Colin Powell recently confessed that his presentation of US "intelligence" – which turned out to be all wrong – to the UN Security Council to justify Bush’s unprovoked and unsanctioned war of aggression against Iraq was a "blot" on his record, and he "feels terrible" about it.
Don’t we all?
However, his successor, Condi Rice, won’t have to feel terrible about a blot on her record. After only nine months as Secretary of State, her entire record looks like a continuous "blot."
Where to start?
How about her offer early this year to provide nuclear "assistance" to India – which would require repealing US law and flouting guidelines of the Nuclear Suppliers Group – if only the Indians would cancel the Iran-Pakistan-India natural-gas pipeline deal?
Or her recent threat to withdraw that offer – which Congress is probably not going to allow, anyway – if India refused to support referral of the "nuclear weapons" program the Likudniks allege Iran has, to the UN Security Council for "action"?
Then there was the hatchet job her man Bonkers Bolton did on the draft “outcome document” for the “High-Level Event” involving heads of state that immediately preceded the 60th session of the UN General Assembly.
According to Bolton the draft he gutted purported agreement on “aspects of the NPT that did not achieve consensus” at the 2005 NPT Review Conference held in April.
Of course, consensus was not achieved at the Conference largely because Condi wouldn’t allow those issues to even be mentioned, much less debated.
In fact, largely because of Condi, the 2005 NPT Review Conference was an unmitigated disaster.
Condi didn’t bother to address or even attend the conference. Instead, she sent a State Department weenie to inform the Conferees that the NPT had to be "strengthened," with those sections placing constraints on the United States – and those granting inalienable rights to Iran – removed.
“For almost two decades, Iran has conducted a clandestine nuclear weapons program, aided by the illicit network of A. Q. Khan.
“Britain, France, and Germany, with our support, are seeking to reach a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear problem, a solution that given the history of clandestine nuclear weapons work in that country, must include permanent cessation of Iran’s enrichment and reprocessing efforts, as well as dismantlement of equipment and facilities related to such activity.”
Condi has essentially forced the Brits, French, and Germans to join her in pressuring Russia, China, India and other members of the IAEA Board of Governors to refer to the Security Council for "action" a nuke program that the IAEA has been unable to find any indication of, despite two years of go-anywhere, see-anything inspections.
As her predecessor provided "justification" for Bush’s unprovoked and unsanctioned war of aggression against Iraq, Condi-baby seems hell-bent on providing "justification" for an unprovoked and unsanctioned war of aggression against Iran.
Then, of course, there’s North Korea.
Condi’s first visit to South Korea as Secretary of State was undiplomatically spent witnessing an exercise of our contingency plan, which included military actions that could be taken – including a preemptive nuke attack – if Bush decided North Korea’s internal troubles merited it.
Internal problems?
Thanks to Bush, North Korea withdrew from the NPT on the eve of his invasion of Iraq, and may well now have nukes. Yet, we’re going to launch a pre-emptive attack against them because Bush and/or some "human rights activist" decides there are either too many – or too few – refugees?
No wonder the North Koreans are paranoid. They have long felt threatened by those annual exercises. In fact, that’s the reason they gave for attempting to withdraw from the NPT in 1992
In order to get North Korea to suspend its withdrawal, Clinton offered to "provide formal assurances to the DPRK, against the threat or use of nuclear weapons by the US."
Well, in his first State of the Union Message, Bush declared he "would not permit the world’s most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world’s most destructive weapons." Months later he formally abrogated the entire Clinton Agreed Framework.
Well, now Condi is hoping that the Agreed Framework – or something very much like it – can be reconstructed. This time, however, the North Koreans will want a formal assurance by Russia and China that the US won’t threaten or use nukes against them.
So, it looks like that in nine months on the job, Condi has managed to practically destroy the NPT and its associated nuke-proliferation prevention regime, causing Russia, China, and India to ally themselves against us on Iran, North Korea and Whatever.
Such a blot!
