Tag: Donald Trump

14 November 1998

Posted on by William Arkin

 

Saddam Hussein revokes his August 5 decision to cease cooperation with the United Nations inspectors (UNSCOM). Iraq states in a letter to Secretary-General Kofi Annan that it is willing to resume inspections. But the U.S. and U.K. argue that the country imposes a number of unacceptable conditions with its offer, particularly restrictions on visiting presidential sites and including American inspectors. Capitulating, Iraq then informs the U.N. Security Council that it was the “clear and unconditional decision of the Iraqi government to resume cooperation with UNSCOM and the IAEA.”

As Iraq deliberates on resumption of inspections, an air and cruise missile operation (Desert Viper) is being prepared and even implemented: aircraft moving into place, armed, with targets selected. When Iraq notifies the Security Council, President Clinton aborts Desert Viper just minutes before the designated H-hour (11:00 AM EST).

In a televised address, President Clinton later says that Iraq has “backed down” and pledged full cooperation with UNSCOM. The president also makes clear that U.S. policy includes the overthrow of Saddam Hussein as a prerequisite for resumption of normal relations. The UNSC accepts Iraq’s decision and issues a statement in which it stresses that Iraq’s commitment “needs to be established by unconditional and sustained cooperation with the Special Commission and the IAEA in exercising the full range of their activities provided for in their mandates.”

The U.S. and U.K. then threaten that without full cooperation, they will strike Iraq without warning. According to the Iraq Survey Group, the events of 1998 “had so poisoned the atmosphere with UNSCOM that the relationship could not be repaired.” It was the end of inspections and the beginning of the road to certain war, but also not the last time that a president stopped an underway bombing operation, President Trump doing so vis-à-vis Iran.

24 October 2000

Posted on by William Arkin
Madeleine Albright visits Kim Jong Il

 

In the category of nothing ever changes… Secretary of State Madeleine Albright concludes a two-day visit to Pyongyang, North Korea, meeting with Kim Jong Il, the father of Kim Jong Un. During the visit, Kim tells her that North Korea would not further test its Taepo Dong-1 long-range missile. In addition to discussing Pyongyang’s indigenous missile production, the talks cover North Korean missile technology exports, and greater nuclear transparency.

On the agenda also are the carrot of the normalization of relations and a possible trip by President Bill Clinton to Pyongyang before he leaves office.

In the final presidential debate of the 2020 election season, former Vice President Joe Biden and President Trump traded barbs over North Korea, Biden criticizing Trump for being too chummy with Kim. Trump shot back that the Obama administration had watched North Korea develop its nuclear weapons and missiles without doing much, failing as well to secure a meeting.

Biden shot back: “We had a good relationship with Hitler before he, in fact, invaded the rest of Europe. The reason [Kim] wouldn’t meet with President Obama is because [Obama] said we’re going to talk about denuclearization.”

Biden and company continue to argue that pursuing denuclearization makes no sense because… because it’s not going to happen. “What has he done?” Biden said of Trump. “He’s legitimized North Korea…” And yet that’s been the American endeavor for decades, and not only that, but backwater North Korea has learned that nuclear weapons earn it a place in American foreign policy—as much an incentive as any other to be a nuclear power.

As for the connection to 9/11, the attacks completely took the American eye off the peninsula and North Korea went on to test its first nuclear device on October 9, 2006, while the Bush administration was amidst the worst phase of violence in Iraq and still aggressively pursuing the war against al Qaeda and the Taliban.