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By Li Hongmei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-12-29 11:55

 

The just closed Six-Party Talks held in Beijing again pushed the super power U.S. onto the disillusioning brink, and almost smashed its daydream acting as the monolithic might presiding over the entire globe, when the DPRK, or North Korea bluntly refused to put into writing any commitments on inspecting its past nuclear activities, as requested by the U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The failure of the talks blocked progress on an aid-for-disarmament agreement reached last year, and in the meantime, also extinguished hopes of a successful legacy on the issue by the outgoing Bush administration. Pyongyang’s hard line decision not to hand over a long-waited accounting of its nuclear bomb-making abilities this time not merely challenged the U.S. power politics, but more enraged Ms. Rice, as she screamed to a gathering of reporters on Dec.19 ‘who will believe in N Korea, only idiots will.’

Sarcastically, McCormack, spokesman for the U.S. Department of State, made some quite outlandish remarks on the verification protocol and a set of assurances monitoring the process of the DPRK’s denuclearation. When facing the press on Dec.22, he blurted out, ‘I can assure you a hundred percent the U.S is Not that idiot,’ which caused a great mirth among the media staff and seemingly posed an ironical echo to what Ms.Rice had said days before.

Defined by the Bush administration, DPRK was part of the ‘Axis of Evil’,and also had long been regarded one of the ‘rogue nations’. But in exchange for N Korean leader Kim Jong ll’s decision to hand over the long-coveted accounting, Bush in late June relaxed trade sanctions against N Korea and moved to take it off the U.S terrorism blacklist. Still, Pyongyang balked at putting its commitments on inspection in writing.

Evidently, DPRK is by no means the only one country to turn back to the intangible favors that the U.S has offered as best. While Bush was speaking at a press conference summoned lately in Iraq, where he claimed to have kicked off a new era of freedom and democracy after the U.S-led invasion bringing about the downfall of Saddam Hussein, an Iraqi journalist abruptly rose from about 12 feet away, reared his right arm and fired a shoe at the president’s head while shouting in Arabic, ‘This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is the farewell kiss, you dog!’ Mr. Bush deftly ducked and the shoe narrowly missed him.

But a few seconds later, the journalist tossed his other shoe, again with great force, this time shouting, ‘this is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq!’ Again, the shoe sailed over the president’s head. Calling someone the ‘son of a shoe’ is one of the worst insult in Iraq, and what is more, shoe-hurling action was not expressed in a civilized manner and therefore denounced as a disrespect to a visiting head of state by many including Iraqis. But many more Iraqis expressed undiluted pleasure deeming it showed the Iraqi feelings and served as a symbol of Iraqi rage at the American occupation. President Bush, however, brushed it off later as an expression of democracy.

Democracy and freedom are virtues universally cherished by humanity, but both resulting from the free choice and satisfying the public benefits, as they are not supposed to be imposed upon a sovereign state and its people. May the lessons from DPRK and Iraq deliver a distinct message to both the outgoing Bush and the incoming president Barack Obama that the U.S. is already on the collapse verge in terms of its international credibility. To remold the U.S. international image and ensure its world status as a leading power, it must totally abandon its inveterate mentality of saber-rattling politics, treat others as real equals and render the basic respect to all the other sovereign nations and their people. In so doing, the U.S. will regain the respect and support as a responsible superpower from the international community, especially from the developing world.