two sides would move toward full normalization of political and economic relations. Never happened in the last 6 years of Clinton. Won't happen under Bush.

• The U.S. would provide formal assurances to the DPRK, against the threat or use of nuclear weapons by the U.S. We haven"t bombed them...yet

• The DPRK would take steps to implement the Korean Peninsula Denuclearization Declaration. The NORKs have laughed at this one

• The DPRK would remain a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Nope, they withdrew in 2003

• IAEA ad hoc and routine inspections would resume for facilities not subject to the freeze. The IAEA inspected the old enrichment sites but made no effort to look for clandestine programs. The IAEA couldn't find their backsides with flashlights and written instructions.

• Existing spent nuclear fuel stocks would be stored and ultimately disposed of without reprocessing in the DPRK. No verification that NORK is compliant

• Before delivery of key LWR nuclear components, the DPRK would come into full compliance with its safeguards agreement with the IAEA. LWR construction began, components delivered, NORK taunted the IAEA once again and are still not in compliance.

Bush is not without blame either.

• Shortly after coming to office, he learned of the NORK secret program and moved to enforce the agreement by cutting off funding for the free oil, the LWRs, and ending talk of normalized relations until NORK complied with their end of the bargain.

• After the terrorists attacks of 9/11/2001 he labeled the NORKs as part of the axis of evil. This caused the NORKs to kick their program into hyperdrive.

• Bush's advisors at the pentagon, CIA, and staff miscalculated the Iraq situation. The philosophy of cutting off the head and the rest of the snake dies was wrong. Another group of snakes took its place causing a protracted occupation.

• Bush forgot the first rule of politics: "There are no friends in politics." He trusted all Americans to put their country above political gain but the Democrats refused hoping to obstruct their way back into power.

• Bush failed in his prioritization of the threats to America from the axis of evil, leaving the NORKs to the periphery.

The Clinton administration was distracted from the NORKs by his peccadilloes and scandals. He didn't have the fortitude to stop NORK when they were just beginning. Like Hitler's bluffs in the Rhineland and Poland, Kim Jung Il bluffed and lied about his programs to achieve his goals. Clinton was this era's Chamberlain sacrificing common sense in the false hope of peace.

Bush, like Churchill, had to deal with the failings of his predecessor. He acted on the information provided to him and unfortunately was wrong on the time required in Iraq. Who now can fix this mess?

I'm not sure that anyone can. However, I look at the Democrats and they appear to just want to tuck our tails between our legs and run home. That will not make this country any safer. It will embolden our enemies and endanger our citizens. Continued diplomacy with NORK will only lead to further lies and deceptions. We've walked softly long enough. We have acted in timidity to our peril. It is time to start using the big stick and fight to win the war on terror. The Republican Party is the only hope to do this. John Kerry (wants to quit), Jack Murtha (wants to quit), Ted Kennedy (wants to quit), Hillary Clinton (wants to quit), Nancy Pelosi (wants to quit), et al, just are not capable.