Bush Loses Another Conservative Hawk

This time, it is Robert Joseph. From the NYT:

As the architect of much of the administration’s strategy for countering nuclear proliferation, he helped engineer the decision to exit the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, worked secretly to squeeze Libya to give up its nuclear weapons program, and created a loose consortium of nations, now numbering more than 80, committed to intercepting illicit weapons at sea, in the air or on land.

But last month Mr. Joseph quietly left the State Department, where he was under secretary for arms control and international security, telling colleagues that, as a matter of principle, he simply could not abide the new agreement with North Korea that the Bush administration struck in February.

Mr. Joseph has declined to talk publicly about why he left, but he told colleagues that he thought the deal would prolong the survival of a North Korean government he has publicly called “criminal” and “morally abhorrent” while failing to require it to give up the weapons it has already produced. In an interview, Mr. Joseph made clear that he “does not support the policy” that President Bush has now embraced.

I can't speak for Mr. Joseph, but I know I'm confused. Iraq, which we found out had no weapons, is attacked based off of suspicion. Iran, which is gaining nuclear capabilities, is threaten one day and offered diplomacy the next. And then there's North Korea: basically ignored even after testing weapons and saying that they plan to use them until other countries began to intervene.

One really can't fault Mr. Joseph for wanting to get out.