North Korean Missile Test

[Dill]

(12-01-2017, 03:36 PM)Bengalzona Wrote: True

Iran already has a missile program which was not covered in our nuke agreement with them. They have continued development. We were making headway in getting an agreement with them on the missiles, but that has now been washed aside. And the current no-nuke deal with Iran (which might be the most productive thing the Obama admin did in 8 years) is in danger of being discarded. Without the deal, they could have nukes within 5 years I'd wager.

If Trump can re-write an agreement with Iran that keeps the no-nuke agreement and adds the missiles, then I will have more respect for him. If he can work deals to get both countries to be no-nuke, I may even give his admin a passing grade despite whatever else may occur (not that they care about my grades). That is what I hope for.

I mention Trump because he is "Johnny-on-the-Spot" right now. There is no doubt that the Bush and Obama Admins can be implicated in letting the NK situation get to where it is (we were actually making some good progress with NK under Clinton, believe it or not). That said, the "blame game" no longer matters in this situation. It is a "where we go from here" situation right now. This is where real leaders show their worth, or weak leaders fail.

Two quick points:

1. Most of the responsibility for muffing Korean diplomacy falls on Clinton, then Bush. Clinton had what amounted to an Iran deal with them and then tried to play them, hoping the death of Kim Il Sung would lead to regime change and the US would not have to uphold its end of the deal.

2. No chance that anyone can re-write the current Iran deal, least of all Trump. That deal was three years in the making, and kudos to Obama and crew for wending their way through numerous efforts to sabotage the deal by Republicans, Netanyahu, Saudis, and hard line Iranians.

The one ray of hope here is that if Trump manages to back the US out of the deal, the other signatories will nevertheless continue to hold to it without US leadership.