Israel Matzav

Obama writes another letter

Fresh off the great 'success' of his love letter to Ayatollah Ali Khameni, President Obumbler has decided to send another letter to another dictator begging him to cease and desist from developing and proliferating nuclear weapons:

North Korea's Kim Jong Il. President Barack Obama has written a personal letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il as part of an intense effort to draw the reclusive nation back to nuclear disarmament talks, a senior State Department official said Tuesday.

The letter was delivered to North Korean officials last week by Obama's special envoy for North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, during a visit to Pyongyang aimed at restarting the stalled negotiations, the official said.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the diplomacy, would not describe the contents of the letter but said they fit with Bosworth's general message.

"The North Koreans have a choice: continued and further isolation or benefits for returning to the six-party talks and dismantling their nuclear weapons program," the official said.

The official was not aware whether Kim had responded to Obama's missive. Bosworth's visit did not include a meeting with the North Korean leader.

Presidents Clinton and Bush also wrote personal letters to Kim. But President Clinton did so in 1994, before the North tested nuclear weapons, while Bush's letter sounds like it was more of an ultimatum than a friendly letter.

Read the whole thing.

Iran and North Korea are feeding off each other. Each sees the other push the nuclear envelope and then pushes it some more. The Obama administration watches helplessly because it is unwilling to even show a flash of a military option. Unless and until Obama establishes a credible military threat to stop these two rogue states, they will continue to develop nuclear weapons. This is far more urgent than sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. If Iran and North Korea obtain nuclear weapons, al-Qaeda will be much more difficult to defeat. As it is, the two rogue states are arming terror groups like Hamas and Hezbullah. If they go nuclear, this will only get worse.

What could go wrong?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:05 AM