Letters to the Editor
-
We used diplomacy...
with Iraq through the UN and we will use diplomacy through the six member talks with North Korea and the UN. If North Korea proves as unstable as Iraq we will deal with them beyond the confines of the UN and we will free a few more million people.
Q
-
Big difference being ignored here
While it is true that the US being bogged down in Iraq reduces our ability to launch preemptive war on other nations, N. Korea was never going to be a preemptive target. Why? Because unlike Iraq, it doesn't have a shitload of our oil underneath its disposable population.
To conclude that oil is not the driving force behind our activities in Iraq is to ignore: 1) our preoccupation with changing Iraqi law to increase privatization of national resources and assets; 2) our government's stunningly blatant unwillingness to prioritize anything else related to the stated reasons for invasion (security, schools, real democracy, life, death, freedom, etc.).
As long as Iraqi oil is either off the market due to chaos (keeping global prices high) or comes back online only under the control of Western corporations, the "mission is accomplished" - at least from the point of view of the US/British oil industry.
-
Another reason we won't pre-empt North Korea...
... is that they almost certainly have nukes, or at least, there's enough doubt to worry that they do. They certainly have enough material for a few radiological bombs. If we struck North Korea, they're crazy enough to go all-out against South Korea. With nukes, or even a rad bomb, that means the end of Seoul.
Indeed, one of the things Bush managed to do in invading Iraq was convince all the other potential nuclear states that they'd better get the nukes done before the US turns its eye that way, because that's the only way to be sure the US Army won't be coming over the hill.
-
Joe
A real bright spot. Now tell me,is the earth still flat and the sun rotates around it since about 6000 years?
-
As you said...
"Snow tried to argue today that diplomacy is a form of preemption, or that preemption is a form of diplomacy, or, well, something."
Orwell, indeed.
-
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...
..cause this isn't about governmental cowardice at all. The U.S. doesn't attack only those who can't defend themselves, and it isn't afraid to attack someone who, while they might not win, will definitely give us a few broken bones.
No matter what we say or do, remember that our words and actions are always fair and generous and noble and true and courageous. (Get away from there, you scruffy, meddling little dog!)
-
I always get a little nervous ...
... when people like Tim and Helen start pointing out the inconsistencies of the "Bush Doctrine" to a moron like George Bush. I mean, let's not encourage him. Please.
But the hassle with North Korea points out, once again, how idiotic the Bush Doctrine is. On the one hand, it states the obvious: does anyone not know that you don't have to wait for someone to actually pull the trigger before defending yourself? But by turning the point into a policy, all W. did was make us look weak if we don't follow through. We look weak against Iran. And when Japan -- Japan?!!? -- is the hardliner in the debate with North Korea, we look downright pityful. For a Texan, W. is not much of a card player. His bluff will be called all over the world.
-
There's another thing we're afraid of...
And that's China. Do they have the military at this point to match us? No, but they do have a formidable amount of force to deploy and more than enough to create a global conflict. At the same time, we're busily wooing them on the economic front, and we can't afford the financial consequences of pushing them away. I actually have some positive views of Hu Jin Tao and think the Chinese leadership is undergoing a gradual but substantial change, but national pride and Communist roots still run deep, and they aren't going to let us march into North Korea without a fight. This ultimately has to be solved by the Asian powers (primarily, China, South Korea, and Japan).
-
Pre-Emption
A bold but ultimately empty strategy when one considers that the US simply does not have the money, manpower, or as it turns out, political will to wage war on multiple fronts particularly when one of the players has a nuclear weapon and appears willing to use it, if only to piss off the world community. Besides which, our two previous attempts at "preemption" have failed miserably. We have the quagmire in Iraq which Bush has not the sense of honor and decency to end, and we have Afghanistan which has been completely bungled. Does anyone actually believe they will get it right when the stakes are higher and the players have either the technology for a nuclear weapon, or a few ACTUAL, if clumsy nuclear missiles?
Kim Jong Il is a Chia-pet hairdo wearing psycho and he needs to be contained fast.
The Mayberry Machiavellis are simply not smart enough to know how to do it, so they ask China and Japan to do it for them and call it "diplomacy". Once again, arrogant, unblinking stupidity and incompetence has got us in what Oliver Hardy would call "another fine mess".
-
The Bush Doctrine: Postemption
Tony Snow is the perfect Spokesperson for George Bush. He is able to make Bush's policies sound as ridiculous as they really are by trying to avoid explaining them. What he does, as any good structuralist critic will tell you, is capture the presidnet's thought process itself rather than the actual thoughts. This is an especially effective technique to describe policies that have required no thought. The central irony here is that Bush established his preemption policy after 9/11, so it is really a post-preemption policy, or as Bush himself might say, a 'postemption' policy. Iraq is the perfect example: Iraq develops a weapons program in the early 1990s which is completely dismantled by the late 90s, and Bush postempts this imminent threat to our national security in 2002. In May of 2003, Bush postempts the end of the war by declaring victory. Cheney, the master mind of the 1% Doctrine, postempts the insurgency by declaring that we are in the last throes of the insurgency. It probably isn't necessary to explain how Bush postempted the Geneva Conventions, the UCMJ, and the Consitution, and other Federal Laws. Like a cat, Bush is crouched in the grass just waiting to postempt North Korea and Iran. The victory banners have already been printed, Karl Rove is ready with the propaganda campaign to use our victory to stamp out liberalism, and the Republican party is poised to postempt the November elections.