Hard Truth

Sean-Paul Kelley pulls no punches:

I was on the radio tonight, as I am every Monday night, and one of the issues we argued about was North Korea.

First, I get tired of people saying, "they're crazy!" Using a foreign policy foe's alleged insanity is the lazy way out. It means you don't have to think actions and consequences all the way through. "Kim Jong-il is crazy, therefore we can't negotiate with insanity!" Conservatives will shout with steely resolve in their bleary, computer monitor dulled eyes. "Ahmed-i-Nejad is a new Hitler, so of course, we can't negotiate with evil!" They retort, knowing little of Iran's political structure. This talk is lazy intellectually and lazy ethically.

Why ethically? Because this way the burden of all negative consequences has been laid on your enemy, and you are without fault, when the opposite might be the case.

Second, I am so sick and tired of hearing this tripe that 'negotiations equal appeasement.' What has not 'appeasing' North Korea gotten us the last five years? More nukes for the Koreans and a possible three stage missile that can reach the US, that's what.

What did appeasement get us from 1995-2001? A halt in North Korean nuclear weapons production and a moratorium on missile launches.

What has not 'appeasing' Iran gotten us in the last 3 years? A civil war in Iraq and and Iran that is that much closer (but still far away) to being able to build a nuclear weapon.

A persistent unwillingness to negotiate is simply political cowardice: the failure to make hard choices that leaders are elected to make. Of course, this is quality is in ample supply in D.C. these days.

Adult human life is made up of competing interests. We negotiate to manage those interests and allow ourselves to interact with a minimum of conflict. Anything else simply reeks of the sandbox. Only children can demand absolutes which are fictions granted to them by adults.