Negotiations needed instead of nuclear warfare

Brendan Gleason / Columnist

Last Thursday, North Korea stunned the international community when it announced possession of nuclear weapons and no plans to continue the six nation talks for disarmament. Their reason: the current Bush administration. Apparently naming a country as part of the axis of evil doesn't go over too lightly. North Korea said that it was developing nuclear weapons only in defense from an invasion by the United States.

"We cannot spend another four years as we did in the past four years, and there is no need for us to repeat what we did in those years," said the North Korean Foreign Minister.

North Korea has requested bilateral negotiations directly with the United States before rejoining negotiations with China, Russia, South Korea and Japan. The United States said it would not agree to negotiations without the other member states, hoping that China can convince North Korea to re-join negotiations with all the members.

North Korea having nuclear weapons is like giving a four year old chocolate cake and hoping it doesn't end up all over his face. It also creates a serious problem for the new U.S. foreign policy. Under the "Bush Doctrine"any country that possesses an immediate threat to the United States, justifies our right to defend by means of a preemptive attack. We used this policy to justify invading Iraq. Remember, we did not go to Iraq to spread democracy, but because we thought they had weapons of mass destruction. Turns out they didn't and North Korea did.

Under his own doctrine, President Bush should order the Pacific Fleet off the coast of North Korea to demand abandonment of its nuclear weapons program or face total invasion. It's the same deal we gave Saddam and look where he ended up. Problem is, North Korea has the bomb and wouldn't hesitate to use it, especially if the United States invaded. We're the reason they developed the bomb. The other major dilemma facing the Bush Administration is the realization of the North Korean military that Saddam's rag tag Republican Guard cannot even touch. We would lose thousands of troops in a war probably resulting in the use of nuclear weapons. Our military is already stretched thin enough and we honestly couldn't afford another large-scale military operation.

Wars are the result when negotiation fails. North Korea has shown its willingness to negotiate directly with the United States, but we have declined stating it regional issue and all countries must participate in the negotiations. It is not a regional issue; the entire world is affected when the issue is nuclear weapons. If having direct negotiations with North Korea has even the slightest chance of terminating their nuclear weapons program or brings them back to the multi-nation negotiations then we should agree to sit down one-on-one to discuss.

If we can invade a country without other countries help, I hope we can at least negotiate without their help. Otherwise we are doomed to an endless cycle of war and conflict without peace. And if peace is our true goal, we should never shy away from the possibility of diplomacy.  It is our responsibility to our future generations of humanity.

"Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate." ~John F. Kennedy.

Contact Brendan Gleason at pendulum@elon.edu or 278-7247.