Brilliant refutation of anyone who blames Clinton for North Korean nukes.

[Sweet Freedom]

Original DU thread here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2380825

FACT CHECK: A Tony Snow-Job on North Korea

Today, Tony Snow Repudiated the Clinton North Korea Policy He Characterized as Bringing “Flowers and Chocolates” to Pyongyang. “This is not the Clinton Administration policy. I understand what the Clinton Administration wanted to do. They wanted to talk reason to the government of Pyongyang, and they engaged in bilateral conversations. And Bill Richardson went with flowers and chocolates and he went with light water nuclear reactors, and he went with promises of heavy oil and a basketball signed by Michael Jordan, and many other inducements for the Dear Leader to try to agree not to develop nuclear weapons, and it failed. But there was at least a good faith effort on the part of some very smart people to use that as an approach. We've learned from that mistake. One reason not to go bilateral with the North Koreans is what we're seeing right now, which is that you need to have concerted pressure especially from those who are very close ties with the government of North Korea so you can get results. So this is not a continuation of the Clinton program.”

FACT: Under Bush’s Watch, North Korea Has Increased its Stockpiles of Plutonium – Under Clinton, No Plutonium Was Produced. A study by the National Security Advisory Group drew upon the analysis of the Group’s chairman, former Defense Secretary Bill Perry, and more than a dozen national security experts including former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and former Assistant Secretaries of Defense Ash Carter, Graham Allison, Michele Flournoy, and found that the amount of plutonium produced by North Korea under the last three presidents to have been:

• Bush I: one to two bombs’ worth of plutonium

• Clinton: zero plutonium

• Bush II: 4-6 nuclear weapons’ worth of plutonium and counting

FACT: While Other Presidents Had Problems with North Korea, Bush’s Policies Have Made the Problem Worse. “Dealing with North Korea has frustrated every president since Truman. But it has proved particularly vexing for Mr. Bush because his administration has engaged in a six-year internal argument about whether to negotiate with the country or try to plot its collapse — it has sought to do both, simultaneously — and because America's partners in dealing with North Korea each have differing interests in North Korea's future.”

FACT: Questions Have Been Raised about the Evidence on which the Bush Administration Decided the Clinton-Era Policies Weren’t Working. “Much has been written about the North Korean nuclear danger, but one crucial issue has been ignored: just how much credible evidence is there to back up Washington's uranium accusation? . . . Relying on sketchy data, the Bush administration presented a worst-case scenario as an incontrovertible truth and distorted its intelligence on North Korea (much as it did on Iraq), seriously exaggerating the danger that Pyongyang is secretly making uranium-based nuclear weapons. This failure to distinguish between civilian and military uranium-enrichment capabilities has greatly complicated what would, in any case, have been difficult negotiations to end all existing North Korean nuclear weapons programs and to prevent any future efforts through rigorous inspection.”

http://democrats.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=2584...