Blame Bush for North Korea's Nukes

[maha]

Last week North Korea announced it had nukes. This was no surprise. Immediately after this announcement many on the Right Blogosphere blamed Bill Clinton (see random examples here, here, and here). This also was no surprise. These people are ignorant of what really happened in North Korea in the 1990s and on the Bush Junior Watch, and they form opinions in ignorance. No surprise.

The fact is that the Clinton-Carter 1994 Agreed Framework worked. I'm putting together a factual history of the agreement to show how it fell apart under Bush's watch, because of Bush's arrogance. The swarms of rightie yappers who blame Clinton for everything won't ever read it, of course. But I think it's important for somebody to keep the facts straight.

I want in particular to call attention to an article in the January/February 2005 issue of Foreign Affairs, "Did North Korea Cheat?" by Selig S. Harrison.

This article was an eye-opener for me, and I thought I had caught on to the Bushies' nefariousness in North Korea already. But it's worse than I had imagined. Harrison says the Bushies are pulling an Iraq in North Korea -- presenting a worse-case scenario based on half-assed intelligence. They are unnecessarily provoking an international crisis and bringing us closer to war -- nuclear war, this time.

For the series I'm writing so far, please see--

Part 1, on the background of the Agreed Framework and how Bush dissed it by being a snot in March 2001

Part 1.5 some details left out of Part 1

Part 2, which goes from March 2001 through to claims that North Korea was processing uranium or weapons, made in October 2002, right before the election.

Part 2.5, more detail on what the Bushies were really up to in October 2002.

It's a lot of material, but I'm trying to make it available to people to use as a resource. I'll be adding to it through the next couple of days.

[notadmblnd]

1. If I'm not mistaken, North Korea wouldn't even have nukes

if it weren't Donald Rumsfeld. He was the head of a company called ABB and that company provided N. Korea with the necessities to build their nuclear plant.

[Spinzonner]

2. How do we know the Neocons didn't want it to fall apart

It's in their nature to promote confrontations to provoke conflicts to advance radical change, regardless of the cost to the US armed forces and the country's financial health.

And of course, other countries don't really count at all (Israel excepted, of course).

[evil_orange_cat]

3. How about we blame Kim Jong IL?

I hate Bush, but maybe the North Koreans deserve blame for developing nuclear weapons. Bush didn't help the situation, but he certainly didn't give them aid in developing the weapons.

I'm going to go hide now because I fear I'm going to be bombarded by flames and whatnot for dare suggesting we blame someone other than Bush. :tinfoilhat: