I can't believe I'm saying this....

[palsgraf_polka]

But I agree with John Bolton.

http://tinyurl.com/ks9857

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The Obama administration is rewarding North Korea for its bad behavior by sending ex-president Bill Clinton to Pyongyang to win the release of two US journalists, the former US ambassador to the UN said Tuesday.

John Bolton, an outspoken hardliner in the previous administration of George W. Bush, told AFP that Clinton's mission to Pyongyang undermines a number of public stands held by his own wife, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"It comes perilously close to negotiating with terrorists," Bolton told AFP when asked about Bill Clinton's trip to secure the release of journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee.

The pair were sentenced in June to 12 years in a labor camp for an illegal border crossing and an unspecified "grave crime," after they were detained by North Korean border guards on March 17 while working on a story.

"I think this is a very bad signal because it does exactly what we always try and avoid doing with terrorists, or with rogue states in general, and that's encouraging their bad behavior," Bolton said.

In a US television interview here on July 26, Secretary Clinton warned North Korea that even its traditional allies had turned against it and that the communist state's rogue behavior will no longer "be rewarded."

Bolton also scoffed the White House's contention that Bill Clinton's visit is "solely a private mission" when he said "this is a former president who is married to the secretary of state. There's nothing private about this."

The visit also undermines Secretary Clinton's public remarks in which she separates the case of the two journalist from efforts to force North Korea to return to six-party nuclear disarmament talks, he said.

"Hillary has said she wanted to delink the two but (Bill) Clinton was met at the airport by Kim Kye-Gwan who is the lead and has been for 15 years or more the lead North Korean nuclear negotiator," he added.

He added it "is hard to imagine" that Clinton did not talk about the nuclear issue when he had dinner with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, given the nuclear negotiations that Clinton pursued when he was president in the 1990s.

"If you wanted to divorce the kidnapping, abduction issue of the two reporters from the nuclear issue, you couldn't have picked a less likely envoy than president Clinton," Bolton said.

"I think this is a win-win for North Korea," according to Bolton, who believes all negotiations are useless in trying to force North Korea to abandon its weapons-grade nuclear program.

I bolded the parts that get me the most about all of this. As a woman, I'm offended because it reinforces the public belief that you shouldn't send in a woman to do a man's job. It's why Hillary couldn't get past the primary election last year. If they keep pulling shit like this - with her own husband no less - than how are women going to truly be taken seriously in American politics?

I really hope Hillary was 100% behind this because if not, then it makes me angry and sad.

Comments

[wobblerlorri.livejournal.com]

All that matters to me is the journalists were released. Who gives a flying fuck how it was done, who brokered it, or what it looks like to anyone else?

As for the whole "don't send a woman to do a man's job", I think that's just being overly sensitive. The North Koreans weren't looking for a Sec'y of State, they wanted the highest level American politician they could get -- setting aside that Bill is a private citizen now. On the plus side as well -- now the US has proven that we will negotiate first before rattling sabers.

As for John Bolton, I think he accomplished exactly what he was trying to do -- spinning the whole episode into a divisive and completely fictional slur on Hilary Clinton. He needs to just shut up and sit down.

[philosophyjeff.livejournal.com]

Agreed.