Diplomatic victory

Ed Morrissey, aka Captain Ed over at Captain's Quarters, has a good post up about a diplomatic victory for the Bush administration.

The Bush administration found vindication yesterday when North Korea agreed to return to six-party talks without any concessions from the US.

Captain Ed sums it up well:

The Bush administration still has a long road to travel with North Korea. The US needs to stay firm on verifiable disarmament, a concept not robustly pursued in the Agreed Framework, and that will require some intrusive inspections. If given with the appropriate incentives, the multilateral negotations could result in the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. It could also result in more game-playing by Kim, which is why verification plays such a critical role in the negotiations.

However, people need to recognize that we would not have any leverage at all had the Bush administration taken advice from its critics. Bush knew he needed sufficient leverage to get North Korean compliance, and he didn't see the point in making useless gestures to a tinpot dictator just to get a few decent headlines in the American press. It's called leadership, and Bush just provided a clear example.

This nation really doesn't give Bush credit for the good things he's doing in international relations. It's a shame, really. Go read the whole thing.