Blaming North Korea on Clinton — and so it begins…

July 10, 2006

Since Bush took office in 2001, North Korea has grown progressively more dangerous. Kim Jung Il has removed weapons inspectors from the country, developed more nuclear weapons, and ignored international demands and test fired missiles on the 4th of July.

As noted on Meet the Press yesterday, the Institute for Science and International Security estimated that North Korea has enough separated plutonium to develop now an arsenal of four to 13 nuclear weapons, compared with estimates of just one or two weapons in 2000. By 2008, the Institute believes North Korea could have enough plutonium for eight to 17 nuclear weapons.

The Bush administration’s policy, if one can fairly call it a “policy,” has basically been to walk loudly and leave your stick in Iraq. All the while, North Korea has grown more dangerous, not less.

How does the White House respond to this inconvenient reality? By criticizing Clinton.

Facing increasing criticism of their North Korea policy from the right and left, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow lashed out at the Clinton administration. Snow accused the Clinton administration of going to North Korea with “flowers and chocolates.” He said the Clinton strategy “failed” and President Bush had “learned from that mistake.”

Look, the 1994 Agreed Framework wasn’t perfect, but it did represent progress. Clinton offered North Korea light-water reactors for electrical power; Kim Jung Il agreed to allow full monitoring and inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The deal began to unravel, but Bush ended negotiations altogether after taking office.

After the Bush White House ratcheted up the rhetoric, North Korea, as Fred Kaplan explained, “pulled out of the Nonproliferation Treaty, kicked out the IAEA’s inspectors, unlocked the fuel rods, reprocessed them into bomb-grade plutonium — and that’s where things have stood for the past three years.” There’s been no progress since. To reflexively blame Clinton may come naturally to hacks like Tony Snow, but in this case it’s not only foolish, it’s silly.

Judd helped draw the bottom line for us.

Let’s review the progress of North Korea’s nuclear program during the last three administrations:

1. George H. W. Bush: one to two bombs’ worth of plutonium

2. Bill Clinton: zero plutonium

3. George W. Bush: 4-6 nuclear weapons’ worth of plutonium

If Clinton’s policy was a “failure,” how should we describe Bush’s?

“If Clinton’s policy was a “failure,” how should we describe Bush’s?” – CB

The probable cause of the death of Millions of Americans, Japanese, and South Koreans. The certain cause of the death of Millions of North Koreans under the un-removable Communist regime.

Tony Snow is being an idiot. You’d think after more than five years in power, people would stop buying this line of crap. But maybe not, they are ‘conservatives’. About now, the only thing they have left to conserve are their self-delusions.

  • In Animal Farm the ruling clique blamed their failures on the subversions of their old comrade Snowball.

    Our ruling clique’s tactic has been to blame things on anybody else. Clinton happens to be their convenient whipping boy, particularly since they ran against him in 2000.

    The Bushies are proving once again that they are truly Orwellian.

  • Remember the “blame game” that Scotty refused to play after Katrina?
    It looks likeTony Snow has dusted off the box and is setting out the game board just in time for the elections.
    The game doesn’t need written instructions because the only rule is to win, but it must have a rigged stack of chance cards, and of course a spinner.

  • To blame Clinton this late in the Bush regime, tells me they have nothing else. Even if (for the sake of argument)you accepted Clinton’s policy was a catastrophe, what’s Bush been doing to fix it for the last 6 years?
    It’s beyond desperate. It’s pathetic.

  • The worst part of this story is that I doubt that anyone in MSM will even call Bush/Snow on this BS. It was entirely the Bush administration who decided to stop negotiating with NK and now the world is much more dangerous. And they wonder why, and get angry because, the “left wing blogs” are so influential with so many voters. Yes, I agree: George Orwell was a prophet.

  • “To reflexively blame Clinton may come naturally to hacks like Tony Snow, but in this case it’s not only foolish, it’s silly.” – CB

    It’s not only silly, it’s puerile. Clinton was a statesman with vision, clarity, and incisiveness. His treatment of NK crisis:

    Now, barely a year into Clinton’s first term in office, they [the NoKos] were preparing to remove the fuel rods from their storage site, expel the international weapons inspectors, and withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (which North Korea had signed in 1985).

    was exemplary:

    In response, Clinton pushed the United Nations Security Council to consider sanctions. North Korea’s spokesmen proclaimed that sanctions would trigger war. Clinton’s generals drew up plans to send 50,000 troops to South Korea–bolstering the 37,000 that had been there for decades–as well as over 400 combat jets, 50 ships, and additional battalions of Apache helicopters, Bradley fighting vehicles, multiple-launch rockets, and Patriot air-defense missiles. Beyond mere plans, Clinton ordered in an advance team of 250 soldiers to set up logistical headquarters that could manage this massive influx of firepower. These moves sent a signal to the North Koreans that the president was willing to go to war to keep the fuel rods under international control. And, several former officials insist, he would have. At the very least, they say, he was prepared to launch an air strike on the Yongbyon reactor, even though he knew that doing so could provoke war.

    Yet at the same time, Clinton set up a diplomatic back-channel to end the crisis peacefully. The vehicle for this channel was former President Jimmy Carter, who in June 1994 was sent to Pyongyang to talk with Kim Il Sung, then the leader of North Korea. Carter’s trip was widely portrayed at the time as a private venture, unapproved by President Clinton. However, a new book about the ’94 North Korean crisis, Going Critical, written by three former officials who played key roles in the events’ unfolding, reveals that Clinton recruited Carter to go.

    The redeming wisdom of Clintion was his understanding of international politics and the international community, and the necessity of working within international law. He respected the UN, he followed procedures and precedents, and he put force behind international agencies, mandates and resolutions.

    The Bush buffons are reckless backwoodsmen in comparison. It leaves a foul taste in the mouth even to mention them in the same comment. What insult to human decency and intelligence. I leave stronger invective to those more skilled and practised in its weilding.

  • “flowers and chocolates.”–
    It was very clever of Clinton to send a diabetic with severe allergies such a gift.

  • perhaps my memory is faulty, but i do not recall a single instance of the clinton administration saying “that naughty bush administration. it left us with a hopeless mess in north korea.”

    more substantively, it’s no surprise that, under duress, snow immediately reverts to type: a right-wing attack columnist.

  • Damn that Clinton Administration! If they hadn’t used up all of the “flowers and chocolates” on NK, the Iraqis would have had some to greet us with!

  • Why not? They’ve already expended a huge amount of energy dumping on Jimmy Carter, which is even more bizarre than attacking Clinton.

    What’s intereting is the huge shrug I hear the nation giving this ploy. They’ve heard it before and it just doesn’t seem to have the resonance that it once did.

    BTW, has anyone noticed how gaunt and harried Tony Snow is looking these days? Given his truly worthless and inartful responses, I’m beginning to miss old Scotty McClellan who at least put some effort into his mendacity.

  • By labelling Iraq, Iran, and North Korea as the ‘axis of evil’ and by invading Iraq on invented pretexts, Bush made it obvious to Iran and North Korea that their only means of deterring an american invasion would be to build up their nuclear weapons programs to the point where even an assWhole like Bush would have to think twice before invading. And guess what, it worked, and this newer, worse mess is entirely Bush’s fault. Trying to blame it on Clinton is just pathetic.

  • In order to describe the Bush policy, I would first have to acknowledge that Bush “has” a policy. And, as there clearly is not a policy to describe, I cannot describe the policy for which the aforementioned description has been requested.

    As for the overall NK issue, it may well be that, by failing so miserably during the course of its tenure on Pennsylvania Avenue, this current administration is laying the groundwork upon which a future administration—a Democratic administration, to be sure—will have no option other than to re-commence offensive military operations on the Korean Peninsula. This, in the minds of the Kid Karl Klan, could require reinstating the draft, what with our current conventional force-levels being too low to engage in three separate theaters. That, in and of itself, would be a severe injury to that future administration’s chances for re-election.

    However, it could also force the “nightmare scenario” of a nuclear assault/response. I really, really do not want to go there—because the GOP would have the ultimate trump-card, by simply replying: “Well, at least we never had to nuke anyone….”

  • From Yahoo News:

    “NEW DELHI – India’s first test-firing of a new missile designed to carry nuclear warheads across much of Asia and the Middle East was unsuccessful, the defense minister said. Although initially reported as a success by officials, the Agni III missile plunged into the Bay of Bengal short of its target, Defense Pranab Mukherjee told reporters late Sunday.”

    “…..While past Indian missile test firings were seen attempts at saber-rattling with Pakistan, which would in turn test its own missiles, the Agni III test was seen as routine and intended to further India’s missile program, which aims to eventually produce a long-range ICBM.”

    But they’re the good guys, so this is okay, right?
    Who in in their right mind would ever see this as an escalation of nuclear tensions in South Asia?

  • The weapons inspectors were removed because President Simian made a certain “access of evil” speech. Bush’s lack of any foreign policy ability or interest in foreign policy is why we’ve gotten to this point with North Korea rattling it’s saber now.

  • Zeitgeist (12) is right; if it hadn’t been for Clinton (who used them all up), there’d have been flowers strewn to greet us on every street of Baghdad. And flying carpets, too, no doubt.

    But, no disrespect, I’d dispute the “chocolates” part… Isn’t it too hot out there? And not enough electricity to sustain things like fridges?

  • Has anyone else noticed how afraid the Bush administration is to even sit down and talk with leaders they don’t like?

    I mean, after 911, they never (as far as I can see) even tried to engage the Taliban in direct communication, or following up on tehir offer to hand over Bin Laden (still free)…same with Hussein and Iraq, it was all rhetoric, and the closest they got to communicating was via CNN sound bytes to each other. Same with N Korea, same with Iran who’s primer minister recently sent a very unconventional letter direct to Bush, asking to meet, which went unanswered.

    Read again Goldilocks’ well written comment…”Clinton…set up back-channels for diplomacy”….unless it is super secret, the Bush’s don’t WANT negotiation, nor do they want to even appear to be appeasing by simply communicating with these other leaders. It is as if they don’t even understand “Diplomacy” as being a possible alternative. I think “the decider” doesn’t like diplomacy, sees it as weak. Typcial…

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