That ended last week, when at long last we saw some difference between the major party candidates on an issue near and dear to anti-Communists, as Senator John McCain took aim at the Bush Administration's North Korea debacle, as he reported by the Weekly Standard’s blog:
“‘I don't agree with it, and I think we have basically contradicted Ronald Reagan's great dictum of trust but verify. And particularly—many aspects of this are disturbing—but we told the South Koreans and the Japanese after we had made the decision. That's not a partnership with the allies.’
“McCain livened up a bit as he talked about the North Korea deal, at one point comparing the Bush administration's efforts on North Korea with the Clinton Administration's failed diplomacy. ‘It's a decision that I hope we don't regret over time because the North Koreans have a long pattern of breaking—a long history of breaking agreements that are not verifiable. I was very critical of the Clinton agreement—the Agreed Framework as I recall—because I didn't think that one was verifiable and I don't think this one is verifiable.’
“Engaging the North Koreans in face-to-face talks at the presidential level as Obama has promised to do would present serious risks, McCain argued, with the potential not only for bad deals but embarrassment. He pointed once again to the Clinton administration, citing Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's meetings in Pyongyang. ‘She had a very nice experience with children dancing while the gulag—the largest gulag in the world continued to function,’ he said with obvious contempt.”
Despite the two candidates painfully similar blindness on Communist China, McCain's clarity on the Korean colony is very, very welcome, especially given that Pyongyang is once again resorting to old tricks against its own people and its neighbors.
One should not underestimate the importance of the Korean colony in the Communists' plans. What with an ailing economy, an angrier peasantry, and more attention being paid to its police-state tactics, Beijing will be needing North Korea as a distraction to the free world even more than in the past.
Moreover, the North Korea issue reveals McCain to be a more complex, nuanced, and thoughtful man than his detractors make him out to be. Contrary to the mantra coming repeatedly from all of his opponents, McCain is differing loudly with President Bush on a matter of great importance.
It is Senator Barack Obama, not McCain, who has decided to follow the failed policy of the President here. It’s not the first time this has happened, but it is the most significant in that McCain recognizes a danger to the free world from East Asia in a way that Messrs. Bush and Obama clearly do not.
In fact, John McCain is the only presidential candidate who sees danger from any Communist Chinese satellite (he has also been sounding the warnings about Communist China’s closest ally in the Middle East: the tyrannical theocracy in Iran). This is an unusual and shocking position when one looks beyond the two major parties.
This is an unusual election in that several third-party candidates have arisen to lay claim to their piece of the debate. That's fair enough, but they have all been terribly disappointing, in particular two tickets (Libertarian and Constitution) that have been silent on East Asia despite the potential of either to advance anti-Communism.
Bob Barr (Libertarian nominee) had a tremendous anti-Communist record that went down the memory hole the moment he was nominated. Meanwhile, the Constitution Party as a whole seems to have forgotten the anti-Communism of its founder, Howard Phillips.
Many had hoped that Nancy Pelosi's anti-Communist history would mean a different direction for the House of Representatives once she became Speaker, even if she never addressed the issue in 2006. We should know better now. What isn't an issue in the campaign is clearly not a priority in victory.
For these reasons, the Libertarians and Constitutionals represent missed opportunity and bitter disappointment. Their silence on these vital issues, a silence in which Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney join, have once again relegated their candidacies to the usual place for third parties—wasted votes.
As for Senator Obama, he has shown little if any indication that he understands the dangers in the world. One can disagree about the nature of the liberation of Iraq; one could even take issue with the liberation of Afghanistan (not that either Obama or McCain does), but to blithely condone the blackmail and bullying North Korea has conducted against us (as Obama did by endorsing the Bush Administration’s surrender to Kim Jong-il during the second presidential debate) is unacceptable.
Thus, John McCain—however unintentionally or accidentally—has become the only candidate willing to address any issue of concern to anti-Communists during this campaign. For that reason, anti-Communists should support him on November 4, as I do.
D.J. McGuire is co-founder of the China e-Lobby and the author of “Dragon in the Dark: How and Why Communist China Helps Our Enemies in the War on Terror.”
