May 28, 2005
3½ years left..should be enough time.
It pays to take a look at the books George W. Bush hands out to his staffers. Last year Bush's book was Natan Sharansky's The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror, which argues that countries that do not protect individual rights cannot be reliable partners for peace. You could hear Sharansky's arguments in Bush's extraordinary second inaugural speech in which he promised to promote freedom and democracy in the Middle East and around the world. Bush's critics like to mock him as the sort of person who never read books. But he does, and his reading has consequences.
This year Bush has been handing out copies of The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag by Kang Chol-Hwan. This is the harrowing story of a man who returned with his Communist family to North Korea to help build a Communist state and who was instead imprisoned. In the past Bush has denounced the North Korean regime as tyrannical and has been chided by some foreign policy experts for what they consider his allegedly impolitic bluntness. But his championing of The Aquariums of Pyongyang suggests that he is more determined than ever to undermine a regime that is probably the world's worst violator of human rights....
Bush has 3½ years left...I'd say the Beloved Socialists should start getting their hideaways and Swiss bank accounts ready. They're toast. Maybe Jimmy Carter will welcome them to his peanut farm.
They really are the worst human rights violators. They have concentration camps where 25% of the inmates die each year. So it's gonna be an especial treat to watch lefties and "peace activists" and the general crew of brain-dead Bush-haters doing everything they can to preserve the NK Gulag, and the socialist monsters that run it. Because of course, Bush is an evil man for interfering with the perquisites of a "sovereign nation," and upsetting the delicate balance of the Peace of Westphalia. And undermining stability--we can't have that.
And violating "International Law." I'm never sure what this "International Law" guff really is; I don't remember it being ratified by the Senate. But I've picked up enough hints and clues to be sure that its job is to hinder the USA and help dictators and terrorists...
Posted by John Weidner at May 28, 2005 07:17 PM | TrackBackWho are we to impose democracy on North Korea? That presumes, in the first place that they are ready for democracy. We should, instead defer to its neighbors (especially China) to determine whether North Korea is ready for democracy.
And if South Korea (which has its own political currents) is opposed or less than supportive, then obviously we should not proceed---just as the lack of French and German and Russian support (whatever the reason) delegitimizes our efforts in Iraq.
Then, too, who is to believe all that is bandied about North Korea. The very fact that no one can freely enter or leave means that no one really knows the conditions in North Korea.
And even if they are bad, is bombing them really the answer? Perhaps an international sanctions regime, imposed by the UN and enforced by other, non-US nations, is the right answer. Allow maximum negotiating time (say, a few years, at least) before the "rush to war" overwhelms us all.
Of course, if they're starving already, this would be plain cruel and unconscionable, and any deaths are really the fault of the US (for failing to lift embargoes and sanctions in the first place, since North Korean socialism would have worked just dandy otherwise).
Coming soon to regular media outlets near you!
