By Patrick Wintour
Rome (click here) has brokered a diplomatic breakthrough in Libya that has the potential to bring the two main warring sides together in a new political agreement after years of division, fighting and economic misery.
The scale of the breakthrough will be tested later this week, but Italy is hailing a compromise brokered between the presidents of the house of representatives, Ageela Saleh, and the state council, Abdulrahman Sewehli.
The meeting was overseen by the Italian foreign minister, Angelino Alfano, and the Italian ambassador to Libya....
It is grossly incorrect to be referring to Libya as an equivalent to North Korea and the fact the President of North Korea learned plenty from the disarmament of Libya. Does Senator Corker actually hear what he is saying? He is saying small countries with nuclear capacity learned a vital lesson from disarmament. That may be very true, but, what it also states is that the larger countries are untrustworthy of disarmament.
Nuclear disarmament is a sovereignty issue. Nuclear armament occurred because a small country was worried about invasion and having nuclear weapons will deter any attempt by larger countries to war.
I don't know what the heck "W" thought he was doing at the DMZ when he made that speech, but, if he actually thought it was going to motivate North Korea to the peace table he was sadly mistaken. I think "W" got the type of reaction he wanted and it had nothing to do with peace.
"W" wanted a war and he got it when Iraq, an unarmed country, was illegally invaded. THAT is what taught Iran and North Korea a lesson, not the legal process of honoring non-proliferation.
Let's review:
On December 19, 2003, (click here) the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (Libya) agreed to eliminate all materials, equipment, and programs aimed at the production of nuclear or other internationally proscribed weapons. Libya's then leader Colonel Mu'ammar Qadhafi admitted that, in contravention of its obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), Libya had pursued a nuclear weaponsprogram. In 2004, the United States and the United Kingdom dismantled Libya's nuclear weapons infrastructure with oversight from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)....
For member nations the non-proliferation treaty is a legal directive. One of the reasons leaders disarm from nuclear weapons is because THEY DON'T WANT THEIR PEOPLE TO BE A TARGET. Now, either these leaders are drinking the Kool-Aid or they are dealing with honorable leaders of nuclear countries. So far the USA does not have a good record for being an honorable nuclear country. At all. The invasion into Iraq was about oil and everyone knows it. The invasion was illegal and hurried because the UN Inspectors were finding nothing actionable in relation to violations of the UN Resolutions that brought the USA and Iraq to that point. "W" didn't want to be honorable, he wanted to satisfy the greed of his political cronies AND get Dick Cheney off the hook for cooking the books at Halliburton.
North Korea had disarmed from nuclear capacity under Kim Jong Il, the second generation leader in that country. That bears repeating.
North Korea had disarmed from nuclear capacity under Kim Jong Il, the second generation leader in that country.
Got that?
What "W" did with his "Axis of Evil" speech was a violation of the trust these countries placed in the USA. That bears repeating.
What "W" did with his "Axis of Evil" speech was a violation of the trust these countries placed in the USA.
The USA went from a benevolent peace seeking country into a monster with six heads and each head with three eyes in an instant.
The term axis of evil was used by U.S. President George W. Bush in his State of the Union address on January 29, 2002.
...Under this agreement, (click here) Pyongyang committed to freezing its illicit plutonium weapons program in exchange for aid.
Following the collapse of this agreement in 2002, North Korea claimed that it had withdrawn from the NPT in January 2003 and once again began operating its nuclear facilities....
The six member talks was a sincere effort to bring about an understanding of an imitative that would lead to first safety of the people of North Korea and secondly peace on the Korean peninsula.
...The second major diplomatic effort were the Six-Party Talks initiated in August of 2003 which involved China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea, and the United States. In between periods of stalemate and crisis, those talks arrived at critical breakthroughs in 2005, when North Korea pledged to abandon “all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs” and return to the NPT, and in 2007, when the parties agreed on a series of steps to implement that 2005 agreement.
Those talks, however, broke down in 2009 following disagreements over verification and an internationally condemned North Korea rocket launch....
Take a good look at where the six countries are today, fourteen years later.
China - has to deal with North Korea to assist in the containment of a nuclear launch. This is not a game or a trade relationship, a nuclear explosion on the Korean peninsula, especially near China's border, would be devastating. It would be devastating to North Korea, but, also to South Korea, China and Russia, not to mention Japan. Additionally, the winds would carry the fallout east into and across the Pacific Ocean and North America would be effected.
Libya has none of those issues as an Arab country in the Middle East. North Korea had two major nuclear countries at it's near borders.
Japan - There have been mention of arming with nuclear weapons in the past election. The South Koreans still oppose the idea and would like to see a reunification of the North and South Korean people as a final end to tensions and a beginning to improved trade. Today, South Korea is far from that goal and has witnessed the closing of bilateral interests that would build a TRUSTING relationship.
Leaders in the USA laugh at the idea of trust and treat leaders to countries as fools for even entertaining the idea of non-proliferation. The USA leadership acts with power and not benevolent methods to achieve success in peace talks. Power. It is a myth. Nuclear holocaust is not good governance.
North Korea - The new leader of North Korea is chronically testing the country's limits both in its ocean borders as well as it's nuclear and missile capacity. There have been active testing of nuclear explosions registering on the Richter Scale by western monitors. North Korea has sold fishing rights to China when it can nearly feed it's own people. The expansion into foreign waters to establish fishing rights has been less an attempt to feed the North Korean people so much as claiming more real estate or water rights to increase the price to the country that would buy it.
The new and third generation leader of North Korea has no compassion at all for the North Korean people. The minority in the power structure has loyalty to the new Kim Jong un and they better because he has little patience for anything else and clearly demonstrates that every time he kills a family member.
Russia - Russia is no longer a partner, neither are the others, and clearly it has no intention of returning to any talks no matter the other members UNLESS it is accompanied by a lifting of any sanctions that is hurting it's economy. But, Russia is moving in a very different direction than it's traditional role in the region. It no longer has patience with the idea of being peaceful. Peace has no quotient in the real world. It does nothing but allows The West to instill their greed and rob people of their assets. The Axis of Evil speech must have been a profound moment for Russian leadership, especially Vladimir Putin.
Trustworthiness of the USA was placed on the back burner and Russia had to reassess. What we are seeing now with Russia was a one time reset of trust between the two countries that failed. Putin is not interested in revisiting any trusting relationship with The West, that was clearly demonstrated with the border wars with Ukraine. Putin has no patience for countries not a part of his economic union. He wants to reflect strength and protection for that economic union no matter what it takes.
The former President Medvedev spent most of his term in office traveling to other countries and working to build trust and economic ties with any country that wanted it so long as Russia had it's loyalty when it breaks out into a war with The West.
South Korea - The faith in government leadership with the South Korean people has waned with the impeachment of Park Geun-hye. South Korea is the best barometer to realize the tensions on the peninsula, although silence today is defining, the absence of a real treaty with the north is a profound problem. One needs to realize economic ties with The West are vital to an alliance of peaceful countries in the region of North Korea. South Korea is more and more interested in testing missiles to counter any aggression by the North. None of these measures were even considered before "The Six Talks" ended.
The South Korean economy has been improving significantly since the presidency of Bill Clinton. The entire region trusted Clinton and as a result there was far more security on the peninsula. But, the South Korean economy does lag behind that of Japan and the USA. South Korea's economy demands peace. It doesn't work well if ships seeking exports are under threat. The entire idea there can be significant war on the Peninsula is simply crazy. That will be not only dangerous but demoralizing to the people who need to find trust in their government again.
United States - There is nothing to say, except, OMG!
We are finished in Libya. Rome has done a magnificent thing and if it could work it's magic in Syria that would be a dream to come true.
Libya was never North Korea. Not even close. The internal dynamics of Libya and North Korea are completely different. I might add it wasn't Kim Jong un that learned his lesson to non-proliferation and the victims of it when all trust is violated, it was the previous generation that heard "W"s speech and said, "OMG!"
The meeting was overseen by the Italian foreign minister, Angelino Alfano, and the Italian ambassador to Libya....
It is grossly incorrect to be referring to Libya as an equivalent to North Korea and the fact the President of North Korea learned plenty from the disarmament of Libya. Does Senator Corker actually hear what he is saying? He is saying small countries with nuclear capacity learned a vital lesson from disarmament. That may be very true, but, what it also states is that the larger countries are untrustworthy of disarmament.
Nuclear disarmament is a sovereignty issue. Nuclear armament occurred because a small country was worried about invasion and having nuclear weapons will deter any attempt by larger countries to war.
I don't know what the heck "W" thought he was doing at the DMZ when he made that speech, but, if he actually thought it was going to motivate North Korea to the peace table he was sadly mistaken. I think "W" got the type of reaction he wanted and it had nothing to do with peace.
"W" wanted a war and he got it when Iraq, an unarmed country, was illegally invaded. THAT is what taught Iran and North Korea a lesson, not the legal process of honoring non-proliferation.
Let's review:
On December 19, 2003, (click here) the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (Libya) agreed to eliminate all materials, equipment, and programs aimed at the production of nuclear or other internationally proscribed weapons. Libya's then leader Colonel Mu'ammar Qadhafi admitted that, in contravention of its obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), Libya had pursued a nuclear weaponsprogram. In 2004, the United States and the United Kingdom dismantled Libya's nuclear weapons infrastructure with oversight from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)....
For member nations the non-proliferation treaty is a legal directive. One of the reasons leaders disarm from nuclear weapons is because THEY DON'T WANT THEIR PEOPLE TO BE A TARGET. Now, either these leaders are drinking the Kool-Aid or they are dealing with honorable leaders of nuclear countries. So far the USA does not have a good record for being an honorable nuclear country. At all. The invasion into Iraq was about oil and everyone knows it. The invasion was illegal and hurried because the UN Inspectors were finding nothing actionable in relation to violations of the UN Resolutions that brought the USA and Iraq to that point. "W" didn't want to be honorable, he wanted to satisfy the greed of his political cronies AND get Dick Cheney off the hook for cooking the books at Halliburton.
North Korea had disarmed from nuclear capacity under Kim Jong Il, the second generation leader in that country. That bears repeating.
North Korea had disarmed from nuclear capacity under Kim Jong Il, the second generation leader in that country.
Got that?
What "W" did with his "Axis of Evil" speech was a violation of the trust these countries placed in the USA. That bears repeating.
What "W" did with his "Axis of Evil" speech was a violation of the trust these countries placed in the USA.
The USA went from a benevolent peace seeking country into a monster with six heads and each head with three eyes in an instant.
The term axis of evil was used by U.S. President George W. Bush in his State of the Union address on January 29, 2002.
...Under this agreement, (click here) Pyongyang committed to freezing its illicit plutonium weapons program in exchange for aid.
Following the collapse of this agreement in 2002, North Korea claimed that it had withdrawn from the NPT in January 2003 and once again began operating its nuclear facilities....
The six member talks was a sincere effort to bring about an understanding of an imitative that would lead to first safety of the people of North Korea and secondly peace on the Korean peninsula.
...The second major diplomatic effort were the Six-Party Talks initiated in August of 2003 which involved China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea, and the United States. In between periods of stalemate and crisis, those talks arrived at critical breakthroughs in 2005, when North Korea pledged to abandon “all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs” and return to the NPT, and in 2007, when the parties agreed on a series of steps to implement that 2005 agreement.
Those talks, however, broke down in 2009 following disagreements over verification and an internationally condemned North Korea rocket launch....
Take a good look at where the six countries are today, fourteen years later.
China - has to deal with North Korea to assist in the containment of a nuclear launch. This is not a game or a trade relationship, a nuclear explosion on the Korean peninsula, especially near China's border, would be devastating. It would be devastating to North Korea, but, also to South Korea, China and Russia, not to mention Japan. Additionally, the winds would carry the fallout east into and across the Pacific Ocean and North America would be effected.
Libya has none of those issues as an Arab country in the Middle East. North Korea had two major nuclear countries at it's near borders.
Japan - There have been mention of arming with nuclear weapons in the past election. The South Koreans still oppose the idea and would like to see a reunification of the North and South Korean people as a final end to tensions and a beginning to improved trade. Today, South Korea is far from that goal and has witnessed the closing of bilateral interests that would build a TRUSTING relationship.
Leaders in the USA laugh at the idea of trust and treat leaders to countries as fools for even entertaining the idea of non-proliferation. The USA leadership acts with power and not benevolent methods to achieve success in peace talks. Power. It is a myth. Nuclear holocaust is not good governance.
North Korea - The new leader of North Korea is chronically testing the country's limits both in its ocean borders as well as it's nuclear and missile capacity. There have been active testing of nuclear explosions registering on the Richter Scale by western monitors. North Korea has sold fishing rights to China when it can nearly feed it's own people. The expansion into foreign waters to establish fishing rights has been less an attempt to feed the North Korean people so much as claiming more real estate or water rights to increase the price to the country that would buy it.
The new and third generation leader of North Korea has no compassion at all for the North Korean people. The minority in the power structure has loyalty to the new Kim Jong un and they better because he has little patience for anything else and clearly demonstrates that every time he kills a family member.
Russia - Russia is no longer a partner, neither are the others, and clearly it has no intention of returning to any talks no matter the other members UNLESS it is accompanied by a lifting of any sanctions that is hurting it's economy. But, Russia is moving in a very different direction than it's traditional role in the region. It no longer has patience with the idea of being peaceful. Peace has no quotient in the real world. It does nothing but allows The West to instill their greed and rob people of their assets. The Axis of Evil speech must have been a profound moment for Russian leadership, especially Vladimir Putin.
Trustworthiness of the USA was placed on the back burner and Russia had to reassess. What we are seeing now with Russia was a one time reset of trust between the two countries that failed. Putin is not interested in revisiting any trusting relationship with The West, that was clearly demonstrated with the border wars with Ukraine. Putin has no patience for countries not a part of his economic union. He wants to reflect strength and protection for that economic union no matter what it takes.
The former President Medvedev spent most of his term in office traveling to other countries and working to build trust and economic ties with any country that wanted it so long as Russia had it's loyalty when it breaks out into a war with The West.
South Korea - The faith in government leadership with the South Korean people has waned with the impeachment of Park Geun-hye. South Korea is the best barometer to realize the tensions on the peninsula, although silence today is defining, the absence of a real treaty with the north is a profound problem. One needs to realize economic ties with The West are vital to an alliance of peaceful countries in the region of North Korea. South Korea is more and more interested in testing missiles to counter any aggression by the North. None of these measures were even considered before "The Six Talks" ended.
The South Korean economy has been improving significantly since the presidency of Bill Clinton. The entire region trusted Clinton and as a result there was far more security on the peninsula. But, the South Korean economy does lag behind that of Japan and the USA. South Korea's economy demands peace. It doesn't work well if ships seeking exports are under threat. The entire idea there can be significant war on the Peninsula is simply crazy. That will be not only dangerous but demoralizing to the people who need to find trust in their government again.
United States - There is nothing to say, except, OMG!
We are finished in Libya. Rome has done a magnificent thing and if it could work it's magic in Syria that would be a dream to come true.
Libya was never North Korea. Not even close. The internal dynamics of Libya and North Korea are completely different. I might add it wasn't Kim Jong un that learned his lesson to non-proliferation and the victims of it when all trust is violated, it was the previous generation that heard "W"s speech and said, "OMG!"
