Tough Talk!
Bill Richardson appears to be saying this with a straight face:
The recent tentative agreement with North Korea over its nuclear program illustrates how diplomacy can work even with the most unsavory of regimes. Unfortunately, it took the Bush administration more than six years to commit to diplomacy. During that needless delay North Korea developed and tested nuclear weapons — weapons its leaders still have not agreed to dismantle. Had we engaged the North Koreans earlier, instead of calling them “evil” and talking about “regime change,” we might have prevented them from going nuclear. We could have, and should have, negotiated a better agreement, and sooner.
What could possibly be better than the agreement Bill Clinton negotiated with them?
As the International Atomic Energy Agency just confirmed, Iran has once again defied the international community and is moving forward with its nuclear program, yet the Bush administration seems committed to repeating the mistakes it made with North Korea.
Not true! Bush never started aiming carrier groups at Kim, clearing airspace for Israelis to Pyongyang, or detaining North Korean agents in Iraq. We tailor our mistakes to the situation, thank you very much.
Rather than directly engaging the Iranians about their nuclear program, President Bush refuses to talk, except to make threats.
Let’s see, flip through the old Merriam-Webster …. there it is. “Engage directly: to interact with in close proximity; in the case of lying, murdering, terrorist-supporting nations, to threaten to blow big holes in or to glass over.”
He has moved ships to the Persian Gulf region and claims, with scant evidence, that Iran is helping Iraqi insurgents kill Americans. This is not a strategy for peace. It is a strategy for war — a war that Congress has not authorized. Most of our allies, and most Americans, don’t believe this president, who has repeatedly cried wolf.
Blah blah blah, Bush lied, etc.
Saber-rattling is not a good way to get the Iranians to cooperate.
Maybe not, but it sure makes them change their tune.
… A better approach would be for the United States to engage directly with the Iranians and to lead a global diplomatic offensive to prevent them from building nuclear weapons. We need tough, direct negotiations, not just with Iran but also with our allies, especially Russia, to get them to support us in presenting Iran with credible carrots and sticks.
This is actually a very useful idea. Seeing as Iran has been ignoring the Europeans, the United Nations and the United States, perhaps we can get our allies the Russians … snort … sorry, beer came out my nose … to sell them some more nuclear technology. Worth a try.
No nation has ever been forced to renounce nuclear weapons, but many have chosen to do so.
Yeah. Exactly one that actually had them, but had no use for them.
The Iranians will not end their nuclear program because we threaten them and call them names.
He’s right. They will end their nuclear program because that smoking pile of radioactive rubble doesn’t work anymore.
They will renounce nukes because we convince them that they will be safer and more prosperous if they do that than if they don’t.
Right again! Because big smoking holes in the middle of your nuclear facilities, your military bases and your oil production facilities are not safe and not prosperous.
This feat will take more than threats and insults. It will take skillful American diplomatic leadership.
Yeah. That and about $150 million worth of cruise missiles.
Diplomacy is more than just talking to people. It requires speaking credibly from a position of strength. As the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, as energy secretary, as a member of Congress and as a diplomatic envoy, I have always believed in and worked to achieve tough, credible and direct negotiations with adversaries. To be tough, you need strong alliances and a strong military. And to be credible, you need a record of meaning what you say. By alienating our allies, overextending our military, making idle threats and antagonizing just about everyone, the Bush administration has undermined our diplomatic leverage.
Blah blah blah, vote for me … please! Look, I got an oped in the Washington Post! I’m a player!
There’s more, but its just more nonsense about how dangerous brinksmanship is and good it is to talk to people … you know; talk, talk tough, but not scary Bush tough. Tough like you mean it, except that you don’t. From strength, with credibility. The kind of credibility you get from … I dunno … abandoning your allies, doing what Kofi Annan and Jacques Chirac tell you to do, that kind of thing.
Protein Wisdom hops in the Wayback Machine and compares the way some people look at Iran to the way some people used to look at the Soviet Union.
Topics: Iran, North Korea, pols
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 7:59 pm on Saturday, February 24, 2007
10 Responses to “Tough Talk!”
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February 24th, 2007 at 8:11 pm
Hey Bill, New Mexico, what?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Richardson_(politician)
He visited Nicaragua, Guatemala, Cuba, Peru, India, North Korea, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Sudan to represent U.S. interests.
You did a fine job, Bill. With the exception of India and maybe Peru, all of them are Leftist and screwed up.
Christ you’re as bad as Al Gore, every where the nut bag goes as to Global Warming, it snows, or is already under 10 feet of it.
Hey Bill? Do me a favor, stay away from India. I may need my Dell worked on.
February 24th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
I read that Richardson was considered more of a “center left” than Hillary!, and possibly a better Demoractic candidate for President……an opinion that I see was badly misinformed.
February 24th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
Tough Talk!
Kumbaya, My Lord Jules Crittenden If another aircraft carrier group in the Gulf and a couple of detentions in Iraq made Ahmadinejad sound like a flower child, this news ought to make him start sounding like Gandhi: Israel is negotiating
February 24th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
Bill’s Nibbles // Open Post — 2007.02.24
Some Bill’s Bites posts, some things I excerpted and linked but I’m sending you to the original post. I may rearrange the order of the items within this post as I add new things that I think belong above the
February 24th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
Richardson’s not an idiot. His constituents are idiots and he knows that full well. He’s talking idiotese because that’s what his supports speak and understand.
February 24th, 2007 at 10:35 pm
Richardson’s not an idiot.
He impersonates one well though, right? The Iranians and Norks would play him like a Steinway and roll him like a Bowery bum.
February 24th, 2007 at 11:09 pm
“The Iranians and Norks would play him like a Steinway and roll him like a Bowery bum.”
Unfortunately, the Norks stole his wallet once already.
February 25th, 2007 at 4:13 am
Well, Jules, one can hardly beat your comments on this. I say that because they were so close to my own.
His constituents may be idiots, but that doesn’t mean that the whole of the American electorate is made up of idiots. There are too many, I grant you. But this guy talks as though we’ve all been lobotomized, and are therefore bereft of a functioning memory.
February 25th, 2007 at 8:18 am
I am so tired of hearing this nonsense. Bill Clinton was president for 8 years and all he did was talk talk talk. And what did it get us? Iran was not our ally when he left office. North Korea was not disarmed.
The Korean and Iranian regime are evil. If they are not then what exactly does Richardson think they are? Unloved? Do they act out because they have low self esteem?
February 25th, 2007 at 9:41 am
“We need tough, direct negotiations, not just with Iran but also with our allies, especially Russia, to get them to support us in presenting Iran with credible carrots and sticks.”
I think that is called deploying an “anti-missile” shield in Eastern Europe to protect againt “Rogue State” missiles, but wll somehow have no effect against magical Russian Missiles.
It seems to me that the Chinese were not doing as much as they could to disourage Kim until the Japanses decided they needed a missile shield to defend against N Korean missiles, but of course, the “Magical” Chinese missiles could stil get thru whatever missile shield the Japanese put up.
Of course we all know Chinese and Russian missiles defy the laws of physics, because the Chinese and Russians have said so.
Diplomacy is the art of convincing the other guy that what is in my interest is in his interest.
If the Russians don’t care if their nuclear deterrent is rendered completely useless, they will let the Iranians get nukes, in which case every nation in the world will have to have an anti-missile system, which will probably work as well against Russian and Chinese nukes as Iranian nukes.