White House Blasts Clinton N.Korea Policy

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON -- The White House belittled former President Clinton's policy of direct engagement with North Korea on Monday, saying efforts to shower North Korean leader Kim Jong Il "with flowers and chocolates" failed.

White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters that Bill Richardson, who served as United Nations ambassador and Energy Secretary under Clinton, "went with flowers and chocolates, and he went with light-water nuclear reactors ... and a basketball signed by Michael Jordan and many other inducements for the 'dear leader' to try to agree not to develop nuclear weapons, and it failed."

Snow added, "We've learned from that mistake."

Jay Carson, a spokesman for the Clinton Foundation in New York City, responded, "This is a serious issue for global security, and it's unfortunate that the Bush administration's TV spinmaster is manufacturing excuses for North Korea's transgressions instead of looking at the last six years of inaction and the abandonment of diplomacy."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/10/AR2006071001214.html

[DesEtoiles]

1. Holy Mary mother of God! Put these psychos in jail already!

[rodeodance]

13. this WH is always ready to blame someone!

[Tellurian]

22. Tony is new to the podium..

and doesn't like doing his home work..
I suppose he doesn't realize all that has transpired in the last six years.
And how foolish he sounds to most of us.

It was the Bush (policy of diplomacy) publicly announcing N.Korea,
as part of the "The Axis of Evil" throwing all of Clinton's good will out the window.

Then scrambling like crazy, Bush regretting his choice of words sending media envoys
everywhere backpedaling even plagiarizing all the good stuff from Clinton and calling it their own:

Three Little Words Matter to N. Korea

"To stem the sense of crisis -- coming as the United States readied an invasion of Iraq -- on Dec. 29, 2002, Powell hit five Sunday-morning talk shows. In every appearance, he resurrected the "no hostile intent" phrase that had appeared in the Clinton communique -- and attributed it to Bush.

"This year, the president made a clear statement that he had no hostile intent toward North Korea," Powell said on CBS's "Face the Nation." "And he said that in South Korea earlier this year." On Fox News, Powell quoted Bush as saying, "I have no hostile intent toward the North."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42357-2005Feb21_2.html

Fu Manchu say:

"Closed mouth gathers NO flies!"

[sutz12]

23. Yeah, but Tony was a fucking news man

Please, please, please don't insinuate that Tony knows nothing about this. He's part of the problem, not a solution.

[Tellurian]

26. No surprise there...he is either on drugs or can't handle the Truth! n/t

[Fermezlabush]

31. Response to the blaming Clinton in 2003 in WaPo:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45352-2003Feb21.html
>
> Don't Put The Blame On Clinton
>
> By Steve Ricchetti
The writer was President Clinton's deputy chief of staff
it tackles many points:


> North Korea. Pyongyang's nuclear program was built up during the 1970s and '80s, and the plutonium possibly used to make one or two nuclear weapons was created before Clinton took office. It was Clinton -- taking a firm stand, as opposed to the current confused posture of the United States -- who froze North Korea's plutonium production operation. Were it not for Clinton's leadership, North Korea would have enough plutonium to make at least 50 nuclear bombs today.

[fordnut]

52. Bush don't care about the americans

hey i couldn't agree more put them in jail and then a firing
squad

[AnnieBW]

2. ABC

Always Blame Clinton!

[C_U_L8R]

3. i hope Clinton says "Eat Me"

B-)

[onehandle]

4. Waaaaah! We control everything! Waaaaah! It's Clinton's Fault! nt

[bling bling]

42. How embarrassing for them that they're so pathetic.

They've control the Senate, Congress, Supreme Court, and White House. We don't have enough Democrats in either house to do jack-squat about anything. After 6 years, they're blaming Clinton?

All I can do is roll my eyes and shake my head at them. Are these children seriously in charge?

[Rex]

5. 'Flowers and chocolates' haha is that like 'throwing flowers at the

feet of the liberators'? Let us not forget the spyplane blowjob Bush/Cheney gave China after they cried for it back like big babies! I blame the Clenis for upsetting the children.

[teryang]

24. The EP3 incident was evidence of their total incompetence...

...in understanding the realities of power politics in Asia. Their attempts to rollback developments in Korea are ridiculous. Japan is not an effective counterweight to China. S. Korea doesn't like Japan. S. Korea has a possessory interest in N.Korea. They want unification. This unified country will naturally gravitate to its cultural cousin, mainland China, for historical reasons. Ultimately, it will be nuclear armed.

[rurallib]

6. I am just so surprised that they would think of blaming Clinton

This is the first time they've done that right?
Didn't Clinton's failed policies also lead to the Iran-Contra affair? And the Teapot Dome scandal? And the Dred Scott decision? And the Missouri compromise?
That Clinton - bad for Murica.

[krispos42]

56. Don't forget Mount Vesuvius!

It was Clinton's appointment of an imcompetent FEMA director that resulted in the failure to evacuate Pompeii and Herculaneum and caused tens of thousands of deaths in 79 AD.

And we can't forget Clinton's gross mismanagement in Venice in 1106 AD, when days after heavy rain and high tides caused massive flood damage, a fire broke out and spread through several quarters. Then a second fire broke out in April and destroyed most of the rest of the city.

The Great Egyptian Famine of 1200-1202AD highlighted Clinton's lack of consistant environmental and agricultural policy, and his failure to act as Egyptians were forced into cannibalism underscores his lack of social policy.

The Great China Quake of 1556 AD killed some 830,000 low-income Chinese persons, millions of whom had dug caves into high banks of soft clay. The quake caused the caves to collapse. Clinton's lack of low-income housing policy forced the creation of the non-code cave system and the subsequent deaths.

How about the destruction of the Parthenon in 1687? While fighting the Turks in control of Athens, Clinton's forces hit the Parthenon with artillery, destroying thousands of years of history.

The incompetence of Clinton as a military leader are also apparent in 1814, when he left Washington DC unguarded and a British raiding force razed the city.

Another example of Clinton's inept administration is in 1853, when an train engineer tried to cross an open drawbridge in Norwalk, CT, killing 46. Where was the Surface Transportation Board or the National Transportation Safety Board?

Clinton's lack of anti-ballistic-missile defense is why a comet was able to strike Siberia in 1908, as well. Only luck kept the impact sight in the Tunguska forest, which is largely empty.

Don't get me started on Clinton's second term! Titanic, Dustbowl, Pearl Harbor, Nagasaki, Watts Riots... the list is ENDLESS!!!

I'd like to thank "The Pessimist's Guide to History" for the historical information.

[Cha]

7. Yeah, Clinton! All your

nice talk about bush's immigration policies and this is the Thanks you get?

[jpgray]

8. They've been in power for six fucking -years-

Nuclear weapons went in under -their- watch. Is this the best they can come up with?

[rodeodance]

14. I like Clintons response!

......Jay Carson, a spokesman for the Clinton Foundation in New York City, responded, "This is a serious issue for global security, and it's unfortunate that the Bush administration's TV spinmaster is manufacturing excuses for North Korea's transgressions instead of looking at the last six years of inaction and the abandonment of diplomacy."

[Strelnikov_]

9. Like We Didn't See This Coming n/t

[flamingyouth]

10. AAAUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

:banghead:

[wicket]

11. Can you say D-E-S-P-E-R-A-T-E?!

:nopity:

[hatrack]

12. It's now July, 2006, Clinton hasn't been in office since January, 2001 . .

Oh WHO CARES?!? Let's just pin the blame on the Clenis when all else fails, shall we?

It's like the "Get Your War On" featuring "Not Me" from Family Circus - "Who founded the terrorist organization? Who scribbled all over the cave?"

Fucking pathetic, whiny little PRICKS.

[bluestateguy]

15. Bill Clinton left office on January 20, 2001

It was a long time ago. The statute of limitations is passed for blaming everything that is wrong on your predecessor.

It's their government now.

[Monkeyman]

30. Six years of hell you mean Bill no more

Bill had this Country working. Bush and company has sold America to the highest Bidder

[w4rma]

16. Whackjobs. (nt)

[TankLV]

17. Pssst: Don't tell them that Clinton's policy was WORKING until they

SCUTTLED his plans - along with EVERYTHING ELSE associated with him and his SUCCESSFUL Presidency!

God, another, current reason to HATE these pricks even more than I did yesterday!

[jaxx]

18. This says the US will do bilateral talks with NK

SEOUL, South Korea Jul 8, 2006 (AP)— A U.S. envoy expressed support for China's proposal to hold informal six-nation talks on the North Korean nuclear threat and offered to meet bilaterally with the North on the sidelines of those discussions.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2168315

Of course, it's always easier for the bushies to blame Clinton and forget what they said yesterday......the pukes.

[Sadie5]

35. Aside from blaming Clinton

for every mistake they make it seems to me like bush is trying to talk Japan into bombing NK.

[rodeodance]

19. Later Tony wises up!!

.......Snow did say the Clinton tactic of trying to "talk reason to the government of Pyongyang" was "at least a good faith effort on the part of some very smart people."

[frylock]

20. that is some serious a-game smack from jay carson..

Jay Carson, a spokesman for the Clinton Foundation in New York City, responded, "This is a serious issue for global security, and it's unfortunate that the Bush administration's TV spinmaster is manufacturing excuses for North Korea's transgressions instead of looking at the last six years of inaction and the abandonment of diplomacy."

TV spinmaster?! :rofl:

[Monkeyman]

21. The blame game Repubicans are getting good at it

[alfredo]

25. Rumsfeld's company (ABB) built the reactors in N Korea.

As I remember, The UN was monitoring to ensure compliance. As long as they complied, No Korea got oil for their energy needs, That did away with the need for "nuclear power." When bush took over he stopped the oil shipments. North Korea retaliated by turning off the cameras that were used to monitor the nuclear plants and returned to developing nuclear weapons.


North Korea will not agree to any deal without a non aggression promise from bush. bush won't budge.


Yep, it's Clinton's fault.

[wisteria]

27. They have nerve, just take a look at who's policies are failing.

I don't remember rockets being aimed in our direction when Clinton was President.
Instead od spinning this issue why don't they face up to there mistake and address it properly now? Oh wait, I know, they don't have the time to devote to this because we are still trying to take care of Bushes Iraq invasion.

[still_one]

28. that is why I cannot stand bill clinton now

he associates with these scum of the earth, and the minute he turns his back they trash him

[Az_lefty]

29. these pathetic fools never cease to amaze me...

still facinated with the clenis george?????
:puke:

[Fermezlabush]

32. Clinton still offering help in 2003:

__Bill Clinton Offers Plan to End the Korean Crisis

On Larry King (2-6-03), Bill Clinton outlined a plan to persuade North
Korea to end the current crisis. "We'll make an omnibus agreement if
you'll end both nuclear programs, let testing in so you can't start any
thing again, end the missile program, something that they had not agreed
to do. And we'll make sure you got enough food and energy. We'll teach
you how to grow food and we'll give you a non-aggression pact. They want
this non-aggression pact, I think that's a no-brainer. Why? Because if
we ever had to attack it would be because they did some thing that
violated the non-aggression pact... You cannot let them become a nuclear
arsenal, because the pressure on them to sell these bombs will be
overwhelming. They have no other way to make money... If we can make a
comprehensive settlement that says, Here's the way you can be part of
the East Asian community. Here's the way you can be part of the world
community. And here's what you have to do. That's what I think we ought
to do."
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0302/06/lkl.00.html

[Doctor_J]

50. Sounds like Clinton actually understands the situation

Can you imagine Smirk uttering an entire paragraph on any subject?

[Fermezlabush]

33. Deja vu all over again:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A44176-2003Jan11?language=printer

Bush Administration Shifts Blame for N. Korea Crisis
Clinton-Era Agreement Signed in '94 With Pyongyang Is Called Flawed

By Karen DeYoung and T.R. Reid
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, January 12, 2003; Page A22

A senior Bush administration official suggested yesterday that the nuclear crisis with North Korea was the predictable result of a flawed 1994 agreement signed by the Clinton administration with Pyongyang that "frontloaded all the benefits and left the difficult things to the end" -- for the next president. more

Geez, you'd think in 3 years, they would have fixed it!

[krispos42]

57. So only Bush can dump mistakes on the next President?

Dear God... despite the fact that Clinton's diplomacy kept the plutonium in a monitored protective pond instead of in an explosives-wrapped sphere in a bomb casing someplace, it's now not okay to pass problems onto your successor?

Soooooooooooooo...

When do we begin withdrawing our occupation troops, there, Dumb-ya? Ya got 'till January 20th, 2009. Noon.

[susanna]

34. Oh yeah, 'cuz they have done so well...

Whatever. Bunch of freaking losers.

On edit: Tony Snow can bite me. His GOP has done nothing, because to them it was obvious Iraq was the "real" threat. I have three words for those who thought that: "Suck it up."

Of course, that causes me great pain because there are real, wonderful people dying for their stupidity. I have no idea what to say to that. It's too immense for words. :-(

[Canuckistanian]

36. From Think Progress:

Let’s review the progress of North Korea’s nuclear program during the last three administrations:

1. George H. W. Bush: one to two bombs’ worth of plutonium

2. Bill Clinton: zero plutonium

3. George W. Bush: 4-6 nuclear weapons’ worth of plutonium

There are legitimate criticisms of every administration’s approach to North Korea’s nuclear program. But the Clinton administration’s strategy, objectively, has been the most successful.

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/07/10/north-korea-clinton/

[truthisfreedom]

37. like anyone expects a band-aid to last for 6 years???

fucking idiots screw up everything in their anxious rush to kill kill kill, and blame the Clenis whenever they're in hot water.

the best thing Clinton can do is shower praise on bush. he should attach himself to bush at the hip, and turn the thugs' brains inside out.

[Mr_Spock]

38. Huh? Bush has been in office almost as long as Clinton

When are these jack-asses going to STOP making baby excuses and FUCKING DO SOMETHING resembling diplomacy.

Blaming people is childish and makes them look feeble.

[alittlelark]

39. OMG!!!! Clintons plan WORKED and saved many from starvation.

The Clenis is a MENACE!!!!

[Catrina]

40. Tony is a freeper! ! Of course he 'blames Clinton'! He forgot that Bush

sent Richardson to deal with N.Korea the last time there was a crisis. So, why would Bush do that, I wonder? Maybe because the Clinton administration had succeeded in using diplomacy and Bush blew it, as usual. Why didn't one of those sheep in the Press Corps ask him that question? Why bush sent Richardson and also, why does Bush always have to blame everyone else? He's had six years to fix anything Clinton did 'wrong'. After all, that's what he said he was going to do in 2000! How long does it take him? The truth is he's afraid of N. Korea and they 'HAVE NO OIL' so he didn't bother trying ~

[usregimechange]

41. Personal Responsibility out the friggin window!

[Senator]

43. Like Palestine, Korea was a Done Deal -- 'till the Election Thieves came

Folks can argue about 9/11, but North Korea was a definite MIHOP:

In late 1999, North Korea declared a moratorium on missile testing. In return, Clinton lifted trade bans. In the “sunshine” of the first-ever North-South Korea summit that June, Canada, Britain, Belgium, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands established relations with a regime that finally began putting its war toys away in order to join the world community. During Albright’s visit, Kim Jong Il told his guest that the 1998 missile launch over Japan that so unnerved U.S. leaders would be the last of its kind.

In the 11th hour of his term, the stage was set for Clinton to meet the Great Leader and sign a sweeping accord that would have ended North Korea’s long-range ballistic-missile program, swapped all missile exports for food, clothing and energy, and established the full diplomatic relations promised in 1994. But the “constitutional crisis” of Election 2000, in one Clinton adviser’s words, rudely intervened. After Bush won in mid-December, Clinton officials briefed Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice on the imminent diplomatic breakthrough. But the Bushies, who used North Korea as justification for a multibillion-dollar National Missile Defense system, would support no such deal. Instead of pursuing the breakthrough for which Koreans on both sides of the DMZ have waited more than 50 years, the Bush White House initiated a two-year freeze in talks that ended with the Kelly confrontation last fall.

--

[YOY]

44. Snow Also Claimed that Great Republican Abe Lincoln's death was

directly related to Clinton's pro-pissed-off-southern-actor policy.

[underpants]

45. Oh so this is why the local talk radio idiot was going on and on

yesterday.

I could summarize it but it is not worth it. It was so horribly misinformed and full of BS RW talking points that it actually made me laugh. He had one caller on who blamed the whole war on terror on.........wait for it...... Jimmy Carter.

Anyway now this makes sense-I thought it was just Time magazine bashing when in fact it was just lip service for their dear leader.

[maxrandb]

46. This is what you get when you have a Freaker Repukelick as Press Secretary

Tony needs to go back to mom's basement. I hear Wal-mart has a special sale on Cheese Puffs.

It's all political bullshit. It's disgusting and scary, but if you're a Repuke, and you want to fire up the "basest" of the base you:

a. Accuse the NY Times of Treason
b. Call liberals traitors
c. Blame Clinton for everything
or
d. All of the above

I'm so glad the adults are in charge. I've heard better arguments for innocence from my daughter when she was two.

Can't wait to smoke their asses in November, because, guess what? America ain't buying what their selling anymore.

[wicket]

47. kick

:kick:

[Norquist Nemesis]

48. Rove's fingerprints are all over this one

Divert and divide. They're diverting to lay blame at Clinton (not Reagan or Bush I), and dividing the Cons and Democrats in the run up to November. "It's not OUR fault KJI has newkular weapons! We're keeping you safe."

Proof? John McCain said the same thing.

[Doctor_J]

49. How many times did Clinton blame Bush The Not Quite As Stupid

for the disaster that he left behind? None, that's what I thought. These people are pathetic pigs who will burn in hell if there's any justice.

[Javaman]

51. Their logic escapes me.

So let me get this straight.

Under Clinton, we had dialog, minor trade (I think), IAEA inspectors watching their reactors, S. Korea was promoting visits by people who had relatives in N.K. and according to snowjob, that was bad.

but now we have N.K. firing missiles, threatening war, closing off it's borders and branded as part of morons* "axis of evil". And that is good.

Sigh. (then screams at sky in frustration)

You know, I wish I had the opportunity to just kick moron* right in the ass.

[AirAmFan]

53. But NK got its nukes ON DUBYA's WATCH in 2002, after

the Bush WH abrogated the Clinton-signed agreement that was forestalling proliferation. See a GREAT article in Washington Monthly, at http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0405.kaplan.html :

"Rolling Blunder: How the Bush administration let North Korea get nukes.

{In addtion to centrifuges}, ... the North Koreans had another route to nuclear weapons--a stash of radioactive fuel rods, taken a decade earlier from its nuclear power plant in Yongbyon. These rods could be processed into plutonium--and, from that, into A-bombs--not in years but in months. Thanks to an agreement brokered by the Clinton administration, the rods were locked in a storage facility under the monitoring of international weapons-inspectors. Common sense dictated that--whatever it did about the centrifuges--the Bush administration should do everything possible to keep the fuel rods locked up. Unfortunately, common sense was in short supply. After a few shrill diplomatic exchanges {in 2002} over the uranium, Pyongyang upped the ante. The North Koreans expelled the international inspectors, broke the locks on the fuel rods, loaded them onto a truck, and drove them to a nearby reprocessing facility, to be converted into bomb-grade plutonium. The White House stood by and
did nothing. Why did George W. Bush--his foreign policy avowedly devoted to stopping "rogue regimes" from acquiring weapons of mass destruction--allow one of the world's most dangerous regimes to acquire the makings of the deadliest WMDs?...

The pattern of decision making that led to this debacle--as described to me in recent interviews with key former administration officials who participated in the events--will sound familiar to anyone who has watched Bush and his cabinet in action. It is a pattern of wishful thinking, blinding moral outrage, willful ignorance of foreign cultures, a naive faith in American triumphalism, a contempt for the messy compromises of diplomacy, and a knee-jerk refusal to do anything the way the Clinton administration did it....

Bill Clinton, a president not known for hawkishness, nearly went to war against North Korea in the spring of 1994. Five years earlier, during the presidency of George Bush's father, the CIA had discovered the North Koreans were building a reprocessing facility near their nuclear reactor at Yongbyon. It was this reactor that, when finished, would allow them to convert the fuel rods into weapons-grade plutonium. Now, barely a year into Clinton's first term in office, they were preparing to remove the fuel rods from their storage site, expel the international weapons inspectors, and withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty...

... on Oct. 21, 1994, the United States and North Korea signed a formal accord based on those outlines, called the Agreed Framework. Under its terms, North Korea would renew its commitment to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, lock up the fuel rods, and let the IAEA inspectors back in to monitor the facility. In exchange, the United States, with financial backing from South Korea and Japan, would provide two light-water nuclear reactors for electricity (explicitly allowed under the NPT), a huge supply of fuel oil, and a pledge not to invade North Korea. The accord also specified that, upon delivery of the first light-water reactor (the target date was 2003), intrusive inspections of suspected North Korean nuclear sites would begin. After the second reactor arrived, North Korea would ship its fuel rods out of the country. It would essentially give up the ability to build nuclear weapons...."

See also a DU discussion of this article, at http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1596881 .

[neuvocat]

54. Bush is such a shizoid.

The guy's just a flat-out nutbag.

[anotherdrew]

55. at least he had one n/t