Obama to al-Qaeda: “We have sent a message from the Afghan border to the Arabian Peninsula to all parts of the globe: we will not relent, we will not waver, and we will defeat you.” But we will also withdraw from Afghanistan no matter what. Which means that the message is that our enemies just need to hang on until we get tired and they will prevail.
Contentions
It seems to be the job of the SoS to be more of a trusting idiot than a realistic tough guy.
Not only is Condi Rice an idiot in her own right and therefore a perfect representative for Bush, if it weren’t for affirmative action she would never have been Secretary of State
MU789, you’re right about the recent ones. But we have had tough guys in the past, so we should be able to do so again.
Affirmative Action, I think her loyalty to President Bush is the reason for her nomination as Secretary of State. It certainly was not her performance as National Security Adviser–she was perhaps the worst.
The Korean can has been kicked down the road by administrations since Eisenhower. It’s hrd to see the logic of pinning all the blame for it’s current position on Rice and Bush.
Gordon,
Agree with most everything, but when were we hard when we should have been soft?
Los Angeleno
Sully, yes, making bad Korea policy is a bipartisan disease. I have never pinned all the blame on President Bush, yet his Korea policy has been especially bad, even worse than Clinton’s in many respects.
Los Angeleno, good question.
I think Bush had an opening at the beginning of his first term. Powell wanted to talk to the North Koreans, which would have been the right thing to do at that moment. Instead, he rejected the softer approach and then September 11 occurred. His failure to talk to the North Koreans won him no friends in the region, and that has plagued us throughout the six-party talks. Bush should have let Pyongynag delegitimize itself by appearing intransigent. Instead, we were the ones who appeared that way. In short, he made Kim Jong Il look good in comparison.
Short of regime change, I can’t believe there was ever a deal actually available from the NorKs.
Without nukes & saber-rattling, no one would even return their phone calls — since they’re an economic basket case with nothing whatever to offer. So Condi’s right about not trusting the current bunch to keep any deal — ever.
And regime change can’t happen without Chinese & South Korean participation.
Neither China nor South Korea want regime change — because of the chaos / refugee problems it would involve. They’d rather just kick that can down the road as long as possible.
Hence, lots of diplo-blather — No deal — Problem festers — Probably gets worse.
Look, sometimes there are situations where we can do zip. NK is definitely one of these.
#10: At last, a bit of plain wisdom amid perfervid (and impotent) imprecations.
#4: Yeah, compared to Tony Lake, e.g., or Ol’ Brent? And as far as disastrous SecsState are concerned, how ’bout the Mummy (or the Zombie, as you prefer), or the General In Charge Here?
You’d have to be an idiot to trust Hamas or the Palestinian Authority, but that doesn’t stop Condi from pressuring Israel to make concessions based on nothing but trust. In the case of Hamas, it isn’t even trust, since Hamas remains explicitly committed to the destruction of Israel.
If we don’t like Condi, then we can look forward to Hillary, whose spouse is bought and paid for by foreign interests.
Tom Paine and Al, I know North Korea is a difficult situation for us, but there are good solutions available. We are after all, a superpower and North Korea is one of the weakest states in history.
For an example of a strategy to disarm North Korea peacefully, read this: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/disarming-north-korea-once-in-a-generation-opportunity/
Alexander Almasov, who is the “Mummy”? Thanks in advance.
Eppur Si, exactly. Thanks.
JohnR223, considering their relationship, I’m not sure that Bill’s interests will substantially affect Hillary’s performance. She could be a disaster, but then she has a long way to fall before she equal’s Rice near-disastrous record over the last eight years.
Gordan, I hope Hillary does not make a big of a mess of foreign policy as she did with her ill fated attempt a health care. Falling upward, I suppose.
Condi’s(actually, we should all retire the familiar “Condi”- our hopes for her were dashed long ago) summation of our dealings with North Korea is of a piece with her recent account of how much progress we’ve made in Lebanon- nascent democracy, the Syrian army forced to depart etc.
Your analysis captures it all. A bunch of key players at State, including Rice, were implacable idiots for length of Bush’s second term. To think that John Bolton could have been at the helm.
Let’s all vow here that we will not put money in Rice’s bank account and buy the deceitful and insipid memoir she’ll be undoubtedly be turning out.
JohnR223, thanks. i agree: this time–with her as Secretary of State–the stakes are a lot larger for us than it was with the health care fiasco.
Stuart Rose, I’m not buy her memoirs either. Thanks for starting a boycott of the book.