Monday, September 04, 2017

Is North Korea a Rational Actor?

What the Media isn’t Telling You About North Korea’s Missile Tests

Photo by Stefan Krasowski | CC BY 2.0

Here’s what the media isn’t telling you about North Korea’s recent missile tests.
Last Monday, the DPRK fired a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile over Japan’s Hokkaido Island. The missile landed in the waters beyond the island harming neither people nor property.

The media immediately condemned the test as a “bold and provocative act”  that showed the North’s defiance of UN resolutions and “contempt for its neighbors.” President Trump sharply criticized the missile test saying:
“Threatening and destabilizing actions only increase the North Korean regime’s isolation in the region and among all nations of the world. All options are on the table.”
What the media failed to mention was that,  for the last three weeks, Japan, South Korea and the US have been engaged in large-scale joint-military drills on Hokkaido Island and in South Korea. These needlessly provocative war games are designed to simulate an invasion of North Korea and a “decapitation” operation to remove (Re: Kill)  the regime. North Korea’s supreme leader, Kim Jong-un has asked the US repeatedly to end these military exercises, but the US has stubbornly refused. The US reserves the right to threaten anyone, anytime and anywhere even right on their doorstep. It’s part of what makes the US exceptional. Check out this excerpt from an article at Fox News:
“More than 3,500 American and Japanese troops kicked off a weeks-long joint military exercise Thursday against the backdrop of an increasingly belligerent North Korean regime. The exercise, known as Northern Viper 17, will take place on Hokkaido — Japan’s northern-most main island — and will last until Aug. 28…. 
“We are improving our readiness not only in the air, but as a logistical support team,” Col. R. Scott Jobe, the 35th Fighter Wing commander, said in a statement. “We are in a prime location for contingency purposes and this exercise will only build upon our readiness in the case a real-world scenario occurs.” (US, Japanese troops begin joint military exercise amid North Korea threat”, Fox News)
Monday’s missile test (which flew over Hokkaido Island) was conducted just hours after the war games ended. The message was clear: The North is not going to be publicly humiliated and slapped around without responding. Rather than show weakness, the North demonstrated that it was prepared to defend itself against foreign aggression. In other words, the test was NOT a  “bold and provocative act” (as the media stated) but a modest and well thought-out  response by a country that has experienced 64 years of relentless hectoring, sanctions, demonization and saber rattling by Washington. The North responded because the Washington’s incitements required a response. End of story.
And the same is true of the three short-range ballistic missiles  the North tested last week. (two of which apparently fizzled out shortly after launching.)  These tests were a response to the 3 week-long joint-military drills in South Korea which involved  75,000 combat troops  accompanied by hundreds of tanks, armored vehicles, landing craft, heavy artillery, a full naval flotilla and flyovers by squadrons of state of the art fighters and strategic bombers.  Was the North supposed to sit on its hands while this menacing display of brute military force took place right under its nose???

Of course not. Imagine if Russia engaged in a similar operation over the border in Mexico while the Russian fleet conducted “live fire” drills three miles outside of San Francisco Bay. What do you think Trump’s reaction would be?

He’d blow those boats out of the water faster than you could say “Jackie Robinson”, right?

So why the double standard when it comes to North Korea? Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

North Korea should be applauded for showing that it won’t be intimidated by the schoolyard bully. Kim knows that any confrontation with the US will end badly for the North, even so, he hasn’t caved in or allowed himself to be pushed around by the blustering, browbeating thugs in the White House. Booyah, Kim.

By the way, Trump’s response to Monday’s missile test was barely covered in the mainstream media, and for good reason. Here’s what happened two days later:
On Wednesday,  a US-led flight-group of  F-35B fighters, F-15 fighters and B-1B bombers conducted military operations over a training range east of Seoul. The B-1B’s, which are low-altitude nuclear bombers, dropped their dummy-bombs on the site and then returned to their home base. The show of force was intended to send a message to Pyongyang that Washington is unhappy with the North’s ballistic missile testing project and is prepared to use nuclear weapons against the North if it fails to heed Washington’s diktats.

So Washington is prepared to nuke the North if they don’t straighten up and do as they are told?

It sure looks that way, but who really knows?  In any event, Kim has no choice but to stand firm. If he shows any sign of weakness, he knows he’s going to end up like Saddam and Gaddafi. And that, of course, is what’s driving the hyperbolic rhetoric; the North wants to avoid the Gaddafi scenario at all cost. (BTW, the reason Kim has threatened to fire missiles at the waters surrounding Guam is because Guam is the home of Anderson Airforce Base which is the point-of-origin for the B-1B nuclear-capable bombers that have been making threatening flyovers on the Korean Peninsula for some time now. The North feels like it has to respond to that existential threat.

Wouldn’t it help if the media mentioned that fact or does it better serve their agenda to make it look like Kim is barking mad by lashing out against the ‘totally innocent’ United States, a country that only seeks to preserve the peace wherever it goes?

Give me a break!

It is so hard to find anything in the media that doesn’t reflect Washington’s bias and hostility. Surprisingly, there was  pretty decent article at CBS News last week written by a former Western intelligence officer with decades of experience in Asia. It’s the only article I’ve found that accurately explains what’s  really going on beyond the propaganda. Check it out:
“Prior to President Trump’s inauguration, North Korea made it clear it was prepared to give the new U.S. administration time to review the policy and come up with something better than President Obama’s.  The only wrinkle was that if the U.S. went full-steam ahead with its annual joint exercises with South Korea (especially if that were accompanied by more talk of “decapitation” and more flights of strategic bombers over the Korean peninsula), the North would react strongly.
In short, the U.S. did, and the North reacted. 
Behind-the-scenes contacts went up and down, but couldn’t get traction.  In April, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un paraded new missiles as a warning, to no effect.  The regime launched the new systems, one after another.  Still, Washington’s approach didn’t change.” (Analysis: Pyongyang’s view of the North Korea-U.S. crisis”, CBS News)
Okay, so now we know the truth: The North gave it their best shot and came up snakeeyes, mainly because Washington doesn’t want to negotiate, they’d rather twist arms (Russia and China), tighten the embargo and threaten war. That’s Trump’s solution. Here’s more from the same piece:
“On July 4, after North Korea’s first successful intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launch, Kim sent a public signal that the North could put the nuclear and missile programs “on the table” if the U.S. changed its approach.
The U.S. did not, so the North launched another ICBM, very deliberately deeming it a warning to the U.S. that they were to be taken seriously. Still, more B-1 bombers flew over the Peninsula, and the U.N. Security Council passed new sanctions.” (CBS News)
So, the North was ready to do some serious horse-trading, but the US balked. Kim probably heard what a wheeler dealer Trump was and figured they could work something out. But it hasn’t happen.  Trump has turned out to be a bigger bust than Obama, which is pretty bad.  He not only refuses to negotiate but he also delivers bellicose threats almost every day. This isn’t what the North was expecting. They were expecting a   “non interventionist” leader who might be receptive to a trade-off.

The current situation has left Kim with no good options. He can either cave in and terminate his missile program altogether or increase the frequency of the tests and hope that they pave the way for negotiations.   Kim chose the latter.
Did he make a bad choice?

Maybe.

Is it a rational choice?
Yes.

The North is betting that its nuclear weapons programs will be valuable bargaining chits in future negotiations with the United States. The North has no plan to nuke the west coast of the United States.  That’s ridiculous! That doesn’t accomplish anything. What they want is to preserve their regime,  procure security guarantees from Washington,  lift the embargo,  normalize relations with the South,  extricate the US from the political affairs of the peninsula, and (hopefully) end the irritating and endlessly provocative 64 year US occupation. Yankee go home. Please.

Bottom line: The North is ready to deal. They want negotiations. They want to end the war. They want to put this whole nightmare behind them and get on with their lives. But Washington won’t let them because Washington likes the status quo. Washington wants to be a permanent feature in South Korea so it can encircle Russia and China with lethal missile systems and expand its geopolitical grip bringing the world closer to nuclear Armageddon.

That’s what Washington wants, and that’s why the crisis on the peninsula will continue to boil.

✧✧✧
Mike Whitney contributed to:

Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion

"Those who feel that like lemmings they are being led over a cliff would be well-advised not to read this book. They may discover that they are right."—Noam Chomsky
“Jeffrey St. Clair and Joshua Frank have skillfully smoked out the real Barack Obama . . . the technofascist military strategist disguised as a Nobel Peace Laureate, but owned, operated, and controlled by Wall Street, Corporate America, and the Pentagon.”—Thomas H. Naylor, co-author of Affluenza, Downsizing the USA
“The writers assembled here hit hard, with accuracy, and do not pull punches."—Marcus Rediker, author of The Slave Ship: A Human History
The Barack Obama revolution was over before it started, guttered by the politician’s overweening desire to prove himself to the grandees of the establishment. From there on, other promises proved ever easier to break. Here's the book that dares not let Obama off the hook. It's all here: the compromises, the backstabbing, the same old imperial ambitions. Covering all major "Obummer" categories since he took office, this fast-paced collection will delight the critical and offer food for thought for those contemplating the 2012 electoral circus—and beyond.
Jeffrey St. Clair is co-editor of CounterPunch, author of Born Under a Bad Sky and Been Brown So Long it Looked Green to Me, and co-author of Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs, and the Press.
Joshua Frank is an environmental journalist and co-editor of Red State Rebels: Tales of Grassroots Resistance in the Heartland. His investigative reports and columns appear in CounterPunchChicago Sun-Times, Common Dreams, and AlterNet.

45 comments:

  1. Mike Whitney needs an exorcism.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Here, Mike, I'll try to help -

      Here Is What Chinese Scholars Think about the North Korea Crisis

      http://nationalinterest.org/feature/here-what-chinese-scholars-think-about-the-north-korea-22145

      Delete


  2. Did you not read the story at the link you provided, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson?

    Thus, Fan Jishe [樊吉社] explains that given the twin goals of denuclearization and preserving stability, the problem lies in that Washington prioritizes the former, while Beijing prioritizes the latter.

    Another scholar Yang Xiyu [杨希雨] suggests that the major divide between China and the United States is that Beijing has always accepted North Korea’s right to peacefully develop nuclear energy, while Washington never did.

    The scholar Li Kaisheng [李开盛] sees no basis for cooperation because of different interests and a fundamental lack of strategic trust between Beijing and Washington. Li explains that one of the major restraints on the United States possible use of force against North Korea has been “China’s opposition and even [the possibility] of Chinese counter-attack” [中国的反对甚至反击].

    He also straightforwardly explains that China will not accept the removal of the North Korean ruling regime, because that would mean U.S. military power directly on China’s border and the loss of China’s “strategic buffer”


    Just what Mike Whitney wrote i the above piece.

    The person that needs an exorcism ...
    is Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson

    Bob Fri Jun 02, 07:03:00 AM EDT


    And Trump's a fool if he thinks the Chinese are going to solve the problem of North Korea for him.




    ReplyDelete
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    1. US provocations, as seen from the NorK and ChiCom perspective have been ratcheted up.
      Making the NorK and ChiCom decisions and action seem pretty rational.

      You should, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson take note of this piece of wisdom

      “Think before you speak.
      Read before you think.”

      ― Fran Lebowitz,


      Delete
    2. The US preconditions for talks pretty much rules out their possibility.

      Delete
  3. Deuce's man Trump should take heed:

    "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is better to remain silent and be suspected as a fool, than to speak openly and remove all doubt, Ash.

      Those words were written just for you, and folks like you.

      Delete

    2. That certainly goes contrary to what YOU, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, wrote just yesterday concerning Mr Johnson of Colorado when he did not speak off the cuff about Alepo.

      Delete
  4. You certainly seem cathected to every word I write, psycho ass. Why that may be only the devil knows. You need psychiatric help. Psychiatry is beginning to recognize satanic invasion of a person. Maybe you would be sent to an exorcist by the shrinks, if you finally seek help. You often foam from the mouth, a real symptom of the malady.

    Actually if The Donald goes through with this newer idea of the USA totally ceasing trade with anyone doing business with N. Korea, well then who knows, that might finally get the attention of the Chinese.

    Ciao

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Because you are a lying bigot who deserves to be challenged at every turn, "Draft Dodger" Peterson.

      Delete

    2. You were given an opportunity to apologize for your libels and lies, and you demurred.
      That window has closed, forever ... Enjoy

      Delete
  5. "
    "Kudos to humanity for manuevering ourselves into a situation where all our lives depend on the wisdom of Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump."

    ReplyDelete
  6. SOUTH Korea is set to be armed with more military weapons from the US, including the final installation of four additional Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) launchers to help finish the nation’s missile defence system.

    ...

    US President Donald Trump and his South Korean counterpart, Moon Jae-in, spoke on the phone for 40 minutes Monday night — some 34 hours after the nuclear test and more than 24 hours after Trump took to Twitter to criticise Moon’s “talk of appeasement.”

    ...

    THE US has launched a bid at the UN Security Council to quickly slap the “strongest possible measures” on North Korea, as China and Russia argued diplomatic talks were needed to address the crisis.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. THAAD will do absolutely nothing to deter the 21,000 artillery pieces aimed at Seoul.

      Delete
    2. With military knowledge like that you should be on the 'Joint' Chiefs of Stiff, if you could get it up.

      Delete
    3. Jack Hawkins is an idiot.

      Delete
    4. :)

      heh

      Psycho ass has been putting the full weight of his military knowledge to analyzing closely the Korean situation.

      Delete
    5. One rarely finds such a military mind able to get quickly to the heart of the matter.

      Delete

  7. More good news from Syria ...
    No US troops required

    BEIRUT (Reuters) - With a sudden lunge through jihadist lines, the Syrian army and its allies on Monday came to within 3 km of relieving the Euphrates city of Deir al-Zor, where Islamic State has besieged 93,000 civilians and an army garrison for years.

    The advance on the eastern city marks another stinging setback for the once-triumphant Islamic State, fast retreating in both Iraq and Syria as its self-declared caliphate crumbles.

    Syrian troops were rapidly approaching the city, reaching a point 3 km (2 miles) away, state television said. Dozens of trucks loaded with food stood ready to enter the enclave in the city once government forces break the siege, it said.





    ReplyDelete
  8. Intense fighting is taking place, but the region’s governor said Syrian troops were rapidly advancing.

    Meanwhile the UN in Geneva has expressed concerns about trapped civilians.

    ...

    Elsewhere an ISIL evacuation convoy trying to reach self-styles Islamic State territory in east Syria has split in two, with some buses remaining in the open desert after others turned back into government-held areas.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Damn, Irma looks like it might just slip between Cuba and Florida and into the Gulf.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Latest cone:

      http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/storm_graphics/AT11/refresh/AL112017_5day_cone_no_line_and_wind+png/204937_5day_cone_no_line_and_wind.png

      Delete
  10. China -- North Korea's only global ally and biggest trading partner -- has put on a stoic face since Pyongyang successfully conducted its sixth nuclear test Sunday.

    President Xi Jinping didn't make any overt references to his country's unruly neighbor during speeches and meetings at the BRICS summit of the world's major emerging economies in southeastern China -- but the nuclear test couldn't have sat well with Xi.

    ...

    The Chinese foreign ministry quickly and dutifully condemned the test, its statements sticking to the usual talking points of Beijing's commitment to a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula and resolving the issue through peace talks.

    ...

    Many Western analysts believe that while Beijing is frustrated with North Korea, it prefers a nuclear-armed Pyongyang for two reasons.

    It fears the collapse of the regime could lead to a refugee crisis on its doorstep and, more importantly, it believes that North Korea acts as a strategic buffer between China and South Korea, where the US maintains a large military presence.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. THAAD can't do a damn thing to stop the 21,000 artillery pieces aimed at Seoul.

      The Chinese should keep that in mind.

      Delete
    2. As should the S. Koreans.

      We best hope they are aware of that.

      Delete
    3. When prognosticating the military future we should always keep General 'rat' Crapper in mind.

      Delete
    4. Hope for General 'rat' Crapper ? -

      Scientists zap 'voices' from schizophrenia sufferers....DRUDGE

      Scientists zap 'voices' from schizophrenia sufferers

      Tuesday, September 5, 2017 - 06:32

      [PARIS] Scientists have pinpointed a part of the brain where "voices" torment schizophrenia sufferers, and partially muted them with magnetic pulse treatment, a team reported on Tuesday.

      More than a third of sufferers treated with magnetic pulses in a patient trial experienced "significant" relief, the scientists said in a statement.

      "We can now say with some certainty that we have found a specific anatomical area of the brain associated with auditory verbal hallucinations in schizophrenia," the team said.

      "Secondly, we have shown that treatment with high frequency TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation) makes a difference to at least some sufferers."....


      http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/consumer/scientists-zap-voices-from-schizophrenia-sufferers

      Possibly !

      If someone can finally convince him to seek treatment.....

      Delete

  11. MAIN MENU
    THE DIRE CONSEQUENCE OF AMERICA’S RETREAT

    U.S. foreign policy in crisis.

    September 5, 2017 Bruce Thornton

    Reprinted from Hoover.org.

    For most of its history the United States has vacillated among different foreign policy philosophies. Today we face a world in which our rivals and enemies have been emboldened by our seeming retreat from being the dominant power a globalized economy needs to ensure order and stability. Our current inability to decide on a course of action, however, is a dangerous inflection point that may lead to increasing global disorder and the decline of America’s power to protect its security and interests....

    ....Hard questions indeed—but the answers cannot be formulated without taking into account the American people. In any conflict the enemy has a metaphorical vote, but the citizens have a literal one. Their will is the “x factor” whose value no theory of foreign policy can calculate or predict. Whether America remains in retreat or reverses course, it will be because that’s what the American voters want—until the resulting instability drives voters to demand a change.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/267770/dire-consequence-americas-retreat-bruce-thornton

    ReplyDelete
  12. Even with the Afghans improving, the US still flies more than 70% of combat missions. The rate of US airstrikes in Afghanistan is at its highest since 2014.

    Afghan pilots seem more trigger-happy than their American mentors. Last year Afghan pilots conducted 800 airstrikes on 1,992 combat missions, and US pilots 615 strikes on 5,162 missions, attack rates of 40% and 12% respectively, according to the Military Times.

    However, for Afghan civilians, the distinction between who is bombing them from the sky, may not matter.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Photos and Video of AREA 51 taken by Quirk on his penetration of AREA 51 on his Q Ultra-Light 51 Penetrator finally released to public -


    Clearest images yet have emerged of Area 51, the sinister army base that has been at the center of alien conspiracy theories for decades


    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4851996/Clearest-images-alien-conspiracy-base-Area-51.html

    ReplyDelete
  14. Deep in the Nevada desert is a mysterious block of land called Area 51.

    The notorious US air base, believed to be where the military meet and communicate with aliens, is closely guarded at all times

    ...

    The most persistent Area 51 theory is that a crashed alien spacecraft - along with its extra-terrestrial passengers - recovered from Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947 are stored there.

    In an attempt to debunk the story, the US military insists the crash was simply a surveillance balloon that landed on a ranch. This has not been enough to scotch speculation.

    ...

    More outlandish still are suggestions that Area 51 is the undisclosed headquarters for a shadowy one-world government whose existence has never been confirmed.

    The alleged codename of this shadowy organisation is Majestic 12, or MJ-12.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Quirk was closing in, "to get to the bottom of this", when his Q Ultra-Light 51 Penetrator got shot down by an F-16.

      Nearly 10 days later Q had crawled through the desert, bloody from cactus wounds, thirsty and exhausted, and was found and taken to Vegas by a friend.....

      Delete
  15. O Hillary !

    September 4, 2017
    Hillary announces new computer scheme, gets hacked right out the gate

    By Monica Showalter

    What is it about Hillary Clinton and failed computer security? Hours after endorsing a new platform, called Verrit, for all her 65.8 million admirers, as she sort of put it, Verrit was hit with a denial of service attack, which is not exactly an auspicious start.

    The platform is supposedly an innovative new means for Hillary to keep in touch with her adoring voters, or to continue "the resistance" in a new way, perhaps, but it can't do much if no one can get onto it. According to Twitchy, people were still wondering what the heck it was even before the site was hacked.


    According to Bustle, it seemed to be an Orwellian-sounding truth-telling device for being annoying on the internet during arguments with strangers:

    Verrit's purpose is to become their [supporters'] trusted source of political information and analysis; to provide them (and anyone like-minded) sanctuary in a chaotic media environment; to center their shared principles; and to do so with an unwavering commitment to truth and facts.

    Verrit also describes itself as "media for the 65.8 million," referring to the number of Americans who voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. Verrit was created by Peter Daou, a former advisor to Hillary Clinton.

    Verrit reportedly works by allowing users to create shareable "cards," or "verrits," with information (like facts or quotes) that can be verified as true. These cards also come with an authentication code so that one can confirm that the content of the card has not been altered. As News18 reported, Daou noted that the cards are intended to be easily shareable and used as readily accesible information in social media debates.

    What's more, Peter Daou, who runs the thing, has a connection with David Brock of Media Matters, who, according to Sharryl Attkisson in her new book, The Smear: How Shady Political Operatives and Fake News Control What You See, What You Think and How You Vote, is the arch-smear king of the swamp. Daou and Brock worked together on something called Shareblue, which Attkisson characterized as part of Brock's smear operation, and now Daou is doing a new project with Verrit.

    So in other words, this Verrit thing may be a propaganda smear organization run by a David Brock associate to keep Hillary Clinton in the game by attacking her opponents. What else is new in Washington, other than Hillary being The Thing That Wouldn't Go Away? It goes to show that Hillary Clinton is in business as usual, still trying to stay in the game.....

    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/09/hillary_announces_new_computer_scheme_gets_hacked_right_out_the_gate.html

    ReplyDelete
  16. NORTH KOREA’S ULTIMATUM TO AMERICA

    What the US response will mean for stability in Asia and beyond.

    September 5, 2017 Caroline Glick

    ....If the US strikes North Korea in a credible manner and successfully diminishes its capacity to physically threaten the US, America will have taken the first step towards rebuilding its alliances in Asia.

    On the other hand, if the current round of hostilities does not end with a significant reduction of North Korea’s offensive capabilities, either against the US or its allies, then the US will be hard pressed to maintain its posture as a Pacific power. So long as Pyongyang has the ability to directly threaten the US and its allies, US strategic credibility in East Asia will be shattered.

    This then brings us to China.

    China has been the main beneficiary of North Korea’s conventional and nuclear aggression and brinksmanship.

    This state of affairs was laid bare in a critical way last month.

    In mid-August, Trump’s then chief strategist Steve Bannon was preparing a speech Trump was set to deliver that would have effectively declared a trade war against China in retaliation for its predatory trade practices against US companies and technology. The speech was placed in the deep freeze – and Bannon was forced to resign his position – when North Korea threatened to attack the US territory of Guam with nuclear weapons. The US, Trump’s other senior advisers argued, couldn’t declare a trade war against China when it needed China’s help to restrain North Korea.

    So by enabling North Korea’s aggression against the US and its allies, China has created a situation where the US has become neutralized as a strategic competitor.

    Rather than advance its bilateral interests – like curbing China’s naval aggression in the South China Sea – in its contacts with China, the US is forced into the position of supplicant, begging China to restrain North Korea in order to avert war.

    If the US does not act to significantly downgrade North Korea’s offensive capabilities now, when its own territory is being threatened, it is difficult to see how the US will be able to develop an effective strategy for coping with China’s rise as an economic and strategic rival in Asia and beyond. That is, the US’s actions now in response to North Korea’s threat to its national security will determine whether or not the US will be in a position to develop and implement a wider strategy for maintaining its capacity to project its economic and military power in the Pacific in the near and long term.


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Finally, part of the considerations that need to inform US action now involve what North Korea’s success in developing a nuclear arsenal under the noses of successive US administrations means for the future of nuclear proliferation.

      In all likelihood, unless the North Korean nuclear arsenal is obliterated, Pyongyang’s nuclear triumphalism will precipitate a spasm of nuclear proliferation in Asia and in the Middle East. The implications of this for the US and its allies will be far reaching.

      Not only can Japan and South Korea be reasonably expected to develop nuclear arsenals. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and other inherently unstable Arab states can be expected to develop or purchase nuclear arsenals in response to concerns over North Korea and its ally Iran with its nuclear weapons program linked to Pyongyang’s.

      In other words, if the US does not respond in a strategically profound way to Pyongyang now, it will not only lose its alliance system in Asia, it will see the rapid collapse of its alliance system and superpower status in the Middle East.

      Israel, for one, will be imperiled by the sudden diffusion of nuclear power.

      Monday morning, North Korea followed up its thermonuclear bomb test with a spate of threats to destroy the United States. These threats are deadly even if North Korea doesn’t attack the US with its nuclear weapons. If the US does not directly defeat North Korea in a clear-cut way now, its position as a superpower in Asia and worldwide will be destroyed and its ability to defend its own citizens will be called into question with increasing frequency and lethality.


      https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/267787/north-koreas-ultimatum-america-caroline-glick

      Delete
  17. Philippines: Duterte Allows Bombing of Mosques for Final Battle Against Islamic State in Marawi
    By Pamela Geller - on September 4, 2017

    https://pamelageller.com/2017/09/bomb-mosques-marawi.html/

    ReplyDelete
  18. Is North Korea a Rational Actor?

    To the extent it can be thought of as a secular state.....better than, hopefully, a nuclear armed Iran.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Yet another suggestion as how to tame N. Korea, and China too -

    September 5, 2017
    Fat Kim threatens Trump (again)

    By Gary Gindler

    After Kim Jong-un tested his hydrogen bomb, everything in the world went just as we could expect. Someone started saber-rattling, and someone insisted that the problem of nuclear North Korea cannot be solved by military means under any circumstances.

    Both use very serious arguments. Those who support appeasement of Kim quite reasonably note that the capital of South Korea, with its 25 million-strong population, is at an artillery salvo distance from the border with North Korea. Even a limited volley from the north will lead to hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties. Supporters of a massive blow to North Korea argue that it is better to have thousands of casualties among Koreans than to wait until the hydrogen bomb explodes over San Francisco and Americans become the victims.


    Both sides have numerous supporters in the highest echelons of power in Washington.

    Meanwhile, Fat Kim does not present a threat to the United States at present. Fat Kim is a threat to President Trump.

    Fat Kim is not a dumb bump. He's just one of the players in the next political show of the Axis countries. The North Korean crisis allows others hostile to America – countries such as Iran, Russia, and Syria (i.e., Axis countries) – to check Trump's resolve. China is not a member of this Axis, but it watches Trump with great pleasure as he tries to get out of this entrapment.

    All the Axis countries are linked by longstanding nuclear technology ties. Of all the Axis countries, only Syria lacks this technology (the Syrian nuclear reactor, which was built by North Korean engineers, was bombed by Israel in 2007).

    The Axis countries are waiting for Trump's move. A standard geopolitical analysis shows that there are many options for Trump, but they all range from bad to very bad.

    It's time for Trump to make an unconventional move – a move no one expects.


    It is better not to increase the U.S. military potential in the region. On the contrary, it is better to completely withdraw all American troops from both South Korea and Japan.

    In fact, American troops need to be relocated not into the continental U.S., but to Taiwan.

    This move by Trump will make China stop playing the role of an outside observer. China will be faced with a choice – either China joins Trump on this issue, or she will never get back Taiwan, where the headquarters of the 7th U.S. Navy Fleet will now be located.

    Of course, America's allies in the region, Japan and South Korea, in the face of the withdrawal of U.S. troops, will quite justifiably demand new guarantees of protection from the U.S. government. America should renew its lend-lease program from the Second World War and lease over to Japan and South Korea, for a term of 99 years, all the nuclear weapons they will ask for. The military budgets of these countries will skyrocket. China's inaction toward the Fat Kim regime will lead to the fact that in addition, China will get two unfriendly nuclear powers armed to the teeth at her own border.

    If Trump adds to this the ban on trade with all countries that have trade relations with North Korea, then China, with four fifths of its economy dependent on the U.S. market, will suffer the most.

    There is every reason to believe that China will make a reasonable choice. Most likely, she will do this much earlier than the first transport from Japan with the U.S. Marine Corps docks in Taipei. It is unreasonable to assume that China does not have a well conceived plan for rapid regime change in North Korea.

    If wisdom escapes the Chinese communists, then as the icing on the cake, they will get a united Korea at their side. Capitalistic. And nuclear.

    Gary Gindler is a conservative Russian-American blogger at Gary Gindler Chronicles.


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  20. Why is Taiwan, South Korea and Japan our problem?

    Why did South Korea ever allow North Korea to place 100 trillion artillery pieces on their border?

    What is the combined GNP of South Korea, Taiwan and Japan?

    Want to have some fun? Let Taiwan, Japan and South Korea fix their problem.

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  21. Trump should announce, he is going to Disneyland.

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  22. :)

    Some feel he's already there.

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  23. Did I ever tell about the time Quirk went to Disneyland ?

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    1. How he was, finally, on the 5th day running, arrested in his Goofy disguise ?

      His footwear gave him away.

      He was barefoot, and had just.....

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