The Waiting Game

China Matters has an excellent post up that summarizes the North Korea - Banco Delta Asia matter, and does some high level speculating on what it all means.

His conclusions are that the affair is essentially an inter-US dispute, the Treasury Dept., working at the behest of the neo-con Cheney cabal, have managed to delay if not deter the State Department sponsored six-party agreement that would shut down the DPRK's reactor and thus curtain their production of plutonium.

And as the post is titled 'Neo-Conundrum' we are pointed to the crux of the matter, the madding lack of meaning, the political incomprehensibility of this conflict.

We have been pushed, gently but firmly, to believe that the administration is divided between the 'neo-cons' and the 'realists'.

The neo-cons are Cheney, Wolfowitz, Abrams, Rumsfeld, Bolton, Leavey, etc.; the realists are Rice, Gates, Paulsen and ???.

In the middle, evidently, sits Bush, who if we are to believe has any control over the actors, seems to manage by some incomprehensible random system. Rice has been given space, it seems, to pursue the talks. The Treasury Department, it seems, has been given space to sabotage the talks. The net result is confusion, certainly amongst US allies, while US foes look on with bemusement and wait.

I guess there's nothing for us to do but wait as well. The history of this matter, and the administration's apparent schizophrenia in determining policy in general remain as opaque as ever.