The Benefits of Incompetence and Appeasement

The Obama administration's gross incompetence and naivete has an up side, at least in the foreign policy arena. It is forcing other nations to drop the anti-US crap, grow up, and act like adults:

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korea said Wednesday any dialogue with North Korea should be firmly based on the goal of ridding the communist regime of nuclear weapons, as the United States considers Pyongyang's long-held desire for direct talks.

Unification Minister Hyun In-taek, in charge of ties with Pyongyang, also told the North not to think of winning economic aid or normalizing relations with the United States while holding on to its atomic weapons.

These were the same South Koreans warning President Bush not to be too tough on the pot bellied pig to the north. Meanwhile, in Olde Europe, our continental critics are getting worried at news that President Obama wants to unilaterally give up nukes:

Gordon Brown is due to use this week's UN general assembly meeting to renew a diplomatic offensive on Iran for its failure to comply with security council demands that it suspend enrichment of uranium.

Germany is also expected to toughen its position on Iran ahead of a showdown between major powers and the Iranian government on 1 October.

French President Nikolas Sarkozy went so far as to mock President Obama's starry-eyed naivete:

"We are right to talk about the future," Mr. Sarkozy said, referring to the U.S. resolution on strengthening arms control treaties. "But the present comes before the future, and the present includes two major nuclear crises," i.e., Iran and North Korea. "We live in the real world, not in a virtual one." No prize for guessing into which world the Frenchman puts Mr. Obama.

"We say that we must reduce," he went on. "President Obama himself has said that he dreams of a world without nuclear weapons. Before our very eyes, two countries are doing exactly the opposite at this very moment. Since 2005, Iran has violated five Security Council Resolutions. (Source:   WSJ - Sarkozy)

 Glad to see our allies growing up. Fear tends to do that to you.
 

Allies Get Tough