I can't believe I'm saying this....
Aug. 4th, 2009 02:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
palsgraf_polkaBut 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.
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.
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Re: THIS
Date: 2009-08-07 04:09 am (UTC)Will this inspire dictators, extremist groups who are considered terrorists to take more hostages? Probably.
I'm actually an somewhat of an isolationist - I think unless we are directly attacked by a foreign nation (I don't count 9/11 as being attacked by a foreign nation) we should not invade other countries. Maybe we should set an example and not be so militaristic.
And in the case of 9/11, instead of invading Iraq (or even Afghanistan for that matter - didn't we learn from Russia?) we just should have sat and gathered a lot of really good intelligence and then sent in an elite team to hunt and kill Bin Laden, and show his severed head on TV. Send a message.
But no. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and their coven of cretins wanted a big expensive war(s). Look at the money spent on and atrocities that Blackwater is being indicted for; it's scary. I wish we had never invaded either country.
And I still stand by the fact that Hillary has been essentially demoted by this whole N. Korea event and this could possibly ruin her career and any future aspirations to the presidency. Obama should have just swallowed his pride at the outset and made Bill Clinton his secretary of state instead of humiliating Hillary by sending Robert Gates and Bill Clinton to do her job and relegating her to do photo ops in Kenya while the big boys jerk each other off.