The Thursday letter about North Korea, “Bush’s belligerence provoked situation,” is another example of fuzzy-headed logic brought on by blind hatred of George W. Bush. The writer claims the U.S. is to blame for pushing North Korea into making a nuclear bomb because we wouldn’t agree to their simple demand. Lip service is paid to not following Clinton’s failed “carrot and carrot” approach of giving North Korea anything on its wish list if it agreed to stop developing its nuclear program, which included 500,000 barrels of heavy fuel oil annually.
The writer fails to mention that North Korea violated that 1994 agreement by taking the deal, and the oil, while failing to halt its nuclear weapons program. We see that giving in to the demands of a dictator failed to deliver the intended result.
North Korea never planned to halt its program, but the writer wants us to see the North’s latest demand as “reasonable.” That is, until they violate this latest deal and get caught, puff out their chest and toss threats around the region like bird seed to a flock of pigeons. Then they’ll strike a new deal with the support of people who cannot see past their hatred for one man long enough to see the real danger of continually giving into the demands of a tyrannical dictator who cannot, or will not, feed his own people without the help of the international community while he pursues his dream of having “the bomb.”
Whatever happened to engaging the world on this issue? Bush is continually being flogged for “going it alone” in Iraq, yet it’s OK for us to deal unilaterally with North Korea? The politics of hate are so corrosive that logical thinking is sacrificed on the altar of blind ideology.
Michael Wood
Everett
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