Sherman: N. Korea overthrow was Cheney’s ‘dream’

Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Nonproliferation Subcommittee on Foreign Affairs, opened last week’s hearing “Smart Power: Remaking U.S. Foreign Policy in North Korea” in the Asia, the Pacific, and the Global Environment subcommittee by accusing Dick Cheney of wanting to go to war with the land of Kim Jong-Il:

“The carrot that the Bush administration was unwilling to use is to offer a non-aggression pact. The reason that was given to me is the United States never does non-aggression pacts.

The other reason is, while we spent a lot of time banging the North Koreans over the head to convince them to stop asking for a non- aggression pact, clearly what was at work in addition to just bureaucratic intransigence is a dream of Dick Cheney somehow of overthrowing the government of North Korea by force, a dream he didn’t want to give up.

Well, he has left. I don’t think we should dream of a successful new Korean war. We should instead be offering a non-aggression pact for a truly SIVID (ph) outcome; that is to say complete, verifiable, permanent foregoing of nuclear weapons.”

For the record, North Korea claimed Cheney was “hated as the most cruel monster and bloodthirsty beast as he has drenched various parts of the world in blood” — this in response to Cheney labeling Kim “one of the world