Tuesday, May 31, 2005

An expert offers his opinion

Today is officially Dick Cheney Day here at Old Hickory's Weblog.  The Dark Lord sat down with Larry King to share his wisdom with his loyal subjects.  First up, the Dark Lord engages in delicate diplomacy.

Cheney says:  "Kim Jong Il, who's the leader of North Korea, is -- I would describe as one of the world's more irresponsible leaders." - Cheney calls North Korea's Kim irresponsible leader (AFP) 05/29/05 

And irresponsible leadership is one thing Dick Cheney knows well.

Of course, this kind of gratuitous insult is unlikely to make the Korean leader more open to cooperating with US proposals to control his nuclear program.  And that may be Cheney's aim.

But what is he going to do once he gets that result from North Korea?  Pull all the troops out of Iraq to invade North Korea?

It's more likely that Cheney figures that since North Korea is the main excuse being used right now to justify the Star Wars boondoggle, that it would be better to derail negotiations for as long as possible.

Yes, irresponsible leadership is something Dark Lord Dick Cheney knows very well.

The transcript of the whole interview with Larry King is available online: Larry King Live transcript: 05/30/05 broadcast; interview with Dick and Lynne Cheney.  Here's a longer version of the quote from the transcript:

I am concerned about it, partly because Kim Jong Il, who's the leader of North Korea, is -- I would describe as one of the world's more irresponsible leaders. He runs a police state. He's got one of the most heavily militarized societies in the world. The vast bulk of his population live in abject poverty and stages of malnutrition. He doesn't take care of his people at all. And he obviously wants to throw his weight around and become a nuclear power.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks Bruce.  I had forgotten about North Korea.  I feel sick -- how about you?

Of course, it may well be we have nothing to worry about in North Korea.  Or for that matter, in Iran.  

The only thing we ever really had to worry about was the remote possibility that one of them (or God forbid, both of them) would get their evil hands on WMD (the real kind, not the kind Saddam had).

But we don't have any WMD worries because our non-proliferation man was none other than John Bolton!

Ta - daaah!

Did you see Team America?  The scene where Hans Blix gets fed to the shark?  Now imagine John Bolton in that scene, instead of Blix.

Feel better?

Neil
 

Anonymous said...

Are you sure that isn't someone else talking about GW and the US of A??rich