Today, the New York Philharmonic arrived in Pyongyang, the cold and barren capital of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The orchestra will perform a concert tomorrow, and Lorin Maazel, its music director, hopes to make a “tiny contribution” to warming up America’s relations with the world’s most repugnant state. “I am a musician and not a politician, but music has always been an arena or area where people can make contact.”
Contact? The hope in the West is that increased contact, starting with the Phil’s visit, will open up North Korea, the world’s most isolated nation. Many argue that friendly relations will weaken the regime, which has been built on hostility to the United States. “I don’t see why Kim is doing it,” says Andrei Lankov, a longtime observer of the Kimist state. “If I were him, I wouldn’t do it.”
So why did North Korea’s leader invite America’s premier orchestra to play in his capital? The answer may be found in Seoul, the capital of the better version of Korea. South Korea today inaugurated its 17th president, Lee Myung-bak. The conservative Lee looks set to reverse a decade of the Sunshine Policy of his two predecessors, Kim Dae Jung and Roh Moo-hyun. Lee has already set a new tone in Seoul by signaling that he will condition major assistance to North Korea on adherence to its commitment to give up its atomic bombs. Since the beginning of this year Pyongyang has failed to provide a promised declaration of its nuclear weapons programs, and, as a result, the international community has slowed aid deliveries.
There are signs that the North is headed toward another economic downturn, so Kim Jong Il is undoubtedly looking for new sources of assistance. The North Korean government has stockpiled at least six months’ worth of fuel and other supplies, so it can last through the year. Although it’s unlikely that Beijing would let the regime fall, Kim does not either trust or like the Chinese and would prefer to find other sources of support, especially because multiple benefactors would allow him to play one off against the others, as his father so skillfully did during the Cold War.
The risk is that the United States will fall for the euphoria surrounding the New York Phil’s visit, which has the blessing of the Bush administration. “I don’t think we should get carried away with what listening to Dvorak is going to do in North Korea,” said Condoleezza Rice, who attended Lee’s inauguration. I agree, but her recent Korean policy has been marked by unimaginative strategy, humiliating moments, and unseemly compromises. Kim is a grandmaster of tactics, and if there will be any victim of “Dvorak Diplomacy,” it may be us, not him.
if barack obama is seen as short-shrifting, demeaning or in any meaningful way dismissing the successes in iraq and the US military sacrifices to attain them, he will be a one-term president…
…if he allows the existing successes to slip way into failures, he will be a one-term president…
as much as a pluarality of americans ended up disliking the iraqi war, the majority of americans have greater respect for the performance of our military than they do for either the media or the political class…
rightly so…
…i don’t think retaining gates was an accident and i don’t believe obama will be so foolish as to allow moderates to believe that iraq was a failed effort….he is entitled to believe that the war was a ‘mistake’ – he would be politically tone-deaf to argue that success in iraq is not vital to american interests in both the middle east and the world…
i don’t think he’s politically tone-deaf
Iraq is functioning because we’re still there and Iran doesn’t yet have nukes. Take off that flight suit.
“What WE have done”? C’mon. It was Bush and the military that got it accomplished,and when the going got tough it was accomplished with little support from the State Department and his own party in Congress. I won’t even mention the traitorous behavior of the democratic party and the MSM. Republicans, conservatives and neoconservative need to stop backing away from stating directly and forthrightly that invading Iraq was the correct decision. Iraq was attacking our planes north and south, and the sanctions were failing and about to be done awy with by the French among others. Saddam was giving haven to Islamic terrorists and supporting the intifada against Israel. Saddam was diverting oil money to his own nefarious purposes instead of for the relief of the population as intended. Saddam’s government had killed more Muslims than any other government in history. The world is a much better place with Saddam and his government gone. Saying that is like saying that the sun comes up in the east.
The reason Obama and the rest of the left refuses to acknowledge victory in Iraq is because to do so might be construed as an implicit endorsement. I’m sure the left has every intention of permitting things to go south in Iraq, just as they did in Vietnam. Iraq falling to the jihadists or becoming an Iranian satellite would be regarded as vindication; “proof” that they were right and the war never fought in the first place. Outcomes don’t matter, only moral posturing matters.
What a bunch of sick, neocon Bund traitors you are. We “won?” Truth is that the right-wing’s lying war criminal of a president started a war on false pretenses, killing hundreds of thousands of people, making millions into refugees in their own country, and completely destroying civil society in Iraq. Oh, and they spent a trillion bucks, subverted the constitution, and threw away 200 years of U.S. military and civilian traditions with regard to human rights and the laws of warfare.
And that is what the neocon Nazis call “victory.” Wow.
Hartland, did they let you out of your straight-jacket again? Go back to your padded cell and take your meds.
He can’t admit the impending victory in Iraq because he has spent the past two years campaigning against it. By so doing, he continues to diminish the sacrifice in blood and treasure that our military and country has made while being intellectually dishonest.
And here is the answer, if any were needed, to Peter Beinert’s suggestion, covered earlier today by JR, that Democrats admit the truth that the surge worked.
No, nyet, never. Obama won’t do it and none of the other Democrats will either.
Hartland — Try reading the 23 counts of the Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq and get back to us.
Also show your cites on the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed, and how “civil society has been completely destroyed in Iraq.” The Iraqi GDP is 30% over what it was during Hussein, they have elections, and they consistently have been polled that the deposing invasion was worth it. The answer to that question is now so obvious that pollsters have stopped asking.
You are either lying or so woefully, willfully ignorant that you don’t know better.
huxley, you and your neocon Bund have studied, learned, and applied the lessons taught by Goebbels.
Hartland – Why not make your first and only post read “YAAABOJLTOTIZCAOYYABONT” (You Are All A Bunch Of Jew Loving Tools Of The International Zionist Conspiracy And, Oh Yeah, You’re A Bunch Of Nazis Too)? It would save everyone a lot of time.
Only if you will make your posts read “WATMRDYRTBCIATIVSAGMDABAIDIRAAWDAIAAAPGIT”: (We Are The Master Race — Didn’t You Read The Bell Curve, Idiot? — And The Inferior Vermin Subhuman Arab Garbage Must Die And Burn. Anything Israel Does Is Right And Anyone Who Doesn’t Agree Is An Antisemite And Probably Genetically Inferor Too.)
Obama can be charming, but it’s hard for him to stay classy!
He will be the commander-in-chief, for crying outloud, he could now acknowledge the victory.
Iraq’s economy is more vibrant than ours, kurds are finally have a place of their own, Iraqi marsh area is fully sustained, and finally the rest of Arab world has a free Arab country that they can learn & copy from. I don’t understand why can’t he acknowledge the facts?
Hartland — No substantive response, just invective. Big hat, no cattle.
You’re busted, dude.
“Why can’t he recognize that the war in Iraq is ending in victory?”
Because it is not his victory.
Perhaps he simply is smart enough, unlike Jennifer Rubin, to realize that a Pyrrhic Victory is not something to be celebrated.
It’s a deal, Hartland – effective immediately. Let’s see if you live up to it..
It took Hartland almost no time to demonstrate that he is a liar.
Where do you suppose he gets his head shaved?