by Jack
A lot of Americans still have no clue why North Korea is threatening the United States with nuclear weapons, some in Washington don’t either. But, here’s the big picture, as clear and concise as I can make it:
The North Koreans have been brainwashed for over 60 years to believe the United States prevented the re-unification of the two Koreas for our own economic and strategic reasons. One only has to look at the prosperity of South Korea and compare that to the starvation in the North to see how ridiculous that belief is.
Russian President Putin tried to put an additional spin on this false narrative yesterday in Beijing. He said Kim Jong Un saw what happened to Saddam Hussein. He knows exactly who did it, and he doesn’t want to wind up like Hussein, dangling from a rope. Another unfair comparison.
Putin said that while Russia condemned North Korea’s latest actions, imposing any kind of sanctions would be “useless and ineffective.” Kim would rather starve his people than see his regime overthrown, he said.Putin says this nuclear build up is the only way Un can feel safe from American aggression, but he adds this is also bringing the world to the brink of a great catastrophe. Sanctions haven’t worked, except to starve the peasantry and yes, any nuclear exchange would be catastrophic.
Every year for the last 60+ years the US and South Korea hold war games. The North Koreans used this for their own propaganda purposes. So every year they claim that the US and South Korea are preparing to invade the North. This is now a genuine fear, rational or not, spread among the Communist leaders. So we have both fear and hate being constantly directed at the US.
China has asked that the US cancel the war games to allow Kim Jong Un some time to calm down. The US response, “we are insulted by such a proposal.” The war games continue, the rhetoric continues, and Kim Jong Un continues to send “presents” aka ICBM’s into the
air, sometimes flying over Japan. His nuclear tests also continue, the latest being a hydrogen bomb, the largest blast to date.
The US miscalculated when they signed a number of nuclear disarmament treaties starting with the early Clinton years through Obama’s term. There’s been five agreements and they’ve all been violation before the ink was dry.
China doesn’t want to see a nuclear armed North Korea and certainly not WWIII! But, they have greatly miscalculated by allowing first Kim Jong Ill and then his son Kim Jong Un, the latitude and sometimes the materials, to continue their nuclear program with minimal interference. This served China’s internal political and economic purposes for
years, but now the North Koreans have really done it, they have the bomb and the means to deliver. China fears a war would have millions of North Koreans streaming over the Yalu river. Further, China has their population problems already, they don’t need this. They have political sympathies with communist North Korea and still hold many old grudges against the capitalist West.
We’ve heard the sabre rattling many times before, but this time it’s quite serious. Russia and China are nervous, genuinely nervous and they are looking for a way to de-escalate the situation that is part of their own making.
The US is not interested in backing down or another treaty. Push has finally arrived at shove. Who knows what the next move could be, but you would be foolish to think we are not close to war – we are. However, we lack credibility in the world because too many times we’ve drawn a line and then never did a thing except talk. Our far left protestors, our liberals in Congress and especially, Obama, Clinton and Carter made us look weak and indecisive. Now, it’s for real and we have no credibility? That’s just great.
As one of the few, if any, of your readers who has actually set foot in North Korea and engaged in hand-to-hand battle with the NK guards, you might think I would have special insight on this issue, but I don’t. Our leaders have dilly-dallied for 60 years with the closed-eyes, crossed fingers approach, and allowed NK to move from a primitive military to a nuclear threat. It is not a matter of a new war. The old war never stopped. We just had a cease-fire agreement, which the North has violated a thousand times, with no strong reaction from the U.S. I was hoping that Trump would be different, but so far, it is more dilly-dally, waiting for the North to strike first. Let’s just hope the nuke hits Washington DC and not somewhere important, like Idaho.
Soaps, my first thought is, it was unfair that you were placed in such grave danger basically for flawed diplomatic reasons. That was just a bad decision by your superiors. Seems like we’re always trying to be the nice guys, going the extra distance to be peaceful, even if that gets our frontline soldiers killed. You were lucky you survived, as not all did. Now that very incident is part of American history and I hope we learned from it, but I doubt it.
I’m with you on Idaho, that is far more important. D.C. offers us nothing but BS, at least Idaho offers us a good potato.
I think a fitting response to another missile launch would be to send 4 or 5 Tomahawk missiles to sink the Pueblo at anchor.
My guess Kim Jong Un’s first target will be between SF and Sacramento. It would take out the whole west coast, plus the state’s capital, Silicon Valley, Alameda shipyards, Lockheed/NASA, SFO, one of the countries largest food producers and the water source for most of southern Cal.
Second choice would be that mega data storage facility in Utah.
I’m an unrepentant optimist, I know, but I beg to differ with you two men on two points, even though you both have more experience with things military than I.
1. Trump has made it clear (on the world stage) that he is a no nonsense leader, especially when it comes to winning a war. He’s made it clear he has no interest in nation building. He’s made it clear that he will not draw meaningless lines in the sand. He’s made it clear that the US will no longer signal to the world our pending actions. And he’s made it clear that he expects allies to do their part when appropriate.
2. Trump has given military leaders the authority to make decisions on the battlefield. (Obama and his staff were apparently like gnats, constantly on the phone issuing orders)
Trump respects the experience of military leaders but he’s not looking for yes men to advise him. In fact he seems to prefer disagreement and is willing to consider all opinions before making a decision. So far I trust him and believe he will do what must be done in a very bad situation.
The media has no interest in reporting news, only in making Trump look bad.
In February Carolyn Glick wrote an article about Trumps strategy in the ME, “The Trump Way of Winning the War.” It offers some incite into his very different approach to the world’s bullies.
US policy has not worked through several administrations. This administration is different in significant ways. I’m betting on success.
Oh I don’t think we disagree at all Tina. I’m just saying that Trumps job of talking tough was made so much harder, because his predecessors were wimps. Trump is doing and saying all the right things, its just that our creds have been so undermined, most recently by Obama, that its going to take a show of force for the PRNK to get it, we’re not kidding anymore, this is for real.
Got it Jack.
I’d sure like to be a fly on the wall in those planning sessions. This is serious.
North Korea: an insider’s perspective—
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2017/09/north-korea-insiders-perspective.html
Good read.
Is Trump Flipping?
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/09/is_trump_flipping.html