Tony Snow blames Clinton for Bush's failures on North Korea

You know, after studying political science at the University of Washington for a few years, including a course on U.S.-North Korea post-Cold War relations, it is easy for me to just sit here and expect people to separate fact from fiction when conservative pundits spew out fiction about the 1994 Agreed Framework.  But the truth is that most television viewers actually believe the stuff that they hear day in and day out on Fox News about Clinton's East Asia policy.

There comes a point where you need to tell yourself, "I'm not going to take this anymore."  When you hear things that aren't true over and over again, you need to at least consider the impact that it will have if others believe the same nonsense.

Yesterday, the Bush Administration did the only thing they can do to divert attention away from their failed North Korea policy: blame Bill Clinton.  White House Press Secretary Tony Snow led the effort to smear Clinton yesterday:

White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters that Bill Richardson, who served as

United Nations ambassador and Energy Secretary under Clinton, "went with flowers andchocolates, and he went with light-water nuclear reactors ... and abasketball signed by Michael Jordan and many other inducements for the'dear leader' to try to agree not to develop nuclear weapons, and itfailed."

Snow added, "We've learned from that mistake."

But as former Clinton official Ashton Carter explained Sunday on Meet the Press, if it had not been for Clinton's 1994 Agreed Framework, North Korea would have 50 nuclear weapons today.

Secondly, the Bush Administration's response to the light water reactor that we helped fund for North Korea underscores perfectly the reason why this current White House just does not get it.  North Korea has two economies: a civilian economy and a military economy.  While the civilian economy did well in the 1960s, it faded in the 1970s and has been in the tank ever since.  Every government needs revenue.  With their civilian economy in shambles, North Korea developed a military economy to compensate for that lost wealth.  Today, North Korea has the world's fourth largest military, and military spending makes up one-quarter of their GNP, according to the U.S. State Department web site.  The North Koreans have made a number of military export deals with Iran and other Middle East states ever since the 1980s, totaling in the billions of dollars.

So, there is a real reason why North Korea is multiplying their military spending -- and it has nothing to do with Islamo-fascism.  They are poor.  Their people are starving.  The only way out of it that, as Kim Jong IL knows, is to build their military economy.  If we continue to let China and Russia stall talks without engaging the North Koreans directly, North Korea will continue to build nuclear weapons, and then sell those weapons on the black market -- because, as I said before, they need the money. 

There is a severe imbalance between the military and civilian economy of North Korea.  Therefore, the only way out of this is for North Korea's civilian economy to be improved.  Tony Snow needs to stop blaming the Clinton Administration for doing their research, and start encouraging his own boss to engage North Korea directly.  By continuing their run-down policy, the Bush Administration is sending the message to the American people that they care more about being stubborn than taking a new direction to solve this national security concern.

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Other blogs writing about this issue: Explore for Truth, The Moderate Voice, The Carpetbagger Report, Naperville Democrats, Good People Gonna Rise Up, From the Left, Words Have Power, The Truth about Political Stuff, The Bill Richardson Blog, The ITT List, The Good Human.

Comments

[The Xsociate]

Is it just me or does Tony look like Johnny Knoxville in those Elvis glasses?