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Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory

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To: Yulya who wrote (71611)	10/11/2006 12:30:43 AM
From: CalculatedRisk	Read Replies (4) of 110194

McCain has gone off the deep end. Whatever happened to the "Straight Talk Express"? I regret I volunteered for his campaign in 2000. I won't make that same mistake in '08! talkingpointsmemo.com John McCain seems to have some difficulties with physics and the historical record in his attempt to blame Bill Clinton for the latest crisis on the Korean Peninsula. Said the Arizona Senator: "I would remind Senator (Hillary) Clinton and other critics of the Bush administration policies that the framework agreement of the Clinton administration was a failure." Some basic facts. The 1994 crisis came about because the North Koreans were producing weapons-grade plutonium. Under the Agreed Framework, they agreed to shutter the plutonium production facility and put the already produced plutonium under international oversight. In return, the US promised aide, help building lightwater reactors (which don't help with bombs) and diplomatic normalization. That agreement kept the plutonium operation on ice until the end of 2002. President Bush came to office wanting to pull out of the agreement and did so when evidence surfaced suggesting that the North Koreans were secretly trying to enrich uranium (a separate path to the bomb). The bomb that went off yesterday was made with plutonium, the same stuff that was off-limits from 1994-2002. In all likelihood some of the same stuff that was on ice from 1994-2002. To the best of my knowledge, no one thinks the North Koreans are close to having enough uranium to make a nuclear weapon that way. And it's not even completely clear they were ever trying to enrich uranium. So Clinton strikes a deal to keep plutonium out of the North Koreans' hands. The deal keeps the plutonium out of reach for the last six years of Clinton's term and the first two of Bush's. Bush pulls out of the deal. Four years later a plutonium bomb explodes. Clinton's fault, right? There's certainly an argument to be made that you don't make agreements with parties you don't trust, like the North Koreans. And perhaps President Bush would have had some leg to stand on if he'd pulled out of the Agreed Framework and replaced it with something better -- either force or a better agreement. But he didn't. He just did nothing for four years. Now we have plutonium, probably uranium and actual bombs. And according to McCain, it's all Bill Clinton's fault. (ed.note: As a somewhat separate matter, there is legitimate debate about who was more responsible for the breakdown of the Agreed Framework. Neither side lived up to what it had promised. But that's another story. The key though is what exploded Sunday night.)

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