Posted by Dan Ewert : 9/02/2004 05:39:00 PM (Archive Link)
If the World Were One Big Dilbert Strip...

then if John Kerry is elected president, he'd be the pointy-haired boss. The proof is in this story. This deal being discussed is remarkably similar to the one agreed to with North Korea, and we know how that turned out. So, this sort of thing has failed horribly once and that means we... try it again!

This is a substantial misunderstanding of how to deal with such rogue countries. People like Kerry and the EU folks want to use carrots to entice these nations into being good upstanding members of the international community. That's not how it works out, though. The corrupt government is still there and the same people are still in charge. They merely use their rogue status to get more and more concessions. Why should a rotten child whose parents continually placate him with candy ever want to be a good child? Being rotten gets him the candy! Iran would rather have the international bon-bons and still develop its nuclear program and that's what they'll do should this deal happen.

Thus far, three rogue states have recently given up their foul ways: Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. Euro-style diplomacy wasn't responsible in any of the three cases. Two had their bad governments swept aside and the third started complying out of fear that they would be next. Never underestimate the power of Teddy's big stick.