In Bill Clinton's defense, he was against the peace deal that Carter negotiated with the North Koreans in 1994. But Carter had negotiated the 2-party deal, and Clinton couldn't say "no" to peace or he would have been eaten alive by the media.
But by 1999, he was right. And then how W. got blamed for North Korea, I have no idea, especially since he kept to the terms of the 1994 agreement . But by 2006, everyone universally agreed that the 2-part talks in 1994 were the biggest mistake every made, as North Korea was just as belligerent in the 6-party talks, exposing themselves.
As far as the pacifists saying we're hypocrites, understand geo-politics. I.e., China keeps nukes out of North Korea, and we keep them out of Taiwan. But most Americans, much less the TV personalities, don't understand the first thing about geo-politics. They are regional, not this 1-on-1 non-sense, hence why the 2-party talks were a major mistake that everyone all agrees they were now.
So ...
When Saudia Arabia and other nations are totally against the Iranian deal, and see it as "outside parties negotiating on their behalf," you know it's bad. At the same time, Iran has 5x the air defense sensory capability of all our European and mainland Asian allies combined. So it's not like Israel and the US can do much from the air without incurring serious losses.
It's ironic how THAAD was heavily developed under the Clinton administration to protect South Korea, in Iran and other countries, but not deployed there to protect our troops, or in Europe for that matter. All the meanwhile the equivalent 300X and 400 sensory systems are deployed by Russia everywhere, anyone who wants it, and is far more capable what those same allies have (PAC-3 -- extremely limited in comparison).
We are so behind. China and Russia have new offensive systems, ours are 50 years old. Our 20-30 year advantage in defensive systems are no longer, let alone the TV media goes screaming any time PAC-3, much more THAAD or NTW (which is limited to seas, and only 20% coverage) is deployed, something about "causing inbalance." But when 300X or 400 is deployed to Iran, "oh, it's just defensive."
We're in such a wishy-washy, TV media-driven, geo-political ignorant leadership role now, our allies are leaving us ... and for good reason. Sigh ... and they publicly hated Reagan for Pershing II, yet it brought the Russians to the negotiation table, and our allies thanked us. We deserve what we get I guess.
