A Filthy "Slate"

It looks like the left has finally found a way to compare Bill Clinton to the President(unfavorably, of course).
This week, after 20 months of doing nothing about North Korea's drive to build nuclear weapons, President Bush finally put a proposal for a set of incentives for disarmament on the negotiating table. The remarkable thing is, the deal is practically identical to the accord that President Clinton signed with Pyongyang in 1994, an accord that Bush condemned and scuttled from the moment he took over the White House.
The remarkable thing is, even Kim Jong Il must be aware of the differences between the foreign policy of both men. Bush has proven he is willing to use military force to deal with a problem that requires military force as a solution. Bill Clinton has proven he refuses to...

It's good that Bush has at last realized that diplomacy is the only way to solve the crisis. But he's come a bit late to this epiphany.

I digress. When did Bush ever "realize" diplomacy is the "only way" to solve a crisis? If Bush takes a hard line against Kim Jong Il, he gets called a war-monger. Yet if diplomacy is used, it is the result of an "epiphany".

Now get ready for a DOOZY of a sentence...

But if he behaves the way he usually behaves—the way any cunningly rational leader in his position would behave—he will up the ante, ask for more, and walk away with a shrug if Bush declines.

Hahahahaha! Ahhwww MAN! How does a person get up in the morning, look in the mirror, and then refer to Kim Jong Il as a "cunningly rational leader"? This statement says a lot about Mr. Kaplan's intelligence, doesn't it?

And he knows that there's not much Bush can do about it.

Fred, there is much George W. Bush can do about it.

In essence, what Kim was really after(and got) in 1994 was this :
a highly conditional set of incentives to give up nuclear weapons program; aid would begin when Kim Jong Il commits to dismantling plutonium and uranium weapons programs; China, Russia, Japan and South Korea would send tens of thousands of tons of heavy fuel oil every months,



Today, what Kim SHOULD be most concerned with is:
while US would offer 'provisional' guarantee not to invade or try to topple Kim's government; Kim would get only three months for preparatory period to seal nuclear sites

Get ready to laugh...

Bush has been criticized by those countries and by Democratic rival John Kerry for not making serious offer to North Koreans; new plan retreats on key point, with Bush now agreeing to allow resumption of oil shipments, though not American oil, before North Korea actually dismantles anything.
Yea, George W. Bush is sitting in the White House right now reading John Kerry policy opinion. Kerry seems to propose the same action as the rest of the left...NOTHING. As Bill Clinton has proven... when dealing with hostility, diplomacy without a credible threat is as useful as the appeasement it is intended to be. Or has history taught us nothing...