[From the diaries by susanhbu] While the Bushies do nothing but bluster, Iran is calling their bluff, as did North Korea last week. It’s a dangerous game of nuclear chicken, set against the background of the anti-proliferation treaty conference currently bogged down in New York.
While Bush pranced around Europe celebrating the good old pre-nuclear war war days, with his rhetoric conveniently ignoring the reality of both actual and potential nuclear weapons and what they do to all the political equations, the Non-Proliferation Treaty conference in New York plodded on, still without even an agenda in its second week. More below:
But while the Bush celebrated the decisive U.S. efforts in securing victory in World War II by working with allies, the Bush administration was widely seen as the greatest barrier to solving problems that could lead to this generation’s experience of backyard devastation.
An Associated Press report, appearing in the Toronto Globe and Mail:
U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton, by questioning the value of treaties and international law, has also damaged the U.S. position, Mr. Blix said.
“There is a feeling the common edifice of the international community is being dismantled,” the Swedish arms expert said.
Mr. Blix, now chairman of the Swedish government-sponsored Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, spoke with reporters Monday in the second week of a month-long conference to review the 1970 nonproliferation treaty.
Joseph Kahn reports in the New York Times that Yang Xiyu, the top China official involved in North Korean nuclear negotiations said in an interview, “It is true that we do not yet have tangible achievements” in ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. But a basic reason for the unsuccessful effort lies in the lack of cooperation from the U.S. side.”
The statement, Kahn writes, is noteworthy “because the Chinese authorities very rarely speak to journalists about the issue. The comments reflect growing frustration in Beijing with the Bush administration.” Similar sentiments were expressed by a leader in the Russian legislature.
North Korea announced another step in extracting weapons grade plutonium from its main nuclear reactor, as a move “necessary to bolster its nuclear arsenal,” according to an unnamed North Korean official in a Los Angeles Times report.
But several overseas newspapers noted that the U.S. right-rigging media is concentrating on the “Iran nuclear crisis.” On 16 May Newsday reported that “Iranian lawmakers approved a measure yesterday instructing the government to resume uranium enrichment, a prospect that has drawn fire from the United States and Europe because it could be used in developing atomic weapons.” The move may be a negotiating tactic, as Iran has been dissastified with what they’ve heard from European countries in their formal talks. The Europeans threaten to take the matter to the Security Council, which is probably more sympathetic to Iran and the notion of peaceful nuclear power, while the current U.S. government may very well use it as another excuse to disdain international agreements. Here’s the story: www.newsday.com
The chickenhawks are likely concentrating on Iran because it’s not believed they as yet have nuclear weapons, so according to chickenhawk logic, because they aren’t a threat—whereas North Korea may be capable of launching an atomic attack on San Francisco–they are the chosen target of the only action the Bushheads are capable of: bullying.