Will the Last Conservative Bush Supporter To Leave Please Turn Out the Lights?

Dubya just sold us out on North Korea:

North Korea’s chief arms negotiator, Kim Kye Gwan, is known as “the Smiling Assassin.” Do you suppose the North Koreans use similar grudgingly respectful terms to describe their American counterparts? Somehow I doubt it. Check out the terms of the latest agreement with North Korea. Pyongyang gets $400 million in aid, chiefly in the form of energy, and we ease economic sanctions. In return they agree to begin to give up the means to produce new nuclear weapons, and establish working groups to discuss maybe shutting down their nuclear program at some future date as yet undetermined. They also get to maintain their current nuclear stockpile. The deal is a dramatic diplomatic victory, but unfortunately not for the U.S.

The terms sound suspiciously like the Clinton-era Agreed Framework. The North Koreans wanted light-water nuclear reactors and shipments of heavy oil for heat and power generation. They agreed to move towards normalization of relations and settling outstanding issues. And they agreed to allow nuclear inspectors to make sure they were keeping to the terms of the deal. Same now as 13 years ago. Proponents of the current approach observe that the 1994 agreement only sought to freeze North Korea’s nuclear program, not dismantle it. Of course, back then North Korea did not have as much to dismantle.

Simply making a deal with North Korea guarantees nothing. For example the Agreed Framework provided the cover for North Korea to secretly begin to develop its nuclear capability. By 2002 it was clear that the DPRK was not adhering to the spirit of the bargain. Pyongyang took umbrage when Washington accused the regime of illegally processing uranium — while also saying they had a right to nuclear weapons and blaming us for forcing them to pursue the program. They pulled out of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and kicked out the verification teams.

We can't even blame ol' Jimmy the Jew-Baiter Baker for this debacle.

Think Trey Parker and Matt Stone might agree to become Secretaries of State and Defense? They seem to understand that we're supposed to be fighting the terrorists, not surrendering to them without a fight.

It's looking more and more likely that the Bush legacy is going to be a major U.S. city vaporized.