We learned this week that - surprise! - diplomacy works!

North Korea turned over its nuclear secrets and demolished its reactor cooling tower and in exchange, George Bush has moved to normalize relations with the isolated country by taking it off the infamous "axis of evil" list and lifting some sanctions. All this, as Steven Lee Myers of the New York Times points out, is very un-Bush-like:

North Korea’s declaration of its nuclear activities is a triumph of the sort of diplomacy — complicated, plodding, often frustrating — that President Bush and his aides once eschewed as American weakness.

In more than two years of negotiations, the man who once declared North Korea part of an “axis of evil” with Iran and Iraq, angrily vowing to confront, not negotiate with, its despotic leader, in fact demonstrated a flexibility that his critics at home and abroad once considered impossible.

There is now only one country left in Bush's "axis of evil:" Iran. The question is, will we have to go down the same road with Iran that we went down with North Korea?



George Bush has characteristically refused to "negotiate with terrorists," putting any kind of high-level talks with the North Korean regime off for years. Under Bush's watch, North Korea bought nuclear technology from Pakistan's A.Q. Kahn, developed a nuclear weapons program which resulted in a successful nuclear test, and used this nuclear capability as leverage to bring Bush reluctantly to the negotiating table.

It's a classic example of what I call the nuclear cycle:

Are you a small, under-respected nation? Do you want to get the attention of the "big boys" and be taken seriously on the world stage? All you need to do is obtain a nuclear weapon and you'll be rolling in cash, favors, and prestige.

This seems to be the message the U.S. and others in the so-called "first world" are sending. Get a nuke and we'll take you seriously. Until then, we can and will ignore you.

North Korea, above all, wants what any nation wants - respect, prosperity, and security. While it may be run by an oppressive regime, its general foreign policy goals are quite similar to any other nation. When Bush(*)unilaterally(*)moved to cut off relations with North Korea, the nation saw not only its hopes of world acceptance but its very security threatened. In that atmosphere, with an American leader who doesn't believe in "negotiating with terrorists," the path to respect and security was to prove you shouldn't be messed with. George Bush, with his with-us-or-against-us philosophy, created a strong incentive for countries like North Korea to build nuclear weapons.

And guess what; it worked!

North Korea immediately gave up its nuclear secrets once negotiations started moving,(*)signaling(*)their true intent was never to build a nuke for its own sake but to use it as a bargaining chip. Relations between the U.S. and North Korea have been steadily warming since it detonated a nuclear weapon. Its basic security is no longer in peril. And hey, it gets to sell its nuclear technology on the side for a tidy profit.

As anyone can plainly see, this is an awful cycle Bush has set up. Nearly every country that goes down this road, from Pakistan to North Korea, ends up selling their nuclear expertise to other countries hoping for the same outcome. This cycle is(*)guaranteed(*)to accelerate nuclear proliferation - a terrible outcome.

With that in mind, can't we figure out a way to short circuit this cycle and not repeat history with Iran?

Iran clearly wants - like North Korea, India, and Pakistan before it - normalized relations with the United States. The fact that it helped us prosecute the war in Afghanistan after September 11th and offered to put everything on the negotiating table(*)in exchange for normal relations - even the issue of Israel - makes this clear. But Bush won't let normalization happen without confrontation first. Instead, Iran is painted as pure evil, beyond the reach of diplomats. The only option left for either country is conflict.

Let's not do this again. We could continue down this dangerous road, with Iran racing to build the bomb that will make them untouchable and force negotiations before Bush decides to attack. We could let another country develop nuclear technology that will find its way into other hands. Or we could cut off this process by talking to Iran, taking them up on their offer to put everything on the table and showing them some respect by doing the same on our end.

Let's talk about Iran's stance towards Israel. Its nuclear secrets. Its sponsorship of terrorism. But let's also talk about Iran's membership in the World Trade Organization. And foreign aid and expertise to rebuild its crumbling infrastructure. And equal respect as an ally in the Middle East.

There are plenty of carrots we can offer Iran to get them to give up the worst of their current practices. They may never be our buddy, but we don't have to force them to build a nuke before we can talk to them. The North Korean situation has proved diplomacy works. Let's see if this time, we can make it work without proliferation.




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