Here's the column that ran in the Albuquerque Tribune Oct. 26:
HEADS UP
The (nuclear) sky is falling. Or is it? Is North Korea really as evil as some people say it is?
By Arthur Alpert
They warned Henny-penny an attack was coming, but she stubbornly pecked away elsewhere until it caught her flat-footed.
But when Henny-penny screamed "The sky is falling," the farm animals panicked, quite forgetting that the hen house collapsed on her watch. That taught Henny-penny a lesson – so long as you keep clucking "The sky is falling," you stay cock of the walk, so to speak.
Today’s piece of falling sky is nuclear North Korea or, as Dave Cargo prefers, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. I recalled that the Governor had visited Pyongyang but turns out he’s traveled there four times, abetted by important Chinese friends; visited China "eight or nine" times and keeps an eye on Asia.
So here’s David Cargo’s take:
First, their leaders are strange but not insane. "The press paints these guys as lunatics. They’re really not. They’re human beings with a different view on life."
Conversing with the late Kim Il Sung, for example, Governor Cargo found him a "very polite, extremely intelligent guy." Quite different, that is, from the God-like image the DPRK perpetrated – to commemorate a stroll he once made on Diamond Mountain, they built a 25-foot statue of him there!
"He did have some peculiar habits," says Cargo, like requiring visitors to bring expensive presents that wound up in the Museum of Foreign Gifts, stuffed today with pricey paintings and sculpture.
The former Governor knows Kim Jong Il less well, but trusted sources tell him the son is craftier than he is crazy.
Cargo says this deified family sits at the top of a totalitarian society, inspired by juche (self-sufficiency) and Confucianism, informed by one TV channel and "official" newspapers only. Imagine the US with just Fox News and the New York Post!
So how do we deal with a nuclear DPRK? Establish personal relationships, show respect and reassure them we won’t attack, says the Governor.
Relationships create trust. "You cannot do it by fencing with them, sitting across the table from them." He would send a presidential confidante to talk to Kim Jung Il. George H. W. Bush "would be ideal."
They hunger for R-E-S-P-E-C-T, too. Cargo believes that their demand for two-party talks is "only asking for respect. It shows they are of the same stature as the U.S." He’d deal with them one-on-one, sending any results to the Six-Party Talks. Sounds reasonable to me, particularly if Aretha Franklin sits in.
Next, says the Governor, "they have to be assured that they are secure from invasion. And they interpret a lot of things as menacing. They can be very aggressive, but I don’t think that they want to commit suicide. They want to survive."
Coercive sanctions? Be careful, says Cargo, when squeezing the North Korean economy. "If you have a highly successful embargo, the country will collapse." That could send refugees streaming into China and South Korea, putting their economies in dire straits.
Which leaves us where?
Well, David Cargo thinks – and "thinks" is the operative word – that we should satisfy the DPRK’s need for respect and security to get what we want. This approach requires, of course, that we stop calling them "evil."
Or we could continue to imitate Henny-penny – squawking loudly, calling people names and screaming "The sky is falling, the sky is falling."
That solves no problems, but – aimed at the barnyard animals – it might make ‘em forget Iraq.
Alpert, a semi-retired Albuquerque newsman, may be reached at ArthurAlpert@swcp.com. His column appears the fourth Thursday of the month.
Here is the article that run in last Thursday's Albuquerque Tribune:
START TALKING
These ideas should get timid Democrats out of their shells – and maybe we’ll get somewhere
By Arthur Alpert
Weak-kneed liberal Socialists proved no match for Bolshevik thugs. Enter the Soviet Russian dictatorship.
Weimar Republic democrats, lacking all conviction, appeased Hitler’s hooligans. Wilkommen, Nazi Germany.
And in 2006, the Democratic establishment lies prone, either silent or stammering, while an extremist cabal threatens America’s democratic experiment.
Far-fetched comparison? Maybe, but this White House is lawless. And Republicans such as John Warner, Lindsay Graham and John McCain – hmm, all military veterans – offer the boldest opposition.
Probably the Democrats suffer a spinal deficiency; but just in case they’re distracted, I offer some talking points in plain, American English:
o Our nation’s greatest danger comes not from outside – we can defeat Islamic terrorists – but from within, from small men puffed up with power.
o Days after the September 11, 2001 crime against humanity, President Bush and intimates seized on it for political advantage. They used our patriotic anger at the deaths of innocents to pursue their Iraqi adventure. Sidetracking Afghanistan, they conjured up WMD, whispered of al Qaeda-Iraqi ties and – voila! – "The War on Terror." Splendid marketing.
No such war exists, however - only efforts to fight terrorists and quite separately, the tragic diversion of Iraq.
(Pssst, Democrats. Polls show most Americans grasp this, so you can say it safely. You’re welcome.)
o Given another shot," Vice-President. Cheney says, "we would do exactly the same thing."
Oh? That "same thing" includes letting Osama bin Laden escape Tora Bora. Abandoning Afghanistan to opium and the renascent Taliban. Recruiting for Osama. Trading universal sympathy for America 9/12/01 for today’s widespread fear of us. Tilting the Mideast toward Shiite Iran. Wasting billions. And spilling oh-so - much blood.
o Question that brilliant record, the Vice-President warns, and you comfort the enemy. Poor Mr. Cheney - so unmanly he cannot admit errors. And as "Fiasco" and "Cobra II" document, they are legion. The incompetence is awe-inspiring. See swaggering civilians, innocent of combat, telling professional soldiers how to wage war, imprison, interrogate.
o Having dug a hellhole, the White House says we cannot cut-and-run. True. Neither can we leave our soldiers in a Sunni-Shia crossfire. The neo-conservative cabal already has spent the lives of 3,000 American soldiers. How many more? How many Iraqi civilians? And for what?
o To get out, first stop digging. Cease creating new terrorists. Disavow secular evangelism - conversion to democracy at swords’ point.
o The President calls it a clash of civilizations. Baloney. Terrorists remain a minority of Arabs and Muslims. We must tap the majority’s sympathy and support. Let’s talk - with the "evil" nations, especially. Could they, too, need respect and security?
o There’s no single enemy. In the Cold War, Richard Nixon exploited the national conflicts between Soviet and Chinese Communists. It’s called diplomacy. Nations use it to defend their interests without violence.
By listening to our generals, consulting allies and foes, maybe we can extricate our soldiers – if not tomorrow, soon.
o Traditionally, ruling a foreign empire requires discipline at home. Thus, White House secrecy, lies, evasion of judicial review. Bring back the Constitution.
o Sorry, FDR, "fear itself" is not the only fear. So are fear-retailers. "The terrorist threat is still small," writes Libertarian-Conservative columnist John Tierney. "It’s the terrorism industry that got big."
o Killing today’s terrorists won’t suffice; we need terrorist birth control, too. That’s where the soft power of example, of an America exuding justice and opportunity, might help.
There– talking points. Of course, dear Democratic leaders, they’re better enunciated on one’s feet.
Alpert is a semi-retired newsman in Albuquerque. Reach him at ArthurAlpert@swcp.com. His column appears the fourth Thursday of the month.