Nuclear Attack: After more than seven years in office, President Obama, who in 2007 promised to "eliminate North Korea's nuclear weapons program" with "a strong international coalition," now proposes shooting down their ICBMs. Reality detonates late.
The North Korean nuclear threat to the U.S. homeland was going to be a piece of cake for a charismatic genius like Barack Obama.
In a much-lauded 2007 article for Foreign Affairs magazine, then-Sen. Obama charged that President George W. Bush "belittled South Korean efforts to improve relations with the North" and promised that as president he would "work to forge a more effective framework in Asia that goes beyond bilateral agreements, occasional summits, and ad hoc arrangements, such as the six-party talks on North Korea."
In retrospect, those six-party talks Obama disparaged, in which the Bush administration got China, South Korea, Japan and Russia to unite in pressuring North Korea, were the most effective diplomatic engagement with Pyongyang in history.
We bought the closure of North Korea's nuclear facilities with both oil and the prospect of normalizing diplomatic relations. But three months into Obama's presidency, Pyongyang pulled out, no doubt sensing the weakness of America's dovish new president.
Candidate Obama had promised to "develop a strong international coalition to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and eliminate North Korea's nuclear weapons program." The key, Obama argued, was "sustained, direct, and aggressive diplomacy -- the kind that the Bush administration has been unable and unwilling to use."
But as president, the furthest Obama ever got with North Korea is a food aid agreement in 2012 that collapsed within a month when youthful dictator Kim Jong Un ordered a three-stage ballistic missile test. The president's approach has since shifted from working to build that "strong international coalition" that will "eliminate North Korea's nuclear weapons program" to ... crossing his fingers.
"Over time you will see a regime like this collapse" because "the Internet, over time, is going to be penetrating this country," Obama assured YouTube creators Bethany Mota, GloZell Green and Hank Green in January.
CBS on Tuesday broadcast an interview in which Obama told Charlie Rose that he is "setting up a shield that can at least block the relatively low-level threats" North Korea is "posing now." That's funny, because shortly after taking office in 2009 Obama scrapped the proposed U.S. anti-nuclear missile shield to protect Poland and the Czech Republic from Russia and Iran. And he's cut billions from missile defense programs.
Moreover, liberals tried to strangle the very concept of missile defense at birth. When President Ronald Reagan in 1983 announced his Strategic Defense Initiative, Sen. Ted Kennedy accused the ex-movie star of basing "national policy on fond memories of radio serials, dreams of the Old West, and the thrilling days of yesteryear." Reagan's "Star Wars" was "the preposterous notion of a Lone Ranger in the sky, firing silver laser bullets and shooting missiles out of the hands of Soviet outlaws," Kennedy declared.
President Obama now promises to shoot nuclear missiles out of the hands of North Korean outlaws. President Bush's cowboy diplomacy worked better.
