How many liberals want to bash ole Bill Clinton?

Question

Thanks to Clinton, we now have North Korea to deal with. Did you know that Clinton sold them Nuclear powerTechnology back in the 90's which is now being used to create nuclear weapons? If you didn't, do some studying and find out for yourself. Did Clinton mean to do this? I don't think so, but we have learned that an administration's policy can take years to see whether or not it was good or bad. A lot of people on both sides need to chill a little.

Answer 1

Well sometime in the not so distant future, all of the focus will be on Bush's mistakes that will make Bill Clinton look pale in comparison.

Answer 2

"Did you know that Clinton sold them Nuclear powerTechnology back in the 90's which is now being used to create nuclear weapons?" That is patently false. Further, you failed to provide any sources to back up your claim. In 1994, only two years after Clinton came into office, U.S. spy satellites discovered that North Korea was constructing nuclear weapons reactors. Indeed, there is evidence that shows that the North Koreans had a nuclear weapons program in place in the 1980s, long before Cinton occupied the white house. The North Koreans didn't begin work on this program with any help from the U.S. This program was well underway when Clinton took office. In 1993, U.S. intelligence uncovered irrefutable evidence that North Korea had a clandestine nuclear program, despite being a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). After Pyonyang was confronted with evidence of its illegal nuclear weapons program, it withdrew from the NPT, becoming the first country to do this. Our country was on the brink of war with North Korea in 1994 after it was discovered that Pyonyang was developing nuclear weapons. The plans were in place, and if you think that what is happening in Iraq is bad, a U.S. invasion of North Korea would have been ten times worse. The nuclear technology that I believe you are referring to in your question has to do with the Agreed Framework which was negotiated by Robert Gallucci, then assistant secretary for military affairs at the state department. If anyone is interested in a serious discussion of the issues that led to the 1994 crisis, Galluci's book, Going Critical is a great place to start. As part of the 1994 agreed framework, the U.S. agreed to provide North Korea with two "proliferation proof" light water nuclear reactors. In other words, it would be almost impossible for North Korea to use these reactors to produce nuclear weapons. Well you know what, the U.S. reneged on its part of the agreement. It did not supply the North Koreans with the promised nuclear reactors. This occured during the Bush administration. If anything, the current administration's bellicose stance towards the world has led to an upturn in nuclear proliferation around the world. . The 1994 agreement was far from perfect, but at least a framework was in place. At least the Clinton administration opened the lines of communication with Pyongyang. Pyongyang suspended its nuclear weapons development during this time. Unfortunately, the current adminstrations refusal to engage North Korea, its strict adherence to the six-party talks, and its insitence on invading Iraq, gave Kim Jung Il's regime the opportunity to further its progress towards becoming a nuclear weapons state. You simply cannot spin this one. It is not the Clinton administrations fault that Pyonyang was able to launch a rudimentary nuclear weapon this week, the blame lies soley on the administration currently occupying the white house. The foreign policy decisions made since President Bush took office have been disastorous. The sad thing is, our country no longer has the moral authority or the military ability to check rogue regimes like North Korea. Creating a nuclear weapon takes a lot more than just possesing plutonium and spent fuel, so let's hope that North Korea is still years away from perfecting the technology needed for a viable nuclear bomb. The device launched this week was a failure, that means there is still an opportunity to prevent North Korea from becoming a nuclear weapons state.

Answer 3

As you said, do some studying and find out for yourself. Clinton didn't sell them Nuclear Power Technology. By CIA estimates, their nuclear program dates back to the 80's, during the Reagan and Bush Sr. administrations.

Directly from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist website, article written in 2003, before North Korea announced it had nuclear weapons:

The center of North Korea's nuclear program is at Yongbyon, some 60 miles north of Pyongyang. Its major facilities include the 5-MWe reactor and reprocessing plant that it has threatened to restart, as well as a fuel fabrication plant. The construction of a 50-MWe reactor in Yongbyon was halted under the 1994 agreement, as was construction of a 200-MWe reactor in Taechon. North Korea has uranium deposits estimated at 26 million tons and is thought to have one active uranium mine.

North Korea is widely believed to have produced and separated enough plutonium for a small number of nuclear warheads. Most or all of the plutonium came from the 5-MWe reactor at Yongbyon, which went critical on August 14, 1985, and became operational the following January. The U.S. intelligence community believes that during a 70-day shutdown in 1989, North Korea secretly removed fuel from the reactor and separated the plutonium. Estimates vary as to how much plutonium was obtained. The State Department believes about 6-8 kilograms; the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency say 8-9 kilograms, an estimate consistent with the careful analysis of the Institute for Science and International Security. South Korean, Japanese, and Russian analysts have made much higher estimates, ranging up to 24 kilograms.

North Korea has never admitted it possesses nuclear weapons, but it appears likely that it does. Nucleonics and NBC Nightly News reported in 1993 that reprocessed plutonium had already been converted from a liquid form to metal, and several U.S. officials concluded that Pyongyang had made it into a bomb. In November 2002, the CIA went further than its previous estimates, stating, "The United States has been concerned about North Korea's desire for nuclear weapons and has assessed since the early 1990s that the North has one or possibly two weapons using plutonium it produced prior to 1992."

Answer 4

yes... anyone who knows anything about the situation knows that the program has been going on since the 80s and most likely was provided by China... their key ally...

in fact, Baker himself said that they had a rudimentary nuke under the senior Bush... before Clinton was even in office...

at best, Clinton may have given them some new technology... but that is all a little fuzzy...

but, the things I didn't like about Clinton was NAFTA (which bush also supports and Bush also signed CAFTA to make matters worse)... supports China trade (which Bush also supports)... and didn't make Osama enough of a priority (which Bush has also clearly done)...

so Clinton took all of Bill's bad habits and copied them apparently... the interns should watch out...

Answer 5

Clinton did not foresee that North Korea will be aggressive in the arms build-up putting America in jeopardy.

Answer 6

yes they do need to chill!!! My goodness,we could go on and on about EVERY PRESIDENTS MISTAKES!! i hate how they like to point out just on certain ones...and then manipulate the subject.