Israel Matzav

Tell me the 'Lamont doctrine' isn't going to become US foreign policy

Someone please tell me that the 'Lamont doctrine' isn't going to become US foreign policy. I was flabberghasted when isolationist Ned Lamont beat Joe Lieberman in the democratic primary in Connecticut. Writing in National Review Online, Rich Lowry says that North Korea's nuclear test is a response to the 'Lamont doctrine.'

Ned Lamont, the liberal hero who vanquished Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman in a Democratic primary in August, declared a few months ago that our nation is stronger when we “negotiate with our enemies.” He thus neatly summarized post-9/11 Democratic foreign-policy thought in four words. The criminal regime of North Korea’s “Dear Leader” Kim Jong Il has now issued a rejoinder to this foreign-policy axiom that measured 4.2 on the Richter scale.

The apparent North Korean nuclear test — as yet unconfirmed — punctuates more than a decade’s worth of deal-making, confidence-building, cajoling and negotiating with a regime that has responded to it all only by enhancing its rogue status. The risible six-party talks, an effort by the U.S. and neighboring nations to reason with Kim Jong Il, had been in abeyance since the North walked away from them this year. But Democrats are attacking the Bush administration for not talking with the North directly, as if it is the shape of the negotiating table, rather than the nature of the North Korea regime, that has been the problem.

Other than the apparent nuclear test, substitute "Iran" for "North Korea" and "Ahmadinadinnerjacket" for "Kim Jong Il" and you can see why the 'Lamont doctrine' is bad for Israel.

Read the whole thing.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:25 PM