This is not merely an encouraging sign, but represents a huge, hard-won victory for the Bush administration (and, well, all of us!). North Korea has turned over a declaration of its nuclear activity to China, one of the parties in the six-nation talks …

Bush just lifted sanctions on North Korea….

He has changed his dark ways by putting on the full armor of Barack…which includes the sword of deceit, so there is definitely something shady going on here.

I’ll keep my fingers crossed that this all turns out to work… but my hopes aren’t too high.

especially with working missile defense

Which Obama has said he intends to dismantle.

Shame I never voted for him. We just staved off a catastrophe worse than Iraq, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe and Sudan combined – especially with working missile defense (take that, leftists) and multilateral talks (take that, Kerry).

In Kosovo, there was a need for military action because the leaders involved did not respond to diplomacy.

Did not respond to diplomacy? Clinton gave them an ultimatum to submit to NATO rule (not just Kosovo but all Serbia) or be bombed. They quite rightly refused this illegal and melgomaniacal demand whereupon Clinton, without the slightest hint of legality from either the UN or the U.S. Congress, began a massive bombing campaign against Serbia and the Serb forces in Kosovo.

What business does NATO have turning a Serbian province into an Albanian province? If NATO decided tomorrow that Jerusalem belonged to the Arabs and that Israel must give it up would military action be justified if Israel’s leaders “did not respond to diplomacy”?

Sorry if this comment veers too far off-topic.

if all goes according to plan, the US will quarterback nuclear power plants of a type that does not produce material suitable for bombs

Foolishness and lies. We all know the U.S. can’t and won’t build a nuclear power plant. We lost the ability to build them like 30 years ago I think.

Now the French, those people can build a Nuclear power plant. If I were the DPRK I’d want someone who has some experience and ability to be building my nuclear power plants, not someone who quit even attempting to make them decades ago.

In Kosovo, there was a need for military action because the leaders involved did not respond to diplomacy.

Did not respond to diplomacy? Clinton gave them an ultimatum to submit to NATO rule (not just Kosovo but all Serbia) or be bombed. They quite rightly refused this illegal and melgomaniacal demand whereupon Clinton, without the slightest hint of legality from either the UN or the U.S. Congress, began a massive bombing campaign against Serbia and the Serb forces in Kosovo.

What business does NATO have turning a Serbian province into an Albanian province? If NATO decided tomorrow that Jerusalem belonged to the Arabs and that Israel must give it up would military action be justified if Israel’s leaders “did not respond to diplomacy”?

Hmmm… Didn’t something similar happen with the Norks in the waning days of the Clinton administration? Remember how that turned out?

BJ* on June 26, 2008 at 8:07 AM

No. The Agreed Framework happen in 1994. And this is a process rather than perfunctory agreement with one party and only cursory oversight like the Clinton-Carter debacle.

Barack Obama’s campaign site still claims that heis the only major candidate who supports tough, direct presidential diplomacy with Iran without preconditions. Here’s an example of a result stemming from a different strategy used with another charter…

You really think so…. The message most around the world read out of the this is that if you are a despot and want to remain in power and get financial aid you need to build a nuclear arsenal. Bush identified Iran, Iraq and North Korea as the axis of evil and the country which give the US the finger and set off its own nuke gets the best deal out of the three. So what if they shut down their plutonium plant… THEY ALREADY PRODUCED ENOUGH FOR THEIR WEAPONS! Some victory Ed. I hate to think what constitutes defeat and capitulation to you. The US could have had all this six years ago when Kim wanted to negotiate but the US decided to walk away and wait until Korea had the weapons in order to give this little dictator respect.

Saying that Korea is somehow a more rational partner for negotiations than Iran is just as uncoupled from reality as painting the recent agreement as some sort of Bush victory. Where are your marbles!

I also had a good time looking up some of Jimmy Carter’s greatest hit…pieces.