Even for the Kingsport Times-News, this editorial is hawkish regarding the recent developments in North Korea. I agree with most of it, but I found it a little positive, even for the Times-News. Here’s a pretty powerful portion:
In response to that outrageously provocative act, President Obama told journalists assembled in the White House Rose Garden that the United States would work with allies around the world to “stand up to” North Korea. After that, the president made a brief visit to Arlington National Cemetery and then traveled to Ft. Belvoir where he played golf for the balance of the day.
It has been one of the treasured tropes of the left in general and of President Obama in particular that among President George W. Bush’s many faults was his deep disdain for diplomacy.
Unfair and untrue as that criticism has always been, North Korea’s escalating missile launches and this week’s underground nuclear test call that easy condemnation into further question.
It also makes all the self-congratulatory back-patting by the Obama administration over its supposedly more enlightened approach to U.S. foreign policy look not only premature but downright delusional.
If it wasn’t clear to President Obama during the campaign or in the days immediately after he took office, it should be exceedingly apparent now that diplomacy is meaningless unless it is backed up by the willingness to use force. As Will Rogers once famously phrased it, “Diplomacy consists of saying ‘nice doggie’ until you can find a rock.”
Friends, if you live in the SWVA/Northeast TN region, or even if you don’t, you owe it to yourself to either subscribe to the KTN or to read it daily online. The editorial section is superb considering its market.
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