Andrew Hagen

The Bush Administration is not giving the nuclear threats of Iran and North Korea the attention they deserve. The New York Times editorializes that we should offer positive incentives to change the ambitions of the bomb builders in the remaining spokes of the Axis of Evil. (*)

Positive incentives to those bent on malign ends tend not to have benign results.

Iran could be dealt with by attacking political targets from the air and fostering revolution from within, following the example of Serbia in 1999/2000. The weapons program can then be destroyed from the ground or left with a democratic open society that poses no threat.

Kim Jong Il’s grip on North Korea depends on the flow of Chinese energy and goodwill. Diplomatically, we need to drive a wedge between Kim and China. America’s trade ties with China should be leveraged to achieve that wedge. Economically, we need to put a heavier squeeze on North Korea. At some point, Kim can be nudged out.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 16th, 2005 at 20:53 and is filed under Iran, North Korea. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.