Anti-North Korea Legislation Announced in Congress
Is it just me or is it amazing that a member of the US Congress is doing more to free kidnapped South Koreans in North Korea than the South Korean government?:
A U.S. congresswoman submitted a legislation Tuesday opposing North Korea’s removal from a terrorism watch list until the communist state stops exporting weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and accounts for foreign nationals it has kidnapped and South Korean prisoners of war.
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Florida) introduced the legislation, the "North Korean Counterterrorism and Nonproliferation Act," co-sponsored by nine other Republicans. [Yonhap]
I have never heard of Representative Roh-Lehtinen before so I decided to do a little research on her. It turns out that she is very consistent at condemning dictators. She has been very outspoken about what is going on in Darfur and even caused a prior controversy by advocating for the assassination of Fidel Castro. A few days ago she announced legislation against Syria as well and has an op-ed in the New York Sun explaining her position against Syria, North Korea, and Iran. She is definitely no apologist for the world’s tyrants.
"It turns out that she is very consistent at condemning dictators. She has been very outspoken about what is going on in Darfur and even caused a prior controversy by advocating for the assassination of Fidel Castro. "
What does she say about Pervez Musharraf, Uzbekistan leader Islam Karimov, and those fat guys in Riyadh whose ministry of education publishes textbooks teaching Muslim youngsters around the world that Christians are pigs and Jews are apes? Conservative politicians and government officials are generally consistent about condemning dictators unfriendly to the United States.
We are very proud of Representative Ros-Lehtinen here in Florida. Our state is blessed with some of the best, most consistent representatives in terms of the cause of liberty. I hope when Republicans get control of the House back, she is around to take over the Foreign Affairs committee.
Sonagi's point is well taken. But dictators who work against the interests of the US are probably the worst kind of dictators, after all. Stalin and Mao vs. Pinochet? Kim Jung Il vs. Karimov? Come on.
The longstanding embargo against Cuba is childish and politically motivated. He's no worse the Musharraf, Karimov, the mysogynistic religious bigots in Saudi, or all those Latin American right-wing dictators we supported for years.
I believe once Castro is dead I think the time will be ripe to begin a reform in our US-Cuba policy. As I'm sure you know Cuban policy is dictated mainly because of the large Cuban-American voting block.
Musharraf is hopefully on his way out the door and hopefully Bhutto will take over power again, we have no more bases in Uzbekistan, and the Saudis we have no choice to have deal with because of oil. The day the US doesn't have to buy oil from the Saudis any more the US should declare a national holiday.