Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Diplomacy Works

NY Times: Former President Bill Clinton left North Korea on Wednesday morning after a dramatic 20-hour visit, in which he won the freedom of two American journalists, opened a diplomatic channel to North Korea’s reclusive government and dined with the North’s ailing leader, Kim Jong-il.

Of course, some might not agree. Here's Wally Walrus:

...the Clinton trip is a significant propaganda victory for North Korea, whether or not he carried an official message from President Obama. Despite decades of bipartisan U.S. rhetoric about not negotiating with terrorists for the release of hostages, it seems that the Obama administration not only chose to negotiate, but to send a former president to do so.
...Negotiating from a position of strength, where the benefits to American interests will exceed the costs, is one thing. Negotiating merely for the sake of it, in the face of palpable recent failures, is something else indeed.
And not negotiating at all worked so well for the Bush administration, that North Korea reconstituted its nuclear program. As Jon Stewart posed, who wouldn't Bolton bomb?

2 comments:

Matt Osborne said...

You can take credit for the meme.

NowhereMan said...

Yup thats what the right wing will say.What did the U S give up?Did Clinton apologize on behalf of Obama?Or was it a conspiracy orchestrated by Obama and Kim Jong Il?Yes thats it!Obama and Il made a deal to have the two reporters arrested 5 months ago along with Clinton!Kim jong then agrees to fire a couple of rockets into the ocean and claim they were nuclear bombs. This way it makes his philosophy of talking with your enemies look better than the Bush-Cheney philosophy of not negotiating with your enemies look stupid.Can't the media see through this?When are they going to demand to see his birth certificate?

 
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