Ex-Reagan Advisor Faults Bush Administration
Reported by Marie Therese - August 10, 2004 -
Big Story with John Gibson. August 9, 2004. 5:52 PM to 5:55 PM EDT.
Guest: Lawrence Korb, fomer Assistant Defense Secretary under Reagan
John Gibson spent the interview questioning Korb about an article he had written for the International Herald Tribune in which Korb scolds the Bush administration for its policy of withdrawing from international defense treaties.
The gist of Korb's argument is that the United States has lost credibility in the world community by asking to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty and by its refusal to allow nuclear energy inspectors into the United States.
Korb correctly states that "(t)he real problem is you don't want the wherewithal, the materials to make a nuclear bomb to get into the hands of a terrorist .... and this treaty, which was called the Fissile Material, which was the bombmaking material, Cutoff Treaty, was an attempt by the world to control those materials. And what it would have required is all nations to allow the inspectiors to come in ...The United States refused to allow the inspectors in...."
Gibson's answer? "Well, we can because we do. Why should we trust talking to these people [the Iranians] when they go back on their word at the first opportunity?"
KORB: "You don't trust but, as Ronald Reagan, the man I worked for, said: You verify. And that's why them getting out of the treaty is bizarre, because we're saying to the rest of the world 'You've gotta trust us, yet we're not going to let you verify'"
(During this portion of the interview FOX displayed a constantly changing montage of written and visual facts about Iran: Hostage crisis, effigy burning, ranting imams, etc. all designed to create a subliminal state of anxiety in the viewer and to turn the audience against this second link in the axis of evil.)
According to Korb the Bush administration is "going in the opposite direction" which in the long run endangers us here at home.
Comment:
Even after all this time, I am struck by how often FOX uses the graphics as a counterpoint to the discussion that's taking place. In this case the contant barrage of anti-Iran images works against what Korb is trying to say: That we must abide by our treaties for own own safety as well as that of the rest of the world.
Gibson, as usual, pushes the Republican Party Line through his carefully phrased "Big Questions".
