We’re screwing up the U.S.-Japanese alliance … but what for?
On the Wall Street Journal’s opinion page, Kyoko Nakayama, a Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Japan, tries”>tries to keep America’s attention on an issue the Bush Administration wants you to forget. If South Korea care about its abductees as much as Japan does about its abductees, a lot more of them might be free. Of course, if the United States cared as much about Japan’s abductees as it once pretended to, it would not have done such lasting damage to our relationship with Japan by even entertaining the thought of de-listing an unreformed serial kidnapper-for-ransom as a sponsor of terrorism.
I can understand arguments for eschewing principles for cold-hearted interests, but one of our greatest diplomatic needs to explain to me just what national interest is so compelling that it justifies flipping the bird to one of our greatest allies and trading partners. Either someone isn’t telling us about the North Korean nuke buried under the White House, the ChiComs has secretly kidnapped and replaced our entire State Department, or Chris Hill has a nasty crank habit the North Koreans are feeding. Those theories have their limitations, but they’re all more plausible than any that requires faith in the idea that, sometime in the next seven months, Kim Jong Il will be stricken by a fit of sentimentality and surrender his nukes to this flock of boneless lame ducks. In what alternative universe is that called “realism?”
In what alternative universe is that called “realism?†asks Joshua.
Why, in the fantasy world of entertainment and sports, of course! Oh, gee, I guess I was wrong when the Red Sox prevailed over the Yankees in 2004 despite being down three to none, or when the Giants beat the highly favored Patriots last month in the Superbowl. Oh well, I’ll be mad with myself for a night or two, but, hey, life goes on.
Such is the attitude of policymakers and academics etc. who ignore the death and misery of millions of innocent civilians and go on, on faith alone, subscribing to the theory of converting Kim Jong Il.
Oh, Joshua, why must you be so cynical and suspicious of the Dear Leader and even your own government, not to mention human nature? Don’t you see that forgetting about abductees and fudging on commitments and reciprocity all have their feel-good merits in the end? Don’t you see that selling the mirage of diplomatic progress through soft power means so much more to Washington and Seoul than admitting impotence? In the end, isn’t soft better than limp? Doesn’t it at least offer–hope?
Sorry. I had to look up Jenna Jenson in your earlier post.
Not from your work computer, I hope….