Hill wins, Bolton gets a big "L" for his forehead

Ah, appeasement...The rumors that started swirling about two days ago were confirmed earlier today when the bu$h administration officially moved to remove North Korea from the "State Sponsors of Terror" list. In a Rose Garden statement, the current occupant also suspended sanctions on North Korea that were enacted under the "Trading with Enemies Act".

Christopher Hill is dancing over the eviscerated Neocon ideology as John Bolton loses control and his moustache quivers uncontrollably.


I guess that todays announcement answers the question we posed a month ago.

Hill has been amazingly successful at tamping down the threat of a nuclear North Korea, but the greatest test is looming...Will North Korea give up their Plutonium stockpile and pledge to make no more weapons from it?

That is the $64,000 dollar question.

How long can Hill maintain his perch on the tightrope? He has managed the impossible thus far - he has managed to commit actual diplomacy while dealing with an administration that finds peaceful resolution of conflict anathema, and will only accept a diplomatic solution if there is no other alternative.

All the while, chickenhawk Übermensches have awaited his failure with bated breath, and the administration has been less than pleased with his successes. Indeed, they have denied him plaudits he richly deserved, just to remind him who works for whom.

It appears the answer to the "how long" question turned out to be "long enough."

Some days, you just get some good new. This looks like one of them. And the popping sound you hear? That is the sound of wingnut heads exploding. And fans of diplomacy popping champaign corks. There is quite a bit of that, too.

The indispensable Steve Clemons had this to say about todays announcement.

This is huge news -- and is a giant step in putting US-North Korea relations on a new and more constructive track. This is a success for the Bush administration -- and more importantly for Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian & Pacfic Affairs Christopher Hill who has been a punching bag for former US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton who has been spitting on Hill's deal-making for the last year.

There are still a lot of questions ranging from the interesting issue of North Korea cooperation with Syria's alleged nuclear facility that was destroyed by Israel and other issues -- but when President Bush gave Colin Powell the positive nod in the first week of April 2003 to proceed with the Six Party Talks, Bush and Cheney ignored Iran's offer of a structure for normalized US-Iran relations the very same week in 2003.

The contrast in circumstances between where America is today with North Korea and where we are with Iran is vital to note. We 'engaged' North Korea and blew it with Iran.

Congrats to Christopher Hill, John Negroponte, Condoleezza Rice, the former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs R. Nicholas Burns and his successor William Burns. And for those who want to knock China around, they should know that this entire process was impossible without China's impressive, collaborative diplomacy.

Barack Obama's inclination towards engagement with problematic leaders around the world now is now buttressed by an experience of the George W. Bush administration. Too bad so much of the rest of America's foreign policy portfolio didn't get this same kind of attention.

I am particularly gloating over the fact that todays announcement bolsters Obama's foreign policy plans and undermines John $idney's "bomb Iran/endless war" agenda.

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Steve Clemons Discovers That War Is A Bitch When You Actually Know Somebody Who Dies.

First Lt. Andrew J. Bacevich, 27, of Walpole, Mass., died May 13 in Balad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his unit during combat patrol operations in Salah Ad Din Province, Iraq. Given the ripping of garments and the gnashing of teeth going on over at tpmcafe and the Washington Note the last two days you would think Lt. Bacevich's death was unique. Steve Clemons is holding a virtual wake. Dozens of well meaning posters have expressed their condolences. Josh Marshall has blogged Lt. Bacevich's death. Why? Well, Lt. Bacevich's father is Boston University Professor Andrew J. Bacevich, a well known author and friend of all who oppose the Iraq war. The death is personal for Clemons because he actually knows Professor Bacevich.

Clemons writes:

I had the pleasure of meeting Andy Bacevich at the home of former Congressman Dave McCurdy this last holiday season. We spoke for a bit about the Iraq war as well as the absence of American strategy and dearth of strategists in government today. I had no idea his son was serving until now.

But this young man did serve his nation -- but his death is so incredibly tragic, like the others -- but his even more because his well-respected father has been working hard to end this horrible, self-damaging crusade. It's incredibly sad.

Mr. Marshall, Mr. Clemons and all you grieving wonks over at TPMCafe and the Washington Note, welcome to the Iraq war. Now you know that it is not just a political game. It is ugly. Good people die. This time it was someone you knew. The son of a friend. A very good man who will be deeply,deeply missed by all who knew and loved him.

Now, please, tell me why you haven't held similar on-line wakes for the other 3380 American children who have died in the Iraq War? Are they any less deserving of your grief?

Why haven't you grieved personally for each of the tens of thousands of Iraqis who have died? Did they volunteer to die in their homes?

I guess they are just numbers, abstract names, pictures on the television. I guess to you they aren't real because you don't know some member of their family.

Mr. Marshall, Mr. Clemons meet the reality of war. It's a bitch.

Oh, in your grief you claim Lt. Bacevich's death is more tragic than the deaths of any of the others. You are wrong. Sorry if I sound harsh, but tragic as Lt. Bacevich's death is, it is no more tragic than any of the thousands of deaths in the optional war called Operation Iraqi Freedom. You want to do something to honor Lt. Bacevich's memory, do more to stop the war.

Maybe if we could introduce President Bush and the others living in the administration bubble to the reality of the war, this optional fight would end.

There's more: "Steve Clemons Discovers That War Is A Bitch When You Actually Know Somebody Who Dies." >>