WHILE WE'RE DISTRACTED

Posted at  5:32 a.m. ET

While we're running our election campaign, and figuring out how the economy got sandbagged, some other things are happening that may quickly age any new president.  The United States has removed North Korea from the list of terrorist states, which is somewhat like removing Jack the Ripper from a list of objectionable citizens.  The great John Bolton, who has a way of being right, explains his objection to this latest move by our Condi-in-chief:

North Korea has now achieved one of its most-prized objectives: removal from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. In exchange, the U.S. has received "promises" on verification that are vague and amount to an agreement to negotiate the critical points later.

In the Bush administration's waning days, this is what passes for diplomatic "success." It is in fact the final crash and burn of a once-inspiring global effort to confront and reverse nuclear proliferation, thereby protecting America and its friends.

Delisting the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) as a terrorist sponsor represents a classic case of prizing the negotiation process over substance, where the benefits of "diplomatic progress" can be trumpeted in the media while the specifics of the actual agreement, and their manifest inadequacies, fade into the shadows.

If this is what Bush will do, can you imagine what Obama would do?

So now Pyongyang has what it wants, and Washington has a vague, inadequate invitation to more verification palavering. In any complex negotiation, implementation is the real test, and nowhere is this more painfully evident than in arms-control agreements.

North Korea is the world's most accomplished serial violator of international agreements, beginning with the Korean War Armistice Agreement it signed in 1953 and including every other significant subsequent DPRK commitment.

But now that they're happy, maybe they'll be better.  Right?

But the damage done by the administration's latest surrender extends far beyond failing to rein in North Korea. Key allies like Japan and South Korea were not adequately consulted, thus eliminating the veneer of "multilateralism" the administration so valued.

You'll notice that the crowd that accused Bush of "going it alone" in Iraq has no problem with this go-alone agreement.  I wonder why.

The negative ramifications are not confined to Northeast Asia. In Tehran and the capitals of other terrorist states and aspiring nuclear proliferators, policy makers are doubtless ecstatic that Pyongyang has out-negotiated Washington once more, and they are considering ways to apply the North Korea model to their own situations.

Bolton hits it right on the head.  Everything we do is watched all over the world.  When we cave in one place, we're expected to cave elsewhere.  This is how miscalculations are made.

Having bent the knee to North Korea, Secretary Rice appears primed to do the same with Iran, despite that regime's egregious and extensive involvement in terrorism and the acceleration of its nuclear program. Watch for the opening of a U.S. diplomatic post in Tehran within days after our Nov. 4 election, and other concessions on the nuclear front. Hard as it is to believe, there may be worse yet to come.

Could Obama do worse?  He may figure out a way. 

I wish Bolton's warning were taken more seriously.  Condi is giving away the store to create a legacy, and no one seems to care. 

October 14, 2008.