Of course "we" should negotiate with NK, but who is "we"? Sure, NK is a threat - bigger perhaps because they already have nuclear weapons. But that's the same reason Bush has to take a different course with them than Iraq - that and the conventional weapons they could use to wipe out Seoul in a few hours. The issue I have with all the whining about US policy toward NK is the question - why is it a US problem and not at least an all-Asia problem, if not a global one? Everyone seems to think it is the US who must fix it, perhaps like we "fixed" it in '94 by sending Jimmy Carter to pay them off and make the problem appear to go away for a few years. China, Russia, SK and Japan have big stakes in fixing this problem. The US obviously has a stake as well, just as any other country that could be threatened by NK weapons exports. And we are the most powerful nation in the world, militarily, with a policy of opposing proliferation of WMDs. But don't you think there's a bit of a double standard going on? On the one hand, we are dangerous cowboys for not going along with France, Germany, Russia and China in their do-nothing approach to Iraq, but on the other, fixing the NK problem is our responsibility.
PS: NK is only an issue now because 1) they are taking advantage of the turmoil over Iraq to extort what they want and 2) those opposed to Bush here and abroad are working very hard to make it an issue. |
