LOGO: Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines. A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.Best Political Blog Winner, 2007 Webby Awards, People's Voice and Jury.   The Pornography of Power  By Robert Scheer
 
November 21, 2008
Log in / Register

 Choose a size
Text Size

Most Read

Bracing for a Major Disappointment

‘Daily Show’: Bush Valiantly Defends Free Market

A View From the South

Change We Can Bank On

Paulson and Bernanke Grilled on the Bailout

Most Comments
Most Emailed

Reports
 * NEW! * To Each His Own Nuke

Ear to the Ground

A/V Booth

Arts & Culture

Digs
Financial Meltdown 101
Vetting Sarah Palin

Truthdig Bazaar
Kingmakers: The Invention of the Modern Middle East

Kingmakers: The Invention of the Modern Middle East

By Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac
$18.45

more items

 
Reports

Molly Ivins: Maybe If We Tried a Slingshot

Email this item Email    Print this item Print   
Posted on Jun 28, 2006

By Molly Ivins

AUSTIN, Texas—Y’all, this isn’t gonna work.

North Korea is threatening to launch a long-range missile, and we’re threatening to reply with an anti-missile missile.

Sorry to remind you, but our “missile defense system” does not work. Good old Star Wars flopped again when tested in 2004—in fact, it failed to launch. Since then, several tests have been delayed or canceled due to technical problems. Just because we spend $130 billion on a bad idea doesn’t mean we can ever get it to work. The latest Bush budget has $10.7 billion for Star Wars, almost twice as much as Homeland Security is spending on customs and border patrol.

The good news is that the North Korean rocket doesn’t work, either. The last time they fired a long-range missile, it went 1,300 kilometers (807 miles) and could not put a payload into orbit.

The Korean missile was supposedly tanked up and ready to go more than a week ago, but, oops, experts now say if that were true it would have been fired by now, since the fuel is highly unstable.

If you think the “military standoff” with North Korea sounds silly, wait’ll you hear about the diplomatic maneuvering. As you may recall, the United States refused to have bilateral talks with North Korea on the grounds that (a) Kim Jong-Il is a nutcase and (b) we were already committed to multilateral talks, including South Korea and China.

This kerfuffle went on for quite some time, but so did the six-party talks. Last year, the North Koreans agreed to abandon their nuclear program in return for a security guarantee and economic aid—but in the meantime, it has come to doubt U.S. sincerity on these pledges. Hard to see how that could happen with such delicate diplomatic players as Dick Cheney and John Bolton at work.

Whenever I need a good laugh, I just think of Bolton’s current title: “Ambassador John Bolton”—ha, ha, ha. Even better, “Ambassador to the United Nations.” While there, he has been making Dale Carnegie proud ("How to Win Friends and Influence People"). Bolton’s latest U.N. trick was to pitch a wall-eyed fit over some mild (and justified) criticism by a Brit. Good thing the Brits are our closest allies, at least for now.

I don’t mind leaving our relations with the Brits to “Ambassador John Bolton,” but do we think it’s a good idea to have him in charge of our relations with the nutcase who has a missile with unstable fuel? Then again, we might as well leave it to Bolton, since William Perry, former secretary of defense, a Democrat, thinks we should preemptively strike their rocket while it’s on the launch pad. Better than trying to hit it in midair, of course.

Republican Richard Lugar, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has called for direct talks with the North Koreans on the issue, which sounds a lot saner.

As the American Progress Action Fund points out, the real problem is that the Bush administration has no policy on North Korea. “For five years, the Bush administration has been paralyzed over North Korea. Hardliners such as Vice President Cheney, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and U.N. Ambassador Bolton have rejected serious engagement in favor of a confrontational approach that has backfired. Over time, North Korea has withdrawn from the Non-Proliferation Treaty, reprocessed fissionable material, increased its nuclear arsenal and is now on the verge of starting missile testing.”

Boy, that policy worked out well.

Jump to Comments

Advertisement


Elsewhere: .

Comments

Are you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig.

By Digenis Akritas, July 5, 2006 at 8:41 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Yes, Molly keep it up!
Digenis Akritas

Report this

By Marshall, July 5, 2006 at 1:19 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Molly - you’ve got it all wrong:

1) How do you know our anti-missile defence concept doesn’t work, and can’t work?  Are you an expert in this field?

2) NK just fired their missile, so your apparent assertion that they weren’t really going to is… well… wrong.

3) “in the meantime, it [NK] has come to doubt U.S. sincerity on these pledges”.  How exactly do you know what’s going on in the mind of Kim Jong-Il?

4) You accuse the current policy of being a failure, when the failure was obviously of the previous policy, brokered by Carter for Clinton, which allowed NK to develop nuclear weapons under our nose.

Report this

By Allen, July 4, 2006 at 9:49 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Molly, although I like your approach to the neo-facist cabal(right-wing republican extremist) I respectfully must disagree with you. Your primis about the StarWars weapons systems is flawed. This is no fault of your own, but your information comes from the very source which wants to keep their new multi-billion dollar toys secret. All the information put out to the public about SDI is BS. It does work and has been in place since the early nineties according to my research. Don’t take my word for it. Do your own research. The US Armys website has info on “THEL” (Tatical High Energy Laser), and no, it is no longer in the test stages, it is a deployed weapon system built by the Rayethon Company. This is only one example of a deployed weapon system currently operating in the US military arsenal. There are a whole host of others. Microwaves, Scalar(http://WWW.CHENIERE.ORG),Partical Beam and Acoustic weapons. Some of the systems are already space-based and are in direct violation to several UN Treaties. So no idiot( including Kim Il Jung ) is going to shoot a tactical ICBM at the US, it will be in a cargo container or some other mudane form of transportation. When one discovers, as I have , the truth behind these weapon systems,and realizes that the systems leave ICBM’s completely useless, one must ask the question. What is the real reason for these systems?

Report this

By Vic, July 3, 2006 at 10:02 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

So, “Kim Jong-Il is a nutcase”. That’s like the kettle calling the pot black ain’t it?

Report this

By Badshahi, July 2, 2006 at 9:02 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Interesting. $130 Billion, you say. Yikes!

Report this

By William Hinckler II, July 2, 2006 at 11:32 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Every policy this administration pursues is flawed and Unconstitutional.  They violate the 1st Amendment by forcing book outlets to stop stocking the book “America Deceived” by E.A. Blayre III and caging peaceful protestors.  They violate the 4th Amendment by illegally wire-tapping EVERYONE’s phones.  They violate the entire Consitution by starting illegal wars.  At least, their Korea policy is Constitutional, so far.
Support indy media.
Last link (before Google Books caves to the gestapo):
http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?& isbn=0-595-38523-0

Report this

By Patriot, July 2, 2006 at 10:10 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

The only solution is:
Paper Ballots, Hand Counted
Paper Ballots, Hand Counted
Paper Ballots, Hand Counted
Paper Ballots, Hand Counted
Paper Ballots, Hand Counted

Yell it far and wide until every one understands—there is a way out, legal, constitutional, and correct....we VOTE THEM OUT via

Paper Ballots, Hand Counted
Paper Ballots, Hand Counted
Paper Ballots, Hand Counted
Paper Ballots, Hand Counted

Report this

By terry burnett, July 2, 2006 at 9:14 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

My answer to “Cut and Run”

Let’s’ CUT OFF the flow of greed, lying and corruption and RUN OFF the current Republican regime.

Report this

By rwa, July 2, 2006 at 8:13 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Racial supremicism is the central logic of the neocons. They have no ideology or religion,these are used only to rally support. This is why we see so much cronyism and corruption.The neocons have harnessed power to serve capital but only that of the correct races.

Report this

By Rabbit, July 2, 2006 at 7:50 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

c u n d gulag

Well done dear son, twas welly done, we wish to say to thee kaer frum. Well done.

Report this

By Paula Garten, July 2, 2006 at 7:37 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

I have long believed that the real reason it takes so long to make good sense deals, is that the real government isn’t the dully elected democratic government that we believe we have.

Isn’t it strange that the boogie man of the day always appears as we are about get solutions to real problems, insuring that Congress will spend money on useless weapons systems for a strange war?

Report this

By Paladin, July 2, 2006 at 5:29 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Dear uncle Tom,
If we carry on letting you grownups ‘handle things’. Petty soon there won’t be anywhere for us kids to play....or kids to play!

PB

Report this

By RonNasty, July 2, 2006 at 5:07 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

So Tom, is it a grown up act to threaten everybody on the block? Don’t reasonable adults sit down and talk things out with out resorting to violence? Do adults play act out childish fantasies by dressing up as cowboys and fighter pilots? Isn’t it spoiled brats who get mad when they don’t get their way and throw a temper tantrum?
Yes, you on the right like to pretend that you’re the grown ups, but as of yet, you’re actions haven’t been successful in solving any problems, only creating more. And to continue on repeating the same actions over and over and expecting different results than the ones acheived is a sign of insanity.
Congratulations, you’re a nut job!

Report this

By c u n d gulag, July 2, 2006 at 3:35 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Sorry, a typo.  In order to keep the original plurals and rhyme, and to keep today’s venacular, it should have read:
“Beware the Jabbertalk, my son!
The sounds that bite, the talks that point!”

Report this

By franc_tireur, July 2, 2006 at 1:22 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

The defence system is really about fulfilling the neocon dream of an American twenty first century with the US dominating the world in every possible theatre

Mission Accomplished… Take a quick look at ‘pop’ culture worldwide. We (americans) have effectively subjugated the planet, if not militarily, at least socially.

We suck, and need to be collectively bitch-slapped back into reality.

We spend wayyy too much, and the deflating dollar resulting from Shrub’s penchant for imperialism will be just what we yanks needed…

Boy, go out and cut yerself a switch…

Report this

By rob payne, July 2, 2006 at 12:10 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Hmm, brings to mind a little tiff between Truman and General Macarthur or Dug-out Doug as the WWII marines fighting in the Philippines liked to call him (for leaving the Philippines when the Japanese came for tea while leaving the marines to ask them one lump or two) when Macarthur wanted to flatten North Korea with nuclear bombs during the Korean war. Truman won, Macarthur lost. Of course Bush is no Truman.

It is good thing Bush is around to bring stability to the world eh? Right now Israel is bent on removing the Palestinian government and calling the Palestinian civilians they are now killing on wholesale basis terrorists. Want to kill people and look good? Why just kill a terrorist. Of course this certainly has echoes of a certain super power and Iraq with the removal of their government and a killing of terrorists. I guess we are setting new high standards as a responsible leader of the world.

I am racking my brain as to just which Bush policy has been successful. The policy of invading Iraq? Nope. Tax cuts to improve the economy? Nope. Insulting every country in the world? Nope. Come to think of it do we actually want Bush to fix anything? Nope.

Here are some suggestions of what Bush might do as president and not really hurt anything such as reading the news, learning how to tie his shoes, sitting quietly at home, getting lots of sleep and rest, setting his alarm clock and or eating a bowl of wheaties. I think these are within the range of some real possibilities of things Bush might accomplish with no harm done to him or the world.

No doubt our stellar success story in Iraq has convinced the Bush administration with all-stars like Rummy the grand strategist, Rice with her snap, crackle and pop, Cheney the historian and Mid-East expert that mindless aggression is a winner.

And how do Japan and China feel about all this? After all they are in hit and missile range of North Korea being intimate neighbors and all. Surly they must be so enthusiastic about Bush starting a war with North Korea and bringing stability to the world. Why don’t we ask the Japanese how they felt when North Korea popped a missile right over their heads? But that is the kind of thing that happens when you have leaders who think war is the first resort.

Report this

By Doug, July 1, 2006 at 10:12 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

To paraphrase Denis Diderot:

“Americans will never be free until the last Republican is strangled with the entrails of the last Democrat.”

Report this

By molly, July 1, 2006 at 9:15 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

as if the worldpov

could overcome the lifepov

as if!

we lifin with all the might we gots

yep

so sue we

if we ain’t where yall wanna we to b

{{{{{{{{{{ ;{{{}}}}}} 5;}}}

Report this

By chris alpough, July 1, 2006 at 5:48 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Another cool article Molly.  Keep it up.

Report this

By c u n d gulag, July 1, 2006 at 7:41 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

JABBERTALKY
With apologies to Lewis Carroll

`Twas brillig, and the slithy Roves
Did Snow and Cheney on the tube:
All flimsy were the Neo-cons,
And the George Wraths outgrave.

“Beware the Jabbertalk, my son!
The sounds that bite, the talk that point!
Beware the Malkin bird and shun
The frumious Coultersnatch!”

He took his Froomkin sword in hand:
Long time the Factor foe he sought --
So rested he by the Dumbdumb tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in Bushish thought he stood,
The Jabbertalk, with tongues of flame,
Came Rushing through the TV wood,
And Savaged as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The Froomkin blade went facty-fact!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

“And, has thou slain the Jabbertalk?
Come to my arms, my webish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!’
He chortled in his joy.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy Roves
Did Snow and Cheney on the tube:
All flimsy were the Neo-cons,
And the George Wraths outgrave.

Report this

By Rabanito, July 1, 2006 at 7:14 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

We have bankrupted the Country,
We have alienated our allies,
We have broken the world.
“Mission Accomplished”

Report this

By US PERSON, June 30, 2006 at 1:39 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

I got an idea! Instead of starting wars we can’t finish, let’s try a 180 and start ending the ones we have on hand, Korea for example.  Better late than never, and we could send our 35,000 gravel agitators to Afganistan to warm up.

Report this

By Vanna, June 30, 2006 at 8:10 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

I suppose anyone with a past they’re ashamed or afraid of is good “loyalist” meat.  Politics is just blackmail by another name.

Plenty of beef on the hoof in Washington.

Report this

By Hiding Lindquist, June 30, 2006 at 7:36 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Response to Comment #12720 by Tom on 6/30 at 7:53 am:

Ooh boy, we can go back even further ... back beyond Albert Camus and the Theatre of the Absurd to Lewis Carroll’s (the pseudonym for Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson--isn’t that fun?) and “Through the Looking Glass” where “there are many mirror themes, including opposites, time running backwards, and so on.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Through_the_Looking_Glass

It seems to me--just your average citizen who voted for Nixon over Kennedy in 1960, by the way--that Jesus’s admonition to the stronger to make the overture of peace to the weaker is sorely lacking in the Neocon set of transcending ideals ... along with most of those set forth in our founding set of transcending ideals clearly stated in our Declaration of Independence.

Power is so damn useless when you’re lighting the fuse that blows everybody up, like in, “Take that you evil axis, you! Har har har! We showed them bastards.” [Fade to black]

Report this

By Tom, June 30, 2006 at 6:53 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

So we should give in to North Korean demand and talk “one on one” with them?  Talk about giving in to the enemies.  I’m very happy you liberals aren’t running our foreign policy - for crying out loud, under Clinton you gave the North Koreans nuclear capability.

Let us grownups run things, you kids go play.

Report this

By Theo Ballgame, June 30, 2006 at 6:32 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Bless you, Molly. As T-Bone Burnett sings on his latest cd: ‘when you get through all this confusion, you’ll probably need a soul transfusion.’ Amen...and God protect us from these jerks.

Report this

By Briar, June 30, 2006 at 3:20 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

We should be grateful that the US missile defence system is as much a propaganda ploy as the North Korean rocket.  I have no doubt that the Bush admin (and probably some Dems as well) want to see a functioning “defence” as well as a whole arsenal of new nukes.  That the US intends to use nukes as soon as it can get away with it has already been signalled.  As soon as they can deploy missiles against “enemies” without having to fear retaliation, that is what they will do.  The defence system is really about fulfilling the neocon dream of an American twenty first century with the US dominating the world in every possible theatre, while protecting its own behind the anti missile missiles.  Long may the programme continue to fail, for once it starts working everyone will suffer.

Report this

By Stephen Hirsch, June 30, 2006 at 2:07 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Here’s a suggestion on how to deal with Korea: leave. Why are we there 55 years after the Korean War started. Koreans are grownups, and can handle their own problems. They are literally not going to nuke their own brothers.

By the way, it would save us lots of money, too.

Report this

By slamdunkindonut, June 29, 2006 at 7:49 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

William ‘The Conqueror’ Perry wants to shoot Kim’s missle on the ground- the same way Cheney hunts quail. Star Wars is a fitting analogy for this administration. They’ve all been seduced by the dark side. You’ve got Dubya as Darth Vader, Cheney as the Emporer and Sensenbrenner(sic)(sick) as Jabba the Hut. We all know that the Crawford ranch is a massive prop, and that W is equinaphobic. You’ve got the ghost of Ronnie the Rawhide as Obi Wan whispering to Arbusto, ‘Use the Horse’.

Report this

By felicity smith, June 29, 2006 at 2:17 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

This truly is the theater of the absurd.  Bushco are small- time thugs who have been waiting in the wings of government for years, bereft of power, relegated to the side-lines as whackos, powerless and ridiculed. They’re still whackos, but now they’re in power, a power that they will not give up without a fight. Consumed by it, their decisions are based solely on maintaining it.  The question is how long will the American people support these demagogues whose only interest is maintaining their new-found power.

Report this

By Hilding Lindquist, June 28, 2006 at 7:53 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

First off, I agree with you, Molly, that the Gang Who Can’t Shoot Straight will be able to use an insanity defense at their war crimes trials ... if we can ever get to that.

In the meantime, I would suggest that we consider their irrational behavior to be in the nature of theatre of the absurd ... designed to create the new Neocon un-reality, perpetuating them in power.

All these hoops and twists of illogic are meant to isolate the loyalists from the rationalists ... and document same for the future roundup of the “unpatriotic”. Or at it least that is what they WERE thinking ...

But now they have screwed things up so bad that the loyalist pool is shrinking to the point where they won’t be able to round up the rest of us ...

So these guys are going to have to do something really, really absurd to frighten the bejabbers out of us and get us back in line, or they’re gonna go to prison ...

These guys aren’t gonna go to prison, if they can help it ... not while they still have their finger on the button.

Keep in mind the Neocon dictums, “If you are not willing to use the power you have, you don’t deserve to have it.” and “Power is increased by creating loyalty to power.”

So, the Neocons use their power to build loyalty by crushing opposition, thereby increasing their power ...

Religion is the Neocons’ emotional glue for bonding people to their power.

What will save us in the end is that they really are the Gang Who Can’t Shoot Straight.

Report this

Add Your Comment

Posts by unregistered readers are moderated. Posts by members
are published immediately. Why wait? Register today!






Notify you when others comment on this article?


Are you a human?
Retype the word you see here.


Please read and abide by our comment policy.
By submitting this comment, you agree to this site's terms and conditions.

Newsletter

Get Truthdig in your inbox

Privacy Policy

 
Click here to advertise with Truthdig
 

 
Join the Liberal Blog Advertising Network
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
Copyright © 2008 Truthdig, L.L.C. All rights reserved.