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Previous Entry | Main | Next Entry February 05, 2003 The Officer And I, Final Thoughts It was certainly one of the most interesting conversations I have ever had. It was clear during our conversation that the general felt most strongly about the situation in Korea. His concerns were echoed earlier today by TPM. The general kept going back to the fact that we were doing nothing there. He reiterated, twice, that from what he could tell, "the administration doesn't have a policy [there]." To me, aside from enjoying the conversation and getting some good inside stuff, this was rather jarring. His solution to the problem was two-fold. He prefaced his remarks by saying "this is what should've been done," and then rattled off a list of things we should have done after Afghanistan. The first part was not to get so wrapped up in Iraq. He said our obsession with Iraq has created a situation where so much of our credibility is on the line that we MUST follow through. He said Iraq could wait, should wait, but has to be done at some point. I agreed. "Had we not obsessed, we might now have a free hand to deal with the North Koreans," he told me, shaking his head. "But now we can't do anything except negotiate or strike. Those aren't real good options." He then went on to elaborate on the second part, that we should've "quarantined Korea" just like we did Cuba, and interdict their shipping, unless they adhered to their agreements. He also said that Clinton's policy was bad, although it was the least worst option available at the time. He also said Carter's interference, although it defused the situation, "probably did more long-term damage than not." "We should have gone after Korea first. But now we can't. We just have to wait and see. But Korea is much more important that Iraq in the war on terror. Iraq doesn't sell its weapons like Korea does. It has oil to fund its society, North Korea has mountains. Where do you think Iraq got its SCUDs? Besides, had we gone after Korea, Muslims might accept that this wasn't a war on Islam. This was our strategic blunder." He was very hawkish, make no mistake, in regards to Korea. I'm not keen on the idea of quarantining Korea but would be happy to defer to his judgement. He didn't have any comments on the North Korean-Pakistani link, saying, "that's not my area." But I think he was dodging the question. Can't expect him to tell me everything now, can I? He also said that we might well find ourselves fighting two regional wars, at the same time, very soon. "It would be a tragedy, but better now than later." That is all I've got now. I'd love to call him and follow up in the near future but I doubt that will be possible. He was in town for a wedding. He's been invited to mine. I hope he's there. If he's not, the global picture might be really different. Posted by Sean-Paul @ 02/05/2003 05:24 PM | TrackBackComments: Your intereview with the military man was very interesting and thought provoking. Posted by: Mike on February 5, 2003 06:22 PMin a perfect world... a quarantine would have been great.. but cuba isn't split down the middle with a democratic ally on one side either. like it or not, we have to address the issues that south korea may have with a war or we will turn them against us. i think iraq is a more pressing issue. we have 24 hour surveilance on nKorea and we know where they are shipping arms. that was the whole point of stopping the nKorea boat with the scuds on it. it sent a message to potential buyers of their wares. we know who they are selling to and you don't want to get on our list. i'll bet you orders dried up after that. with an attack on iraq, we get a rather quick war, get rid of an evil doer, and turn on the pumps of oil to drive gas prices down and improve the economy. with a war with nKorea, we just get rid of an evil doer, it might take longer, and since an enormous amount of civilians are near the DMZ, more people will get hurt. to say Bush doesn't have a policy for nKorea is wrong. http://www.inthenationalinterest.com/Articles/Vol1Issue9/Vol1Issue9Cha.html "But now we can't do anything except negotiate or strike. Those aren't real good options." It absoutely astounds me that someone could rise so high in our millitary by very clearly having never taken the time to understand both game theory and Sun Tzu. Going after the "best" options isn't always the smart thing to do. Though, I guess I'm slightly relieved to see that understands that sending Jimmy Carter only made the situation worse. Posted by: Eric on February 5, 2003 10:49 PMYou've got a date for the wedding?? Posted by: DavidByron on February 6, 2003 01:07 AMActually, sending Jimmy Carter delayed N. Korea's actual construction of a plutonium bomb by ten years. N. Korea is still years away from building a uranium bomb, the program which began in 1999. Perhaps Bush shouldn't have called Kim Il's bluff? Posted by: Amitava Mazumdar on February 6, 2003 09:51 AMI read through this entire conversation with the general - and while it was an interesting read, one thing really caught my attention: "If you are in is inner circle it's great. If not its like artillery raining down on you in the form of nasty memos every day."
Memos ... One question - has this general seen any combat (Vietnam, Gulf War, etc)? I'm not trying to be flip, I'm genuinely curious
The trouble with quarentine is that NK isn't an island, and stationing the US Navy along the China/NK border is therefore not likely to be effective. I'll admit, I don't have a non-awful policy to suggest for NK myself. Posted by: mike earl on February 6, 2003 04:41 PMIt's obviously too late for any good solutions. This should teach us that, in retrospect, the axis we should have been worrying about was the China-Pakistan-North Korea axis. If we were ever serious about non-proliferation, that would have been our focus. I'm not sure why we ignored the problem, but I do know that India has been yelling bloody murder about it for a decade. Perhaps some targeted strikes against Pakistan and North Korea a decade ago would have been worth the backlash (considering we suffered 9/11 anyhow.) Posted by: Amitava Mazumdar on February 7, 2003 11:27 AMPost a Comment: |