by Carlhole » Tue 10 Oct 2006, 22:58:43
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tyler_JC', 'W')ho cares about North Korean nukes?
I agree.
Except that I would add that this is a problem for Greater East Asia to resolve. Why should we get involved in their corner of the planet.
I DO think that the Bush Administration is sorely lacking in diplomatic genius. And there ARE people who have very significant diplomatic talents and abilities. We need people like that to engage China in a continual ongoing dialog about a number of important subjects, non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, energy and environment are three that immediately spring to mind.
I share the opinion that the objective of the Bush Administration in Iraq was to control the distribution of energy supplies from Central Asia and Iraq so that, among many other things, we might gain tremendous leverage over the China's policies and economic development. It looks like that plan is not going to be as successful as envisioned. China seems to recognize the quandry the US is in and has made overtures that it wishes to cooperate with America and other in an Energy cImporting Countries-type alliance. It looks like right now, the US is in the midst of a foreign policy change, moving away from unilateralism. We'll see.
But engaging China, Japan and South Korea in non-proliferation talks using energy access cooperation as contract consideration seems like a winning plan to me. Those countries need energy supplies badly - badly enough to exert lots of pressure on NK if that country's nuclear development were impinging upon international energy agreements.
But like I said, this is a job for diplomatic and foreign policy geniuses with superb negotiating strategies and skills. We don't have geniuses in office right now.