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| No Partial Credit |
| 2006-10-12 |
| By Jed Babbin The fall of the Berlin Wall marked its beginning, and the claimed North Korean nuclear test marks its end. Between them was the era of partial credit. American presidents could claim that they did their best to solve enormous problems and should get credit for trying regardless of having failed abjectly. They did this to the accompaniment of the UN, diplomats in the role of French Olympic ice skating judges, awarding or deducting style points. President Bush has to disarm North Korea's nascent nuclear arsenal. There will be no credit given for nice tries: only results count. And Iran is watching. President Bush has a number of options to pursue, each of which could solve the North Korean nuclear problem. One of them isn't the UN. China is already playing its UN card well, agreeing that sanctions should be imposed but objecting to any sanctions that aren't limited to those that affect only North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. By ruling out tough economic sanctions - such as a global blockade of North Korean financial transactions - China means to prevent the UN from imposing any sanctions that will force North Korea to change its behavior. The UN cannot and will not deal effectively with North Korea just like it could not and did not deal with Saddam and cannot and will not deal with Iran. China, Russia and France make that certain. If the president remains stuck in the UN, he will fail in disarming the North Korean nuclear arsenal. |
| Posted by:ryuge |