WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 — Last October, the North Koreans tested their first nuclear device, the fruition of decades of work to make a weapon out of plutonium.
For nearly five years, though, the Bush administration, based on intelligence estimates, has accused North Korea of also pursuing a secret, parallel path to a bomb, using enriched uranium. That accusation, first leveled in the fall of 2002, resulted in the rupture of an already tense relationship: The United States cut off oil supplies, and the North Koreans responded by throwing out international inspectors, building up their plutonium arsenal and, ultimately, producing that first plutonium bomb.
But now, American intelligence officials are publicly softening their position, admitting to doubts about how much progress the uranium enrichment program has actually made. The result has been new questions about the Bush administration’s decision to confront North Korea in 2002.
(NYTimes)
Let's review. DOOFUS makes a dumb decision [no! really?] based on some very iffy intelligence [that's starting to sound familiar somehow, isn't it?] and likely makes matters worse [go figure]. John Bolton [the neocon blowhard with the moustache] applauds.
Now, on to Iran.
Feeling safer yet?
No comments:
Post a Comment