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Friday, July 07, 2006
Rich Galen :: Townhall.com Columnist
Appeasement
by Rich Galen
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  • From the BBC's Timeline on North Korea:
    1994 - North Korea agrees to freeze nuclear programme in return for $5bn worth of free fuel and two nuclear reactors.

    2003 - Pyongyang claims that it has produced enough plutonium to start making nuclear bombs.

  • From Neville Chamberlain's speech in October 1938 after signing the Munich Agreement which gave Hitler the Sudetanland in return for his promise not to take any more territory:
    We are resolved that the method of consultation shall be the method adopted to deal with any other questions that may concern our two countries, and … thus to contribute to assure the peace of Europe.

  • From PBS' Newshour with Jim Lehrer, October 30, 2000. Lehrer asks Secretary of State Madeline Albright, who has just returned from a visit with North Korea's Kim Jong-il to discuss the growing threat of offensive missiles, what she found out:
    Well, he's basically prepared to look at some kind of an exchange in terms of this idea that he actually originally had raised with [Russian] President Putin about if we would launch some peaceful satellites for him instead. But he basically, I think, is prepared to take some important steps.

  • From the BBC's "On This Day" website for September 1:
    1939: Germany invades Poland; German forces have invaded Poland and its planes have bombed Polish cities, including the capital, Warsaw.

  • From the LA Times, Wednesday, July 5, 2006:
    Defying broad international pressure, North Korea test-fired at least six missiles into the Sea of Japan today, including a long-range Taepodong 2 that has been the focus of tension because of its purported ability to reach U.S. territory.

  • Chamberlain 1938: I believe it is peace for our time.

  • Albright 2000: Kim Jong-il is "prepared to take some important steps."

  • January 29, 2002: George W. Bush in the State of the Union address North Korea, Iran, and Iraq, "constitute an axis of evil."

  • Albright, quoted by the BBC, "called Mr. Bush's comments 'a big mistake'".

  • If we've learned anything over the past century it is this: You cannot make a deal with a madman.

  • You can make a deal with a madman but you can't then feign surprise or disappointment when the madman pays no attention to the deal you believed you had cut.

  • Madmen, in history, have had some trouble grasping the underlying meaning of deliberations, agreements, and communiqués.

  • Leaving Hitler with his army in 1938 was like leaving a tiger in a cage with a lamb. Leaving Jong-il with his missiles was like leaving Hitler with his army.

    Continued...

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    About The Author

    Rich Galen has been a press secretary to Dan Quayle and Newt Gingrich. Rich Galen currently works as a journalist and writes at Mullings.com

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    (11 comments so Far)
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    Reply # 1
    Date: Jul 8, 2006 - 12:33 PM EST
    My Visit
    In January 2005 I stood on the DMZ and was briefed by a military briefer on the current situation there. Here are the facts--North Korea has 22 million people living in or near poverty, they have a GNP about 1/1000 of South Korea's. South Korea has 48 million people and Seoul is the 2nd most expensive city on the planet. South Korea is under constant construction, buildings, bridges, and interstate highways-large construction cranes are in evidence everywhere. The South Korean economy is on fire, their cars are taking market share away from Japan, and their food took all the taste buds off my tongue(a little levity). My point--we are not needed there, we are wasting money there, South Korea has all it needs to defend itself, except resolve. South Korea has the money and technology to develop a military machine that would render North Korea ineffective and if developed, probably would end the North Korean adventurism. South Korea is hiding behind a US presence that cannot stop North Korea without using nuclear weapons and our Army has none. Our Air Force may have a few on the peninsula but they would probably be over run before a decision could or would be made to use them. We should leave enmass and make South Korea defend themselves or perish.
    Flag as Offensive

    Reply # 2
    Date: Jul 8, 2006 - 1:15 AM EST
    North Korea's A Tough Nut
    Which of course, is why they're still there. For all the talk of nukes and missiles, the real reason that North Korea can do what it does lies in the thousands of conventional artillery pieces in hardened sites situated on the DMZ within easy range of Seoul. Any military action would result in that artillery opening fire on the city resulting in hundreds of thousands if not millions of civilian deaths.

    That's quite a deterrent. Those sites are mostly impervious to normal bombing and even a bunker buster nuke would probably not eliminate all of them. This is something that colors the actions of both the U.S and South Korea.

    Kim Il Nutcase had us by the short hairs long before the development of nukes, and he knew it. The question is how to counter him without causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians. We care. He doesn’t. That is his strength.
    Flag as Offensive
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