New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has an op-ed in today’s WaPo arguing that George Bush’s refusal to use diplomacy early in his administration led to a nuclear North Korea, and that if we aren’t careful we’ll repeat our mistakes with Iran. Hard to argue with logic like this:
Rather than directly engaging the Iranians about their nuclear program, President Bush refuses to talk, except to make threats. He has moved ships to the Persian Gulf region and claims, with scant evidence, that Iran is helping Iraqi insurgents kill Americans. This is not a strategy for peace. It is a strategy for war — a war that Congress has not authorized. Most of our allies, and most Americans, don’t believe this president, who has repeatedly cried wolf.
…
No nation has ever been forced to renounce nuclear weapons, but many have chosen to do so. The Iranians will not end their nuclear program because we threaten them and call them names. They will renounce nukes because we convince them that they will be safer and more prosperous if they do that than if they don’t. This feat will take more than threats and insults. It will take skillful American diplomatic leadership.
As I wrote a couple days ago, I totally agree. The funny thing about this is that it isn’t just Democratic boilerplate from a presidential candidate. Bill Richardson knows diplomacy. Bill Richardson knows nukes. The man was U.S. ambassador to the U.N., negotiated with Saddam Hussein way back when, negotiated a ceasefire in Darfur more recently, and briefly ran the U.S. Department of Energy under Clinton. (All of this leads me to believe that Richardson, who is unlikely to get the nomination for president, would make an excellent Secretary of State.)
