The Gathering Storm
The New York Times reports on Iran and North Korea's steady march toward the acquisition of nuclear arsenals: "Diplomacy Fails to Slow Advance of Nuclear Arms."
American intelligence officials and outside nuclear experts have concluded that the Bush administration's diplomatic efforts with European and Asian allies have barely slowed the nuclear weapons programs in Iran and North Korea over the past year, and that both have made significant progress.In a tacit acknowledgment that the diplomatic initiatives with European and Asian allies have failed to curtail the programs, senior administration and intelligence officials say they are seeking ways to step up unspecified covert actions intended, in the words of one official, "to disrupt or delay as long as we can" Iran's efforts to develop a nuclear weapon.
The Times presents sympathetically the Democrat talking points on Iran and North Korea--it's all President Bush's fault:
"The conventional wisdom now is that [North Korea has] completely reprocessed all of it,” said Gary Samore, who headed nonproliferation efforts at the National Security Council under President Bill Clinton and has conducted a detailed assessment of North Korea for the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. “They had a huge window of opportunity when we were invading Iraq, and they appear to have made maximum use of it.”
No hint, of course, as to what measures the Dems would have taken while we were invading Iraq, or why those measures were somehow prevented by the effort in Iraq. (I assume the Dems won't claim that they would have taken 140,000 soldiers and used them to invade North Korea.)
As to where we go from here, options appear limited. The administration is now exploring the possibility of covert action, because it's pretty much too late for sanctions and diplomatic efforts:
But other experts, including former Clinton administration officials, caution that while covert efforts have been tried in the past, both the Iranian and North Korean programs are increasingly self-sufficient, largely thanks to the aid they received from the network built by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the former leader of the Pakistani bomb program. "It's a much harder thing to accomplish today," said one senior American intelligence official, "than it would have been in the 90's."
Thanks again, Bill.
Meanwhile, Iran and North Korea are licking their chops at the increasingly-likely prospect of a new American administration headed by the weak-willed John Kerry:
Several of Mr. Bush’s aides have said they expect little concrete progress before the presidential election. The Iranians appear to be betting that Mr. Kerry, if elected, would talk directly to their leaders. Mr. Kerry has also said he would engage in bilateral discussions with North Korea; Mr. Bush has insisted on multilateral talks.
Don't try to reconcile that with Kerry's constant (and unfounded) criticism of President Bush's "unilateralism." Democrats are not required to be consistent. In any event, our "allies" are of little or no help in trying to disarm Iran:
The official noted that Mr. Bush and his aides had been talking as if North Korea and Iran would follow the model of Libya, which disarmed earlier this year in an effort to re-integrate its economy with the West. But, the official argued, Iran does not need to do that because it has robust trade with Europe, and North Korea still receives considerable aid from China.In the past two weeks Iran announced that it was resuming the production of centrifuges needed to produce highly enriched uranium though it has said it is still "suspending" actual enrichment activities. While the United States has threatened to take the issue to the United Nations Security Council, it has yet to win support from many allies.
As events move toward the inevitable climax and our danger grows, the Democratic Party is AWOL. Or worse.
