Quick News
Two things.
First, I'd like to issue an open memo to Gerhard Schroeder: you lost. Your party didn't get the highest number of votes. Even if your opponents need to form a coalition with you in order to make the government work, you don't get to be chancellor anymore. You're not Al Gore, you didn't invent the Internet, you didn't go to Vietnam. Give it up.
The other story that begs mention is North Korea's concession to give up their nuclear program. Here are a few of the details.
North Korea agrees to give up its nuclear program.
The United States agrees not to smite North Korea with JDAMs and MOABs.
The other nations involved in the talks agree to providing energy incentives to the Norks.
The United States agrees to consider North Korea's requests for permission to build a light-water reactor for energy purposes.
There are two crucial elements that need to be maintained: accountability for the North Koreans, and a credible threat of force from the United States. Clausewitz said that war was a continuation of politics by other means; and Chou En Lai piggybacked by pointing saying that diplomacy is a continuation of war by other means. The element that people try to ignore in this is that when you're carrying out a diplomatic mission, or engaging in the political process, you're using force, and force is violence. Politics and diplomacy exist only through the credible use of force, even if that force is as simple as the promise of getting up and walking away from the table if your demands aren't met.
Diplomacy without a credible use of force is completely and totally empty, and too many of our supposed allies have forgotten that. Will they take that message from this incident? No. They'll claim that diplomacy worked. Well, it hasn't worked yet, and it won't work without a legitimate, credible threat of focused, deliberate violence.
First, I'd like to issue an open memo to Gerhard Schroeder: you lost. Your party didn't get the highest number of votes. Even if your opponents need to form a coalition with you in order to make the government work, you don't get to be chancellor anymore. You're not Al Gore, you didn't invent the Internet, you didn't go to Vietnam. Give it up.
The other story that begs mention is North Korea's concession to give up their nuclear program. Here are a few of the details.
There are two crucial elements that need to be maintained: accountability for the North Koreans, and a credible threat of force from the United States. Clausewitz said that war was a continuation of politics by other means; and Chou En Lai piggybacked by pointing saying that diplomacy is a continuation of war by other means. The element that people try to ignore in this is that when you're carrying out a diplomatic mission, or engaging in the political process, you're using force, and force is violence. Politics and diplomacy exist only through the credible use of force, even if that force is as simple as the promise of getting up and walking away from the table if your demands aren't met.
Diplomacy without a credible use of force is completely and totally empty, and too many of our supposed allies have forgotten that. Will they take that message from this incident? No. They'll claim that diplomacy worked. Well, it hasn't worked yet, and it won't work without a legitimate, credible threat of focused, deliberate violence.
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