06/28/05

On the one hand, when dealing with Saddam Hussein's Iraq, the ayatollahs' Iran, Kim Jong Il's North Korea, and Fidel Castro's Cuba, President Bush and his aides have insisted that economic sanctions, diplomatic isolation, and the use of military power ('regime change') -- an approach that can be described as U.S. 'destructive disengagement' toward these governments -- are the only way to transform totalitarian systems and authoritarian regimes into democracies and free-market economies. On the other hand, when it comes to communist-ruled Vietnam -- it is less democratic than Iran and has less religious freedom than Saddam Hussein permitted in Iraq -- President Bush has been pursuing a policy of 'constructive engagement' based on the notion that expanding diplomatic and economic ties with an authoritarian government is the most effective way to help move it in the direction of free markets and democracy...

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/hadar.php?articleid=6457

from AntiWar.Com, by Leon Hadar


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp