WILLisms.com: McCain Talks Tough On North Korea

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McCain Talks Tough On North Korea

Senator John McCain, guestblogging at Captain's Quarters, on the disastrous legacy of Bill Clinton's Agreed Framework with North Korea:

The worst thing we could do is accede to North Korea’s demand for bilateral talks. When has rewarding North Korea’s bad behavior ever gotten us anything more than worse behavior?

I would remind Senator Hillary Clinton and other Democrats critical of Bush Administration policies that the framework agreement her husband’s administration negotiated was a failure. The Koreans received millions in energy assistance. They diverted millions in food assistance to their military. And what did they do? They secretly enriched uranium.

Prior to the agreement, every single time the Clinton Administration warned the Koreans not to do something -- not to kick out the IAEA inspectors, not to remove the fuel rods from their reactor -- they did it. And they were rewarded every single time by the Clinton Administration with further talks. We had a carrots and no sticks policy that only encouraged bad behavior. When one carrot didn’t work, we offered another.

The Straight Talk Express pulls no punches here.

Posted by Ken McCracken · 10 October 2006 06:19 PM

Comments

Smack... down.

Posted by: Will Franklin at October 10, 2006 06:51 PM

McCain can drive me crazy, but he is strong on national defense. I wouldn't mind him being in charge once any sanctions regime adopted by the security council fades away. What will our options be then? We will need to be able to unilaterally or maybe bilaterally with the Japanese, keep the same or greater pressure on the beloved leader.

Posted by: Zsa Zsa at October 10, 2006 08:08 PM

I expect McCain to back up this strong language by fully supporting the president's actions on North Korea.

Now, the president had better come out with a full strategy for dealing with North Korea, and soon.

Posted by: Ken McCracken at October 10, 2006 08:17 PM

What we need is a new direction!

Posted by: christian at October 10, 2006 09:38 PM

I really would like to trust him, but cannot. Whilst I respect his military past, it appears that politics has removed whatever honesty he once had. Like Hillary, I think his political compass is hooked to a wind direction vane. If he's the Repub candidate, I'll sit things out.

Posted by: Da Coyote at October 11, 2006 12:12 PM

He also has this bad habit of turning against the president at important times.

Posted by: Ken McCracken at October 11, 2006 04:47 PM

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Posted by: medved at October 20, 2006 02:42 PM