The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 5 of 12)

The clear difference between the candidates was the discussion on North Korea. Kerry asserted that Korea gained nuclear weapons on Bush's watch and that as president he would immediately begin bilateral negotiations with Korea to address the proliferation issue. Bush responded that this was a clear mistake. China, South Korea, Japan and Russia all had major stakes in the issue and ought to continue be involved to a great degree in these talks. He also stated the obvious in that China has influence with the North Koreans. Its no secret the Chinese saved the North once before.

Kerry misses on this one in a big way. We need only go back to the bilateral talks and agreements that the Clinton administration reached with North Korea to see the mistake in ever pursuing that strategy again. Clinton had concluded an agreement that allowed for tons of food aid, light water reactors and many tons of fuel oil as payoffs to the North Koreans to keep them from building nuclear weapons. Guess what? They enriched uranium and built them anyway. It was the Bush administration that called them on this deception.

North Korea is a very dangerous character and they are most dangerous to the well being of the Chinese. The Chinese are well on their way towards modernization and realizing tremendous economic gains for their population and can ill afford to have that derailed by regional instability. These two countries along with Japan have a long history of dislike for one another and since North Korea has limited delivery capability, the people who are threatened most by the North's weapons are in the neighborhood.

If the North Koreans continue to be belligerent and continue to be a threat, how long do you think it will be before Japan understands the need to have nukes as well? Do the Chinese want a nuclear powered Japan to have to deal with? Make no mistake about it, from a technology standpoint, the Japanese could go nuclear in a heart beat.

Kerry harped on the idea of building alliances and agreed that nuclear proliferation is the major challenge facing the world yet when faced with an effective alliance working on the North Koreans he wants to go with a unilateral approach by the United States.

p>China and Japan are the major players and this problem is directly in their sphere of influence. Its time for the US to take a back seat and let the nations that have most to lose begin to sort out the solutions. Bush is clearly right and the Kerry solution was already practiced and proven a distinct failure. br> -- Phil Gallagher /p>

Kerry lied continually in last night's debate:

1. He lied when he said he made the now infamous 87 billion statement late at night. It was 1:20 in the afternoon. He knew very well when and where he made that statement and thinks we are fools for not calling him on it.

2. He lied when he said the subways and tunnels were closed in NYC during the RNC convention. He made it up out of thin air because of the rhetorical point he wanted to make.

3. He lied when he said resources from Afghanistan were shifted to Iraq to the detriment of our troops in Afghanistan. General Franks, the commanding general, said so.

4. He lied when he said he had one consistent position on Iraq. As everybody knows, he's had almost one position a day for the last few months.

5. He lied when he oxymoronically said he would take preemptive action against a potential aggressor, but such an action would have to pass a "global test."

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Education, Hillary Clinton, Television, Economics, Sports, Global Warming, Law, Military, Iraq, Iran, Russia, United Nations, NATO, North Korea, Nuclear Weapons, Oil