Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Turner: Crush North Korea

Ted Turner is an idiot, so I have sympathy for Blitzer's job of interviewing the boss--I guess Wolf drew the short straw. I think I saw this via NRO.

But I must say that when Turner commented on the tentative agreement with North Korea to end their nuclear programs I was kind of shocked to hear Turner say this:

TT: Well, I hope I'm right, too. But, you know, in the Bible, it says you're supposed to forgive seven times seventy, or something like that. Just because...in 1940, the Germans were our enemies. For the last fifty years, they've been our allies. The same with the Russians...The Russians were our enemies before '91 when the Cold War ended. Let's give them a break. Give them a break.

I think I remember the Biblical passage: Morons 3:17, I believe.

But back to the statement. Turner is confused. We did not become the friends of the Nazis who ruled Germany in 1940. The Germans were our allies because we firebombed their cities in round-the-clock bombing raids, invaded them with millions of troops, occupied their cities, tried and executed their Nazi leaders, generally ground them into the dirt in defeat, and made them elect decent rulers.

Nor did the communists simply become our friends "when the Cold War ended." That wasn't some passive thing that just happened. We confronted the Soviets in a global struggle that lasted for forty years, waging a war with them that went hot in the Third World and broke them financially and politically. We did not become friends with the Soviet Union and their empire--we became friends with a shrunken Russia that was stripped of its empire. Sadly, because we did not occupy the Russians after this victory, we were unable to make them elect decent rulers.

I would certainly be willing to give the North Koreans a break after Kim Jong Il shoots himself in some Pyongyang bunker and after forty years of occupation and de-Kimification.

Like I said, I'm kind of shocked at Turner's aggressive suggestion. Or is it possible he's a flipping idiot who knows nothing of even our recent history? Wolf? Your call.