Opinion: Kim Jong-il slaps Obama's face with nuclear glove

The Clinton administration concluded an agreement in 1994 that was supposed to prevent the Stalinist state of North Korea from building nuclear weapons, but actually gave away the technology for building such an arsenal. Under Barack Obama's short presidency, North Korea has gone much further than in former president Bill Clinton's time, but received much less in return. It had gained neither promises of normalization nor even any glimpse of the hoped-for light water reactors, though these had been part of the 1994 Clinton gift. After Clinton's misguided foreign policy, a dismal pattern was established and North Korea today is recognized by the world as a nuclear threat. Mr. Clinton’s wife, Hillary, has failed to provide leadership as Secretary of State, adding to the Clinton legacy on the subject of North Korea. President Bush was also unable to stop the North Korean nuclear push. Now, as test nuclear bombs explode under North Korea, Kim Jong-il has fired ballistic missiles and effectively dismissed Obama and his Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, as so much hot air blowing in from the West. Obama has deferred to China such important foreign policy matters, concluding that China is more capable and effective than his own Administration. China has consistently blocked any tough measures against North Korea because of fears that North Korea’s starving masses would be further degraded under the pressure of economic sanctions, sending millions of refugees over the border. Many believe that China would be the last nation on Earth to effectively discipline Mr. Kim’s regime, and history bears that theory out. Obama is increasingly turning over his foreign policy to China and Russia in hopes that they will administer foreign policy that is beneficial and effective to the U.S. even though such an arrangement has seldom been the case in recent history. Others believe Mr. Obama has simply abandoned the issue in hopes that China, and to a lesser extent, Russia, will do the policy work he is incapable of performing. Meanwhile, Mr. Kim has effectively slapped Obama in the face with a nuclear glove and the Administration has done no more than to rant about it. Mr. Kim's latest nuclear test, combined with yesterday's missile launches has reminded the world how quickly nuclear war can become a reality when rogue dictators armed to the teeth have no fear of retaliation from weak world leaders. The U.N. has been historically inept and ineffective in dealing with North Korea’s nuclear threat and is equally befuddled by Iran’s fledgling nuclear weapons development program. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has also called Obama’s bluff, firing missiles at will and announcing an end to nuclear talks aimed at halting nuclear weapons development programs in Iran. While nuclear proliferation flourishes and seemingly mad dictators challenge Obama openly, the U.S. President has shrank from the tasks at hand, preferring to concentrate on trillion dollar deficit spending and raising taxes while Russia and China take over his foreign policy. This strategy may serve Obama in the short term by diverting attention from him, but as the dictators continue to taunt Obama and his Administration, it is unlikely that he will find political cover for years. On the domestic front, Obama’s budget contains trillions in deficit spending as far as the eye can see and he has not even begun to reform health care; Social Security; Medicaid; Medicare, and other major government spending programs. Many believe that Obama is spending so recklessly and fast that a future catastrophe or terrorist attack like 911 could sink the country under a tsunami of debt. The present Democratic controlled U.S. Congress has offered little resistance to the Obama spending marathon that is heavily funded by China and the printing of U.S. dollars that will eventually dilute the strength of that currency. Many economists, experts and citizens alike do not believe that Obama's foreign policy is any more sustainable than his domestic spending. With only five months in office, Obama has spent an enormous amount of his own political capital but has solved few real problems. Meanwhile, the country seems to be giving Obama plenty of rope.