HELPING OUR ENEMIES, HURTING OUR FRIENDS

Former President Bill Clinton has returned from North Korea with Euna Lee and Laura Ling, the two U.S. journalists seized five months ago along North Korea‘s border with China, charged with espionage, and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor.

This is great news for the two women and their families.  All of us should rejoice they have been freed from their unjust imprisonment.  But whether this is good for the United States depends on how much ransom President Obama has agreed to pay.

The administration says Mr. Clinton was on a "private humanitarian mission," but this is no more true than Mr. Obama’s claim that spending a trillion dollars more on health care will save money.  At a minimum, having a former president who is married to the current Secretary of State visit gives the world’s worst dictatorship the attention it craves.

It’s all but certain, now, that North Korea will suffer no penalty for its recent bad behavior (nuclear bomb and guided missile tests in violation of UN resolutions), but that was likely even without the seizure and release of the two journalist hostages.  The UN has no stomach for confrontation, and neither does this president (at least with America‘s adversaries).

But it will be worse if Mr. Obama has agreed to abandon the six party talk format in favor of the direct negotiations between the U.S. and North Korea the Norks have long sought.

Rewarding North Korea for bad behavior guarantees more bad behavior from North Korea in the future.  And it encourages imitators.  Spokesmen for the regime in Iran suggested Tuesday three American hikers who inadvertently crossed the poorly marked border between Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran may be tried as spies.

With regard to America‘s enemies, the Obama foreign policy has been all appeasement, all the time.  The most recent example of this was White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs’ gratuitous description Tuesday of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as "the elected leader of Iran." (After criticism, Mr. Gibbs backed away from the statement the next day.)

 As most of the sentient know, Iran is in the throes of a near civil war triggered by popular outrage over the obvious theft of the presidential election in June.  Mr. Obama is alone among Western leaders in regarding the Iranian regime as legitimate.

The president said he chose not to criticize the stolen election, or to express support for those, who — despite savage repression — are protesting it, because he doesn’t want to appear to be "meddling" in Iran‘s internal affairs.

But Mr. Obama has no qualms trying to bully tiny Honduras into restoring as president a Hugo Chavez wannabe who attempted a top down coup in violation of Honduras‘ constitution, or in telling Israel where he thinks its citizens may or may not build their homes.  His secretary of state does not consider it meddling to lecture India on what India‘s climate change policy should be.

If the president does abandon the six party talks for direct negotiations with North Korea, that would be a blow to our allies in Japan and South Korea.  But it would be consistent with his pattern so far of solicitude for America‘s enemies, callousness towards America‘s friends.

This is certainly a dramatic change from the foreign policy of George W. Bush — and of every president, save Jimmy Carter, before him — but it is yet to produce any tangible benefits for the United States.  North Korea and Iran have become more belligerent, not less. 

Even though Barack Obama supports installing his stooge in Honduras, Venezuelan dictator Hugh Chavez has criticized the president, and is supplying arms to narcoterrorists in Colombia, a U.S. ally.  Despite Mr. Obama’s dramatic shift away from Israel, Saudi Arabia and Jordan have said they will not make concessions to help his Middle East peace plan move forward.

It’s rarely ever a good idea to help your enemies and hurt your friends, but some of Mr. Obama’s appeasement gestures are more lame-brained than others.

"It’s one thing to want to engage Iran," said Iranian expert Michael Rubin.  "The White House, however, seems intent on playing poker with Iran with an open hand.  When the Iranian regime — especially now — craves legitimacy, why would Obama offer up what Ahmadinejad wants most for absolutely nothing in return?"

We’ve yet to suffer obvious harm from Mr. Obama’s foreign policy.  But he’s released a lot of chickens which will come home to roost sooner or later.

Jack Kelly is a former Marine and Green Beret and a former deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration. He is national security writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.