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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Nuking our strategy toward North Korea |
| 2005-02-16 |
| I was speechless when I read this. I hardly know where to start. North Korea has declared that it has nuclear weapons, a capability that U.S. intelligence agencies had suspected for some time. President Bush is known to have a personal distaste for Kim Jong Il, North Korea's quirky ruler, and his abysmal human rights record. Although regime change in the north is not a publicly stated U.S. goal, the president's ever idealistic approach is to ratchet up the pain in an attempt to squeeze the life out of Kim's tyrannical regime. Although this approach may seem plausible, it's counterproductive. Because the Bush administration has no leverage over North Korea and no effective military alternatives--North Korean nuclear facilities are hidden and deeply buried, and both Seoul and Japan are vulnerable to North Korean retaliatory strikes in the event of a U.S. attack--it is concentrating on tracking and freezing financial transactions related to North Korea's counterfeiting, drug running and covert weapons sales. Yet such sanctions have rarely been successful, as the ineffective financial war against Al Qaeda should indicate. Governments have never been effective in ending these rampant clandestine activities. In fact, the international economic isolation of North Korea drives its government to turn to such illicit ways of raising revenue. |
| Posted by:Spot |
| #22 i thought i was just drunk the first time i read this shit |
| Posted by: Thraing Hupoluper1864 2005-02-16 9:51:14 PM |
| #21 I'm onto you Ship! |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-02-16 8:56:53 PM |
| #20 tw - I'll testify on behalf of your appointment if you'll testify for me. That's how these things are done, IIUC. Cheers! |
| Posted by: .com 2005-02-16 8:35:58 PM |
| #19 I don't need a fellowship, just a large sinking fund so I can properly host the weekly faculty tea -- you know how the faculty eat when it's free, and we shall want a proper set of china and so forth, all with the school crest on. And I shall need some of you to help me with the tastings, so that the little cakes and honkin' big steaks will please. (Yes of course we'll have beer and whiskey as well. Tea does not go with steak and potatoes. What kind of a faculty do you think we are!?!) Come to think of it, better make it a very large sinking fund. And don't worry, I'll organize everything... you needn't bother yourself countersigning the checks. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-02-16 8:30:31 PM |
| #18 I had a gym class with a guy named Wang, back in Jr High. Can I have the China Desk? It was good enough for the Clinton State Dept. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-02-16 8:19:01 PM |
| #17 Did this idiot ever, even remotely, consider that other nations besides the U.S. would be potential targets? And if we're handing out fellowships, can I be the South Pacific expert? Of course that means several months in Tahiti for starters.... |
| Posted by: Pappy 2005-02-16 8:12:25 PM |
| #16 TGA you're selling Frank G. short, he can annoy more than mere Greeks. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-02-16 5:52:47 PM |
| #15 You know, I was thinking maybe "Ivan Eland" was a joke, like "Ima Sudonim" or "Seymour Butts". (Kinda odd though. Why an eland? Why not a chicken? Better still, why not "Ivan Guttanaym"?) But apparently he's real. There he is at the Cato Institute. The hell? Now, isolationism is a fine old libertarian tradition, but empathy? No. Advocate isolationism if you must, but no cuddling, dammit. Sheesh. By the way, the Independent Institute, where Mr. Ungulate heads the Center on Peace and Fluffy Bunnies, has this list of associated authors, which includes such luminaries as Barbara Ehrenreich, Camille Paglia, and -- Eugene Volokh??? Must be an, ahem, interesting place. |
| Posted by: Angie Schultz 2005-02-16 4:59:45 PM |
| #14 LOL TGA - My plan was too clear |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-02-16 4:12:59 PM |
| #13 Dan will be our senior fellow in policy affairs, .com will be a senior fellow in imaging, ... can I be in charge of HR/Foreign Relations? Can I be the UN representative? I want to do lots of lunches and write sternly worded resolutions condeming bad people. |
| Posted by: 2b 2005-02-16 4:09:51 PM |
| #12 Thus the North Korean regime, despite its deplorable human rights record, does have legitimate security concerns. When you ignore 50 years of history, it's damn easy to make comments like this. Until the last decade, North Korea was considered to have a robust striking force that would easily roll over the ROK Army and sprinkling of U.S. 8th Army troops north of Seoul. The fact that North Korea has been reduced to offensive impotence (can you say T-55? Mig-19? I knew you could!) and has security concerns is testament to the wisdom of our isolation strategy. The rest of the article is so riddled with factual errors and faults in critical reasoning that one could teach a course on how not to write an essay. BTW I attended a conference a few weekends ago on the Navy's role in the Korean theatre and we had a very interesting talk by a former ambassador to ROK. His line of reasoning was just about as Chamberlainesque as this bozo. He seemed to think that if he could somehow talk to Kim for 2 hours, he'd come to his senses. |
| Posted by: Dreadnought 2005-02-16 4:02:53 PM |
| #11 Woo Doggies! I started reading this and had to check the link to see if it was ScrappleFace. Still, the guy may have a point about not having exhausted all our 'carrot' options. For example, have we considered offering Kimmy the Sudentenland? There is still hope for Peace in Our Time! |
| Posted by: SteveS 2005-02-16 4:00:17 PM |
| #10 Frank, no you can't, you always offend the Greek :-) |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2005-02-16 3:35:58 PM |
| #9 Whats that awful smell? Someone had a brainfart! Didn't we try this back in 95. Madam Halfbright got the idea to trust the North Koreans (no, no need for verification...). |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2005-02-16 3:35:15 PM |
| #8 we at Rantburg U. need to consider creating some fellowships. Dan will be our senior fellow in policy affairs, .com will be a senior fellow in imaging, ... can I be in charge of HR/Foreign Relations? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-02-16 3:29:19 PM |
| #7 just because an idea makes it's way to print, doesn't mean that it isn't a brain-crushingly stupid one. |
| Posted by: 2b 2005-02-16 3:04:50 PM |
| #6 Even before getting to the comments, as I was reading that, I was thinking "Hey, didn't that redneck (TM - Charlie Rangel) try all of this once before through our fav-or-ite peanut farmer?" Man, let's just be nice and quit rattling sabers, and everything will be o.k., eh? Glad I don't live in Oakland (both philosophically and geographically) if they truly think that way in Pelosi-land. |
| Posted by: BA 2005-02-16 2:59:22 PM |
| #5 In that case, the United States may just have to accept that some unfriendly, autocratic minor powers may get nuclear weapons. It won’t be the end of the world. It will be if they pop one in Oakland, Ivan baby... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2005-02-16 1:54:28 PM |
| #4 Maybe Fred will want to take a whack at Ivan, but I agree with Spot, this fellow is hopeless. By the way, I think that if Ivan can be a "senior fellow" at some goof-brained institute in Oakland, no less, than we at Rantburg U. need to consider creating some fellowships. Dan will be our senior fellow in policy affairs, .com will be a senior fellow in imaging, ... |
| Posted by: Steve White 2005-02-16 1:51:45 PM |
| #3 The economic isolation of the north and perpetual U.S. saber rattling make a paranoid North Korean regime even more likely to build up its nuclear stockpile. Instead of economic and military coercion, the United States should take the more positive approach of offering an end to economic sanctions and a non-aggression treaty in exchange for a verifiable elimination--not freeze--of the North Korean nuclear program. Hey, Moron, sir, we tried that before. Kim lied, North Korean people died (from starvation). Go back and read the news stories of the past 6 years and come back with a new idea. NEXT! |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2005-02-16 1:48:40 PM |
| #2 "Ivan Eland is senior fellow and director of the Center on Peace & Liberty at the Independent Institute in Oakland, Calif. He is the author of the book "The Empire Has No Clothes: U.S. Foreign Policy Exposed."" |
| Posted by: Mark E. 2005-02-16 1:47:17 PM |
| #1 You should have included the author. I'm not clicking through a registration to find it and I'm really curious who the moonbat is. Sounds like Madeline Albright ghost wrote this. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2005-02-16 1:45:39 PM |