Russian General Stating the Obvious On US/North Korea

North Korea stands no chance against US, Guam threat is a bluff – Russian general to RT

Published time: 12 Aug, 2017 01:06

North Korea wouldn’t stand a chance against the US if the war of words between the two states escalates into a military conflict, Leonid Ivashov, a political analyst and retired Russian Colonel-General, told RT, urging a diplomatic solution to the crisis. 

“It’s a total mismatch,” Ivashov, who currently heads the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, said of the possible confrontation between Washington and Pyongyang.

“The US is a superpower, while North Korea is a small regional player. North Korea can’t compete with America on any level,” he said.

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President Donald Trump needs to strengthen his position in Washington, and the American attack on North Korea “can’t be ruled out,” Ivashov said.

According to the retired colonel-general, modern surveillance technologies allow the US to know “the exact location of all missile systems and nuclear production facilities” possessed by Pyongyang.

“The Americans can strike North Korea – its nuclear missile development centers, industrial facilities; try to eliminate everything that North Korea created in terms of medium-range and long-range missiles and nuclear production,” he said.

The American B-1 bombers will be able to inflict significant damage on Pyongyang’s underground nuclear development facilities and missile silos, “taking into account the weakness of the North Korean anti-missile defense,” Ivashov said.

He was also skeptical about Pyongyang’s threats to target the US territory of Guam in case of an attack.

“To some extent, it’s a bluff on the part of North Korea; an attempt to save face and avert the American blow through international rhetoric,” he said.

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“The US has a powerful anti-missile defense system off the coast of the Korean Peninsula… which may well intercept Pyongyang’s missiles. The Guam Air Base, which North Korea is planning to attack, is also covered by the US anti-missile defense,” Ivashov added.

Earlier this week, North Korea said that it would fire ballistic missiles in the direction of Guam sometime in mid-August as a rehearsal of war with the US.

The announcement was made after Trump promised “fire and fury” against Pyongyang if it continued tests aimed at developing nuclear-capable long-range ballistic missiles.

READ MORE: Pyongyang may hit US targets in S. Korea if provoked by Americans – Russian general to RT

On Friday, Trump came up with another bellicose statement, warning the North on Twitter that “military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely.”

According to Ivashov, North Korea is still capable of inflicting “some damage” on the US, but it will be incomparable to the blow the Americans will deliver.

With the current state of events, it’s is important for the international community to push the crisis towards a diplomatic solution,” he said.

“China and Russia should intervene now. Political and economic pressure should be increased on North Korea, more sanctions introduced. The main thing is to get the situation out of the military perspective,” Ivashov said.

READ MORE: Is US gearing up for military action against N. Korea or is Trump bluffing?

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North Korea: Appeasement brought us to where we are today - Now what? Two Views.

A solution to N. Korea crisis

Pat Buchanan looks at 'the risks and rewards of the American Imperium'

Patrick J. Buchanan 

NUCLEAR WAR-FEAR

“When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight,” Samuel Johnson observed, “it concentrates his mind wonderfully.”

And the prospect of a future where Kim Jong-un can put a nuclear weapon on a U.S. city is going to cause this nation to reassess the risks and rewards of the American Imperium.

First, some history. 

“Why should Americans be first to die in any second Korean war?” this writer asked in 1999 in “A Republic, Not an Empire.”

“With twice the population of the North and 20 times its economic power, South Korea … is capable of manning its own defense. American troops on the DMZ should be replaced by South Koreans.”

This was denounced as neo-isolationism. And, in 2002, George W. Bush declared the U.S. “will not permit the world’s most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world’s most destructive weapons.” 

Bluster and bluff. In 2006, Pyongyang called and raised and tested an atom bomb. Now Kim Jong-un is close to an ICBM. 

Our options? 

As Kim believes the ability to hit America with a nuclear weapon is the only certain way he has of deterring us from killing his regime and him, he will not be talked out of his ICBM. Nor, short of an embargo-blockade by China, will sanctions keep him from his goal, to which he inches closer with each missile test.

As for the “military option,” U.S. strikes on Kim’s missile sites could cause him to unleash his artillery on Seoul, 35 miles south. In the first week of a second Korean war, scores of thousands could be dead. 

If North Korea’s artillery opened up, says Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the U.S. would be forced to use tactical atomic weapons to stop the carnage. Kim could then give the suicidal order to launch his nukes. 

A third option is to accept and live with a North Korean ICBM, as we have lived for decades with the vast nuclear arsenals of Russia and China.

Now, assume the best: We get through this crisis without a war, and Kim agrees to stop testing ICBMs and nuclear warheads. 

Does anyone believe that, given his youth, his determination to drive us off the peninsula and his belief that only an ICBM can deter us, this deal will last and he will abandon his nuclear program? 

Given concessions, Kim might suspend missile and nuclear tests. But again, we deceive ourselves if we believe he will give up the idea of acquiring the one weapon that might ensure regime survival.

Hence, assuming this crisis is resolved, what does the future of U.S.-North Korean relations look like?

To answer that question, consider the past.

• In 1968, North Korea hijacked the USS Pueblo on the high seas and interned its crew. LBJ did nothing. In April 1969, North Korea shot down an EC-121, 100 miles of its coast, killing the crew. Nixon did nothing. 
• Under Jimmy Carter, North Koreans ax-murdered U.S. soldiers at Panmunjom. We defiantly cut down a nearby tree.
• Among the atrocities the North has perpetrated are plots to assassinate President Park Chung-hee in the 1960s and ’70s, the Rangoon bombing that wiped out much of the cabinet of Chun Doo-hwan in 1983, and the bombing of Korean Air Flight 858, killing all on board in 1987. 
• And Kim Jong-un has murdered his uncle and brother.

If the past is prologue, and it has proven to be, the future holds this. A renewal of ICBM tests until a missile is perfected. Occasional atrocities creating crises between the U.S. and North Korea. America being repeatedly dragged to the brink of a war we do not want to fight. 

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As Secretary of Defense James Mattis said Sunday, such a war would be “catastrophic. … A conflict in North Korea … would be probably the worst kind of fighting in most people’s lifetimes.”

When the lesson sinks in that a war on the peninsula would be a catastrophe, and a growing arsenal of North Korean ICBMs targeted on America is intolerable, the question must arise:

Why not move U.S. forces off the peninsula, let South Korean troops replace them, sell Seoul all the modern weapons it needs, and let Seoul build its own nuclear arsenal to deter the North? 

Remove any incentive for Kim to attack us, except to invite his own suicide. And tell China: Halt Kim’s ICBM program, or we will help South Korea and Japan become nuclear powers like Britain and France.

Given the rising risk of our war guarantees, from the eastern Baltic to the Korean DMZ – and the paltry rewards of the American Imperium – we are being bled from Libya to Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen – a true America First foreign policy is going to become increasingly attractive.

Kim’s credible threat to one day be able to nuke a U.S. city is going to concentrate American minds wonderfully.

About | Email | Archive 

Pat Buchanan was twice a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination and the Reform Party's candidate in 2000. 

He is also a founder and editor of The American Conservative. Buchanan served three presidents in the White House, was a founding panelist of three national TV shows, and is the author of 11 books. His latest book is "Nixon's White House Wars."

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Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) criticized President Trump Tuesday for Trump’s hawkish remarks on North Korea, saying Trump shouldn’t threaten the regime unless he is ready to back it up with action.

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Few paid any attention to the revelation of Robert Mueller’s alleged attempts to have the Icelandic government help him frame Julian Assange and WikiLeaks via the FBI

Robert Mueller’s Has Record of Framing His Quarries

CANADA FREE PRESS

Back in December 11, 2016 most folk were too busy celebrating the stunning presidential victory of Donald J. Trump, or already exploring devious ways to get him impeached. Few paid any attention to the revelation of Robert Mueller’s alleged attempts to have the Icelandic government help him frame Julian Assange and WikiLeaks via the FBI.

In August of 2011,  Mueller sent a planeload of eight FBI agents on a purported mission to Iceland to sabotage Assange and WikiLeaks.

Not much notice was paid when former Icelandic Minister of the Interior, Ögmundur Jonasson caught them redhanded before sending them packing.

Jonasson revealed that U.S. authorities first told him in June 2011 that there was an ‘imminent attack’ on Iceland’s government databases; that they were sending the FBI to the rescue.

But he claims that when the FBI arrived in August, the FBI ‘sought Iceland’s cooperation to frame Assange and WikiLeaks’ in a mission that was part of a ‘wide-ranging investigation’ into Assange and WikiLeaks’.

Savvy to their real intention that had nothing to do with saving government database cyber attacks,  Jonasson’s response was to have the FBI kicked out of Iceland.

The story was widely reported on in 2013, but Jonasson made no attempt of the U.S. trying to frame Assange until he became a whistleblower last December, making it the biggest “if only” story of all time.

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Corruption Scandals Are Piling Up for Democrats

Incidences of dirty politics on every level overwhelm

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Opinion - Observer

Former DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Andrew Burton/Getty Images

Former DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz was pulled into yet another scandal when on July 25 former IT aide Imran Awan was detained while attempting to flee the country and charged with bank fraud for wiring nearly $300,000 to Pakistan ahead of his planned escape. Imran Awan, who was employed by Wasserman Schultz until his arrest, is under criminal investigation for “wide-range equipment and data theft.” He reportedly tried to destroy hard drives confiscated by the FBI. Though the investigation began in February, Wasserman Schultz only recently granted U.S. Capitol Police access to a laptop Awan hid in a crevice of a congressional office building. The case is one of many scandals that have engulfed the Democratic Party.

In Pennsylvania, Democratic Mayor of Allentown Ed Pawlowski and former Democratic Mayor of Reading Vaughn Spencer, along with three others, were indicted by the FBI on July 26 for a pay-to-play scheme. Earlier this year in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia’s District Attorney Seth Williams, a Democrat, decided not to run for re-election because he currently faces an FBI probe into $160,000 of gifts he failed to report.

Democratic Congressman Robert Brady, who represents Pennsylvania’s first congressional district, is under FBI investigation for paying a primary challenger to drop out of the race in 2012. Brady, one of the longest serving Democrats in Congress, is the latest Democratic congressman to come under FBI scrutiny. Last year, Democratic Congressman Chaka Fattah was convicted and sentenced to prison for corruption charges. Fattah had been in office since 1995.

Seattle Democratic Mayor Ed Murray isn’t running for re-election this year due to a sex abuse scandal he is implicated in.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is plagued by corruption and inefficiency. It currently faces an ongoing class action lawsuit filed by Sen. Bernie Sanders‘ supporters for rigging the primaries in favor of Hillary Clinton. Another class action lawsuit was filed earlier this year on behalf of Clinton campaign field organizers who weren’t paid overtime, despite the Democratic National Convention Committee handing out $1 million in bonuses.

In May 2017, former Democratic Congresswoman Corinne Brown was convicted on several charges related to a fraudulent charity. She had served in Congress since 1993. The Florida Democratic Party chair race in January 2017 was rife with scandal: Billionaire donor Stephen Bittel broke the party’s rules to win the controversial race.

In March 2017, Sen. Bob Menendez exhausted all his appeals to avoid facing trial for bribery charges. The trial is set to begin in September.

Chicago Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel is hoping that early fundraising will save his bid for re-election in 2019. He will likely face staunch opposition due to his office being plagued by scandal, most notably a cover-up of police shooting unarmed black teenager Laquan McDonald in 2015. His largest labor union backer, John Coli Sr., was recently indicted on extortion charges.

In New York, Former Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver managed to get his corruption conviction overturned this month, but the U.S. District Attorney Office for the Southern District of New York is retrying the case. Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose former aides were charged with corruption last year, is in damage control over an MTA State of Emergency in New York City. The New York Daily News reported earlier this month that Cuomo diverted funds meant for MTA repairs to boost his “pet projects.” In May 2017, former New York Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner plead guilty in an underage sexting case.

In California, the California Democratic Party Compliance Review Commission found that over 300 votes cast in the election for California Democratic Party chair posed problems in their potential legitimacy. The election was decided by 62 votes. Last weekend, the commission invalidated 25 votes for Eric Bauman, the winner, and 22 for Kimberly Ellis, who lost the election, but Ellis noted its overt bias for Bauman, the party establishment’s choice for the position. Ellis has indicated that a lawsuit will likely have to be filed to hold the party accountable.

In May 2017, the California Democratic Party paid a small fine over allegations that it laundered big oil money to Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown’s 2014 re-election campaign. A watchdog organization noted the small fine was the result of lax campaign finance laws that demand irrefutable evidence of a quid pro quo, but that’s now how political corruption works anymore. “When pundits moan about ‘no smoking gun’ and ‘no quid pro quo,’ they must be referring to some cartoon definition of corruption, as if it involved an envelope stuffed with dead presidents, handed over to some grubby-fingered hack in the backroom of a greasy tavern with a tired Kiefer Sutherland doing the voice-over,” wrote John Kass in an August 2016 op-ed for the Chicago Tribune. “But people with governments and nations in the palms of their hands don’t deal that way.”

The Democratic Party focuses on anti-Trump rhetoric but largely ignores the corruption among its members. While party leaders fend off progressives’ calls for reform, the current Democrats in office serve as walking examples of why accountability is needed. As voters become privy to the party’s incessant scandals, they become apathetic and disenfranchised.

Washington Post, ABC, James Comey, DOJ, collusion in cover up of Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton tarmac meeting