North Korea's Nuke Test - a U.S. Fumble

North Korea’s Nuke Test

I have said for years that we would not prevent North Korea from becoming nuclear by NOT talking to them. The policy of not talking just failed with North Korea’s nuke test.

Prior dialogue in talks between the U.S. and North Korea could have delayed or even avoided it. Now the genie is out of the bottle.

Our leadership needs to learn talk to our global neighbors to address these issues. Had we done so before this test, the U.S. would have had greater influence. Now it has less.

Diplomacy and dialogue were things people by former Secretary of State James Baker knew how to do—and had the world on our side.

That was also the great hallmark of the President’s father, George H.W. Bush, a man of the world who was a statesman who would talk to everyone in the pursuit of global solutions to difficult issues.

So far, it has been missing in this administration. Unless it changes soon, the legacy for Bush 43 will not be a pleasant one.

In a nuclear world, we cannot afford party loyalty above mistakes and failures to communicate…because those can be deadly mistakes.

Too many mistakes have been made already, and Iraq could be a failed state as a result. We don’t need more mistakes with Iran and North Korea. Anyone remember the result of the last Korean war?

Or the fact that our entire army is now in Iraq… (bombing N. Korea would get tens of thousands of South Koreans killed since they live within artillery range of N. Korea, so that is not a real option).

I wish we had people like Jim Baker and Bush 41 and Bill Clinton running things now.

I was on Fox TV Houston in 1998 when Clinton shot missiles into Afghanistan right after one of our African embassies was bombed by Al Qaida. If Bush 43 had done the same --shooting missiles at bin laden’s camp in Afghanistan and following up on an FBI’s agents warning on Mr. Atta, et al. in flight training schools after getting the August warning –and done it by September 10 --then 9 11 may have been cancelled and never would have happened.

We can’t afford any more mistakes by our leadership in this global nuclear age, including leaving child predators in Congress whose attentions are misguided… Another great opportunity was missed with North Korea by this administration. Americans will pay a high price as a result...(Note: PLEASE LET JIM BAKER HAVE RUMSFELD'S job --TODAY). AND - Start talking to Iran, make America the global good guy (it should be) instead of the country run by arrogant tin ears like Rumsfeld who get their facts wrong. We have over 20,000 service members wounded from IED's made by ammo from all the stockpiles of known weapons Saddam had -no one guarded them during the invasion because Rumsfeld had too few troops to secure them or even the Iraqi nuclear plant. His mistakes have wrecked a lot of lives..!