Conservative response to the North Korea missile launch:
“Especially in light of the North Korean launch, I thought his speech was otherworldly,” said John Bolton, the conservative former Ambassador to the United Nations under President Bush. “What is he saying about the real, concrete threat from proliferant states like North Korea and Iran? We’ll take you to the Security Council. Say, there’s a threat! That has had no practical impact on either Pyongyang or Tehran before and will not in the future.”
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said he would have attempted to knock out the missile. And Richard Perle, a former Reagan official who was a leading proponent of the Iraq war, mocked Obama for recently trumpeting the prospect for renewing an arms agreement with Russia, saying the president was practicing diplomacy that is utterly irrelevant.
“Can anyone imagine a Russian nuclear attack on the United States?” said Perle, who said Obama should worry instead about terrorists getting a mass-destruction weapon, possibly with the aid of Iran.
Most of these people are clinically insane, depraved, or both. That they had any hand in American foreign policy for the last 10 years is troubling at best, and a betrayal of fundamental American values.
As we stand here in 2009 the United States is just now regaining its moral authority to lead the world after these people dragged the planet into the sewer with their pigheaded decisions and arrogant actions. The core of how we deal with the world is that in addition to having the biggest guns we also have the most respect. The right has always been big stick without the requisite “speak softly”, and when they were given unfettered control over our foreign policy they loused it up.
Now that the grownups are back in charge, they throw their fecal matter from the sidelines with all kinds of ridiculous statements without any root in reality. Thank God that’s all they can do, for the safety of us and the world.
And yeah, I’m pretty sure this Rasmussen poll is the usual crap that now passes for polls from Rasmussen: Drudge/Fox News linkbait.
Nitpick: “clinically insane” is not a real thing. Insanity is a legal term, not a clinical one.
I mean, obviously you’re engaging in hyperbole through a common figure of speech, but just in case that phrase ever comes up in a serious conversation.
Short of invading North Korea, there isn’t a whole lot of leverage against someone as crazy as Kim Jong-il.
And the idea that we could have blown up that rocket is pure bullshit. Even under ideal circumstances (e.g., the enemy missile has a GPS unit telling the ground crews exactly where it is and where it’s going) interceptor missiles usually fail).
Not that North Korea isn’t a serious issue, but I’m thinking adult-style diplomacy will have more positive effect than ZOMG TERROR TERROR TERROR will.
“Can anyone imagine a Russian nuclear attack on the United States?”
Aren’t these the same people who were carrying on about Putin reassembling the Soviet empire when Russia got into a beef with Georgia?
Isn’t the answer to that question “at the very least, everyone over the age of twenty-five”?
Which we would completely fail to successfully do thereby demonstrating to North Korea how ineffective we could be. Great plan, Newt!
Doubt Newt’s terrible powers at your own peril, Sean. The man’s ego could eclipse a thousand suns.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said he would have attempted to knock out the missile.
Single-handedly! With his patented Paddington Hard Stare!©
I remain unconvinced that Newt Gingrich is an actual human being and not some Dickens villain who escaped from the holodeck.
If Bolton were in charge planet Earth would look like planet Mercury in short order.
You know what would have been really embarrassing? Trying to shoot down the missile and failing to do so, which is exactly what would’ve happened.
The solution is simple, pull all our troops out of every country, and bring them home. Then let the rest of the world sort out their own problems while we defend our borders.