That beacon of clarity, that national treasure John Bolton on the implications of delisting North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism days after NorKor’s missile tests and kicking-out of IAEA inspectors.
I suppose IQ-wise, Christopher Hill is a smart enough guy, but he’s currently behaving like an idiot. Give it up, guy. This regime will always play us for fools.
It was less than a week ago when Ahmadinejad annunced that Iran had 6,000 centrifuges up and running. But a couple of days later, when he told NBC News that if the U.S. were to change its attitude, there might be a way forward in the search for constructive dialogue. (Nothing about suspending uranium enrichment, mind you.) That was enough to get our State Department all wet in the britches - or “encouraged,” or whatever.
Now it seems the Non-Aligned Nations, that body that got started during the Cold War as a way for Third-World countries to side with the Soviet Union while still looking independent, is meeting in Tehran, and Ahmadinejad has told the assembled masses that “the big powers are going down.”
Enough with the search for hopeful signs, already. Let’s understand what we’re dealing with here.
In a sane world, W would replace Condi Rice with John Bolton this afternoon.
The much-ballyhooed sit-down between Undersecretary of State Wiliam Burns and chief Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili was a dud from the get-go. This whole line of effort is so stupid. We’ve had three rounds of sanctions, numerous incentives packages and now a high-level meeting. The upshot: Iran has told the West, “Go pound sand. We’re going to keep right on enriching uranium, and we still envision a world without that filthy Zionist regime or the Great Satan America.”
Our State Department is a very sick institution. It lets North Korea make a mockery of the notion of honoring its deadline obligations in the Six-Way Talks agreement, it sees a constructive partner for talks on a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians even when that partner, Mahmoud Abbas, sends “blessings” to the family of released child-killer Samir Kantar, and it keeps prattling on about what Iran needs to do to “avoid further isolation” and quit being “unhelpful.”
There is no such thing as a “way forward” in any of these situations. It’s time - it was time three years ago - to quit talking to any of these enemies and instead demonstrate adherence to some principles, state clearly what will not be accepted and what we understand we may have to do and experience to to stop any crossing of that line.
The great John Bolton on the W administration / State Department failure to do a damn thing about North Korea except make things worse:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120821851545814633.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Does she honestly expect the outcome she blathers about to come from this?
http://cancelthebee.blogspot.com/2008/03/israel-pledges-it-will-allow.html
And surely Christopher Hill is going to get off his “we’re-more-interested-in-real-signs-of-progress-than-timetables” meme after this.
If he uses the word “unhelpful” in response to it, I think I’ll hurl.
