“Peace In Our Time!” Update

We have two more additions to the postmature enthusiasm over the North Korea deal. Some seem slow to realize this thing is already dead on arrival (my latest on NKZone distills the latest news into some of the same analysis you’ve already read here). Incidentally, examine all of this truthless triumphalism and new-found skepticism–the latter being at least grounded in fact–through the lens of conservatives proclaiming their faith in diplomacy and liberals emphasizing “verify” over “trust.” It’s depressing entertainment for us all.

As a charter member of the peace-in-our time crowd, the New York Times gets partial credit for consistency:

The agreement signed yesterday, if faithfully carried out, is a huge win for the United States as well as a fair deal for North Korea. Its achievement became possible when Washington abandoned the confrontational tactics and name-calling associated with its former top antiproliferation official, John Bolton, and gave serious negotiation a chance. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice deserves most of the credit for that switch, which was made with exceptional skill by America’s top negotiator at the talks, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill.

The Times, of course, could never have crawled to the end of this long limb without ignoring the the facts that its own reporters did a creditable job of reporting and analyzing.

Captain Ed, on the other hand, disappoints me deeply because I’m a big fan of his blog. Ed seems to have gone for the New York Times’s bait, tempted by the welcome fact that just once, the Times gave Bush some credit (finally, and when it’s least deserved!). Sure, Ed gets credit for viewing it through the strength-brings-peace prism, but I’m pretty disconsolate that someone as insightful as Ed proclaims, quoting the Times, “Diplomacy, it seems, works after all.” Diplomacy does work for parties equally committed to a meeting of the minds and common goals. This is fine for, say, fisheries treaties with The Netherlands, but not always as fine for terror states with guilty secrets that tend to be excellent harbingers of greater problems to come.

The problem with giving the Bush Administration credit here is that there’s just no credit left to give. North Korea has surprised even me by showing that its commitments literally take less time to get crapped and flushed than the chajjangmyon its delegates slurped up at the airport terminal in Beijing (once again, food comes second in North Korea). I mean, it took us what–ten hours?–to get from here to here. This is some kind of new record.

What depresses me the most about today’s events is that all along, I’d assumed that this administration was going along with this long diplomatic charade, post-Powell, either because it was stalling for some very good and very secret reason, or because it wanted to give North Korea the perfect opportunity to put on its spiked helmet and buttockless chaps and dance! dance! Before all the world! See, everyone, how silly these people are?

And now that the North Koreans have reached their asinine apex, we’ve dimmed the lights and dropped the curtain. Pay no attention. It’s almost as if the White House thinks that there are enough IAEA inspectors within God’s great sweep to permit us to actually trust these people to keep their agreements.