by Peter Koenig for the Saker blog
President Trump’s 5-country Asia tour has nothing to do with seeking peace anywhere, it has not even to do with diplomacy – it is entirely a warmongering business trip for the Military Industrial Complex. It is amazing that the world doesn’t catch on.
We know about Obama’s several years of pivoting to Asia. It resulted largely in the TPP, the Transpacific Partnership, a trade agreement between 12 countries including the US. The first thing Trump did when he came on board is canceling it, claiming that it would only harm the US. Canceling it, in fact, was a good thing, since contrary to what Trump understands, or claims to understand, of US-made international trade, the Asian partners would have suffered, not the US. There is not one single trade agreement the US has instigated, bilateral or multilateral, where the US came out as a loser, or even as an equal, always a winner. The original meaning of trade is not winning or losing, but it is an exchange of equals with equal benefits for all partners. ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America) is perhaps one of the few living examples.
Trump doesn’t like multilateral trade agreements, because – even though he is in control – he may not be in total control. He wants to call the shots, every shot. Literally. This is what this 8-day ‘pivot’ to Asia is all about. It is about selling weapons, ‘the best, the most accurate, the deadliest the world has ever produced. Trump’s words – almost. And repeated over-and-over-and-over again.
At a press conference in Tokyo, with Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe, Trump said literally, when pointing at Prime Minister Abe, “[He] will shoot [North Korea’s] missiles out of the sky when he completes the purchase of lots of equipment from the United States. One very important thing is that Prime Minister Abe is going to be purchasing massive amounts of [US-made] military equipment, as he should. We make the best by far … it’s a lot of jobs for us, and a lot of safety for Japan (The Guardian, 6/11/2017).”
Trump had the audacity, as he always does, calling North Korea (DPRK – Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) a “threat to the civilized world”. And this, when he knows – or should know – that Pyongyang is only defending North Korea from the constant threats and aggressions of the United States, that Kim Jon-Un has no intention of attacking any country – but still has the memory deep inside, inherited by generations of North Koreans born after the atrocious Washington initiated 1953 Korean war, that devastated literally the entire country and killed 3 million people, about a third of the then North Korean population.
The entire world knows, including Trump’s predecessors, that the only threat to not only the world’s civilization, but to the entire humanity, are the United States of America – a rogue state, not respecting any international laws, no international contracts – and no human life, not even that of her own citizens. Tens of millions of people around the globe have been killed since the end of WWII directly by the US military, or NATO, or indirectly through proxies or mercenaries by the United States. All for wars that aim at complete world hegemony, at ‘Full Spectrum Dominance’ – as described by the PNAC – Plan for a New American Century. Nobody wants to touch this reality – almost nobody. Fortunately, in the last few years there are countries emerging that dare stand up to the killing monster, resisting it, by disobedience, despite ‘sanctions’, and through economic measures, like detaching their economy from the fraudulent fiat dollar. Recent examples are Venezuela and Iran.
Trump’s arms sale’s bonanza started actually already with Saudi Arabia, when he sold King Salman 110 billion worth of the best killer instruments – bombs, planes and tanks – America produces. A record weapon sales-contract.
On the pivot’s second leg, South Korea – Trump trumped up his tone, not at all for peace but to threaten once more Pyongyang and the North Korean leader, the American bully cum President calls derogatorily the ‘Little Rocket Man’. – Where are we in this world? Does this man Trump not see how much he is despised? Or is he so sick to actually enjoy being hated?
More than eighty percent of South Koreans want peace with the Nord. President Moon Jae-in was recently elected on a platform of uniting the South with the North – to bring back together families that were separated for more than half a century. How could he be such a dreamer? With close to 30,000 American soldiers on South Korean soil and a weapons arsenal, including nuclear arms, that could destroy all of east Asia in a jiffy. – And billions worth of more weapons sales to Seoul are on Trump’s murderous sales agenda. He is not only a bully par excellence, but the best salesman the US military industrial complex could wish for – and a booster of the US’s GDP of death and destruction.
The bully at the pulpit had no intention of addressing a road to peace. To the contrary, he boasted about the extraordinary unsurmountable weapons might of “America First” – and using South Koreans Parliament as a platform to launch yet another slandering tirade towards North Korea’s leader, Kim Jon-un, and her people, “[I] have come here to this peninsula to deliver a message directly to the leader of the North Korean dictatorship—the weapons you are acquiring are not making you safer. They are putting your regime in great danger. Every step you take down this dark path increases the peril you face. North Korea is not the paradise your grandfather envisioned. It is a hell that no person deserves. Yet despite every crime you have committed against god and man… we will offer a path towards a much better future. It begins with an end to the aggression of your regime, a stop to your development of ballistic missiles and complete verifiable and total denuclearization.”
While Emperor Donald was talking, three US Navy aircraft carriers were positioning themselves in attack mode in front of North Korea’s coast, preparing for more intimidating war games. More provocation, knowing damn well that DPRK’s President Kim Jon-un will not let go of his defense strategy – and rightly so. Anyone who knows a bit of North Korea’s history understands. Kim’s several requests for dialogue, as he wants peace for his country and for his people, were rejected by Washington. Instead he was showered with Trump’s outrageous warmongering language like “we will unleash ‘fire and fury’ the world has never seen” – or “we will destroy your country to rubble” – and more of such ridiculous and shameful threats – shameful for the so-called ‘leader’ of the “free world”, of the globe’s self-proclaimed Almighty, and shameful for all the other nations of this globe that just watch and listen to the monster’s angry outbursts – but are afraid to counter him, though they know he is wrong.
According to Reuters, Han Tae Song, Ambassador of the DPRK to the United Nations in Geneva, told on Wednesday the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, “The United States and other hostile forces impede the enjoyment by our people of their human rights in every possible way, resorting to the vicious ways and means of all kinds in their attempt to stifle the ideas and system of the DPRK,” He continued saying that Washington “manipulated” sanctions resolutions against his country at the U.N. Security Council that violated North Korean sovereignty and rights to existence and development.
“Due to these inhumane economic sanctions, vulnerable peoples like women and children are becoming…victims. Such sanctions against humanity which block even the delivery of the medical equipment and medicines for maternal and child health and the basic goods for daily life…..threaten the protection and promotion of our women’s rights and even the right to survival of the children.”
Next stop on Trump’s ‘pivot’ was Beijing, where, to the surprise of most media, he behaved like a statesman, trying to persuade President Xi of the benefits of a friendly US-Sino relation – and of course, of the importance that China adhere to the UN imposed sanctions on North Korea. The South China Sea, Human Rights and China’s alleged lack of Democracy – the usual Washington swan song – were not mentioned. Even the Chinese media hailed Trump’s visit as a success. The two leaders signed contracts for some 250 billion dollars-worth of investment and trade deals, or rather, as per Bloomberg, “non-binding memoranda of understanding”, between the two countries.
The deals, many of which were already concluded or planned before the Beijing meeting, included goods and services in transportation (Chinese purchase of 300 Boeing civilian aircraft), agriculture (pork and beef), IT, the financial sector (with Goldman Sachs – who else?) – and more. Nothing controversial. Trump expects to be appreciated at home for his salesmanship in Beijing – and for helping reducing the 250 billion US trade deficit with China.
Interestingly though, during the perhaps strategically most important stop of his Asia journey – Beijing – Trump did not use his usual vitriolic language to condemn and threaten Pyongyang and putting Xi on guard to follow the strict sanctions regime against the DPRK – or else. Why didn’t he? – Did he realize that it was worthless? That China would never let her neighbor die – and he would make himself ridiculous making believe his sanctions threat would work on China? – Or did he have a deeper agenda, like winning China over – or neutralizing her – for a possible future strike on Iran? – Of course, if carried out, then by proxies like the armed-to-the-teeth with US and UK weaponry Saudis and Israel? – Time will tell. But there is no doubt that the clear winner of this meeting was President Xi – with his calm manner and Tao philosophy of smiling and non-aggression.
On his last stop in Da Nang, Vietnam, Trump attended the APEC (Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit (10-11 November), where he was expected to meet with President Putin, even briefly at the margin of the meetings. However, no official meeting was scheduled and as RT reports, ”Hopes of a bilateral Putin-Trump meeting on the sidelines of the APEC summit have waned with the White House citing “scheduling conflicts,” but at least the two were all smiles while shaking hands during the photo call.”
Well, why would President Putin want to meet with Trump, who after a meeting with seemingly positive chemistry, in Hamburg in July 2017, at the G20 summit, has been nothing but deceptive? Why faking more trust in a flamboyant billionaire bully, who has no ethics, who doesn’t honor contracts, promises, multilateral agreements or even international law – and allows his government to keep slandering Russia for ‘interfering’ in the 2016 US Presidential Elections?
The truth is, Trump, his predecessors, the UK leadership, the NATO allies, the Saudis, Gulf States and the EU puppets are shameless, ‘legalized’ murderers. – Legalized, because they dance to the tune of Trump’s canons, or to the dark deep state’s strings that pull the triggers of mayhem and death. For these people – are they still to be called people? – Trump has accomplished what he set out to do: Selling hundreds of billions worth of arms. In less than a year of his Presidency, he did more good to the military-security industrial complex than Obama did in his last four years in office.
Arms are made to kill and destroy. Killing and destroying is contributing big-time to the US GDP; in fact, this industrial octopus with all its associated tentacles – finance, IT, research, sub-contracting, mercenary funding abroad and within the US, spying and surveillance the world over – amount to more than half of the US total economic output. The United States of America lives off an economy of war, an economy of destruction and death.
Take Yemen. Since March 2015, the US and UK backed and armed Saudis have bombed Yemen to ruins, destroying schools, hospitals, roads, ports – vital infrastructure for any civilization. In addition to hospitals and schools, they targeted specifically water and sanitation systems to cause utmost harm to civilian populations. As a result, cholera cases are estimated at 500,000-plus, mostly children and women and elderly (UNICEF), the worst in recorded history. Many die, because the Saudis, again backed by the US and the UK, have banned import and distribution of essential drugs.
With major ports closed – also by the Saudis, the US and the UK, Yemen is facing one of the worst famine the world has ever seen in recent history. Daily Saudi shelling with US planes and UK bombs, has killed tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, women and children – some estimates range from 60,000 to 80,000. Nobody really keeps count. Yemen has been (kept) poor before. And now, who cares. Yemen already today is the worst humanitarian crisis in decades. And there is no end in sight.
Since the US / UK backed Saudi attacks began some 20 months ago, UK arms sales have increased 50 times. Yet a case filed with the International Court of Justice (ICC) by UK citizens against ‘illegal’ weapons sales, was dismissed by the court, as it could not find anything illegal with these weapon deliveries. That only shows, ICC’s worthlessness, as it is totally controlled by the Zion-Anglo-Saxon hegemon.
What might be more effective than ICC in stopping the boundless assassination raids, is chaining up Donald Trump, Barack Obama, Theresa May and David Cameron, and parachuting them onto Hudaydah, one of Yemen’s hardest hit towns, in the west of the country. Let them see and feel and smell the pain, death and desperation of the survivors. Would it light up the remnants of their spark of ethics and moral they may still have left from birth?
Peter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a former World Bank staff and worked extensively around the world in the fields of environment and water resources. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for Global Research, ICH, RT, Sputnik, PressTV, The 4th Media (China), TeleSUR, The Vineyard of The Saker Blog, and other internet sites. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed – fiction based on facts and on 30 years of World Bank experience around the globe. He is also a co-author of The World Order and Revolution! – Essays from the Resistance.
Dear Donald, please leave China alone!
http://bit.ly/2iwZwDT
The Korean war was started by the North, with Stalin’s and Mao’s approval. It went as expected, crushing the South and capturing Seoul, until the US and “UN forces” joined the war to stop the communist army. Which was when things turned really bad for Pyongyang and only Chinese (troops) and USSR (airforce, advisors, equipment) help could stop the war before North was altogether eliminated.
The Korean war started in 1950 by the way, it ended in 1953. And again, it was started by North Korea, not the USA.
What’s more, the Korean war formally isn’t over, it ended in a ceasefire. There is no peace treaty to this day, meaning, at least in theory fighting can resume anytime. So weapons sales sort of make sense. DPRK is sort of a nice angry dog behind a fence – everybody knows it may bite and everybody in the area knows they need weapons to protect against it. What is surprising is that Russia and China haven’t used the anti-DPRK sales opportunity.
Yes, rather than a discussion of the events currently happening, steer the conversation into an argument about an event in the past. Pretty much bog standard disruption technique.
Just pointing out the author’s mistakes: assuming that the Korean war was started in 1953 by the USA.
Quote:
“And this, when he knows – or should know – that Pyongyang is only defending North Korea from the constant threats and aggressions of the United States, that Kim Jon-Un has no intention of attacking any country – but still has the memory deep inside, inherited by generations of North Koreans born after the atrocious Washington-initiated 1953 Korean war, that devastated literally the entire country and killed 3 million people, about a third of the then North Korean population.”
In a way, older generations of South Koreans were grateful to the US for preserving their country. In the 21st century reunification and anti-American notions have grown to be ideas of the majority, but this hadn’t always been so. The Korean situation nowadays is curious because nobody actually wants war and next to nobody believes it’s possible — yet they both keep arming themselves, both North and South. If anything, the only possible war trigger would be a US-caused invasion or bombing of the North. But the North has nukes now.
The US military industrial complex has always excused it’s war and aggression against the poor nations by labelling them as dangerous aggressors. The US military industrial complex grew itself rapidly after WW2 during the Cold War by maintaining constant climate of geopolitical tension. The Soviet Union was run by corrupt Jews and they played their part no doubt in maintaining that tension – they had too. If they did not then US would have destroyed them or they would have been overthrown from within Russia. During the 50 years of strategic tension, the US military industrial complex launched several wars and aggressive coups and undermined many countries (usually those that had territory or resources that the US military industrial complex wanted for associated US industry or corporations – like oil in Iraq. Conspicuously, these wars and actions were prolonged as much as possible and fed the beast. Keeping a strategy of tension with North Korea for 50 over years is just another iron in the fire.
Your comments above only tell “half” the story,the Western version of it. They leave out the 5 year run-up to the war. The fact that the US violated the agreement for a reunification of Korea. Set-up a regime made up with many ex-Japanese Korean collaborators.The reign of terror against any South Koreans opposing them.That claimed many thousands of victims. The US backed decades old military dictatorship that oppressed South Koreans.That while North Koreans,with the least agricultural part of the country.And the area most destroyed was forced to rebuild themselves. With only a small amount of aid from an at the time poor China and USSR. And while under constant economy killing sanctions.While South Korea got large amounts of aid and investments from the West. You say South Koreans were grateful for the US “preserving” their country. From what? The reunification of their country,the reunion of the thousands old unity of Korea.Had Korea been reunified as was planned as a neutral state.Millions wouldn’t and died,and we wouldn’t be where we are today in this crisis.That is the “other” half of the story.
Is there more on that? A website, articles? It is an interesting topic, and rather obscure in modern sources (not surprising, given that conflict won instead of reunion).
While admittedly a pro-US source. This tells a bit of it:
“On September 7, 1945, General Douglas MacArthur announced that Lieutenant General John R. Hodge was to administer Korean affairs, and Hodge landed in Incheon with his troops the next day. The Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, which had operated from China, sent a delegation with three interpreters to Hodge, but he refused to meet with them.[21] Likewise, Hodge refused to recognize the newly formed People’s Republic of Korea and its People’s Committees, and outlawed it on 12 December.[22]
In September 1946, thousands of laborers and peasants rose up against the military government. This uprising was quickly defeated, and failed to prevent scheduled October elections for the South Korean Interim Legislative Assembly.
The ardent anti-communist Syngman Rhee, who had been the first president of the Provisional Government and later worked as a pro-Korean lobbyist in the US, became the most prominent politician in the South. Rhee pressured the American government to abandon negotiations for a trusteeship and create an independent Republic of Korea in the south.[23] On July 19, 1947, Lyuh Woon-hyung, the last senior politician committed to left-right dialogue, was assassinated by a right-winger.[24]
The occupation government conducted a number of military campaigns against left-wing insurgents. Over the course of the next few years, between 30,000[25] and 100,000 people were killed.[26]”
“When Soviet troops entered Pyongyang, they found a local branch of the Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence operating under the leadership of veteran nationalist Cho Man-sik.[27] The Soviet Army allowed these “People’s Committees” (which were friendly to the Soviet Union) to function. Colonel-General Terentii Shtykov set up the Soviet Civil Administration, taking control of the committees and placing communists in key positions.
In February 1946 a provisional government called the Provisional People’s Committee was formed under Kim Il-sung, who had spent the last years of the war training with Soviet troops in Manchuria. Conflicts and power struggles ensued at the top levels of government in Pyongyang as different aspirants maneuvered to gain positions of power in the new government. In March 1946 the provisional government instituted a sweeping land-reform program: land belonging to Japanese and collaborator landowners was divided and redistributed to poor farmers.[28] Organizing the many poor civilians and agricultural laborers under the people’s committees, a nationwide mass campaign broke the control of the old landed classes. Landlords were allowed to keep only the same amount of land as poor civilians who had once rented their land, thereby making for a far more equal distribution of land. The North Korean land reform was achieved in a less violent way than in China or in Vietnam. Official American sources stated: “From all accounts, the former village leaders were eliminated as a political force without resort to bloodshed, but extreme care was taken to preclude their return to power.”[29] The farmers responded positively; many collaborators and former landowners fled to the south, where some of them obtained positions in the new South Korean government. According to the U.S. military government, 400,000 northern Koreans went south as refugees.[30]
Key industries were nationalized. The economic situation was nearly as difficult in the north as it was in the south, as the Japanese had concentrated agriculture in the south and heavy industry in the north.
Soviet forces departed in 1948.[31]”
(Note Soviet troops left North Korea in 1948)
“With the failure of the Joint Commission to make progress, the US brought the problem before the United Nations in September 1947. The Soviet Union opposed UN involvement. At that time, the US had more influence over the UN than the USSR.[32] The UN passed a resolution on November 14, 1947, declaring that free elections should be held, foreign troops should be withdrawn, and a UN commission for Korea, the United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea (UNTCOK), should be created. The Soviet Union boycotted the voting and did not consider the resolution to be binding, arguing that the UN could not guarantee fair elections. In the absence of Soviet co-operation, it was decided to hold UN-supervised elections in the south only.[33][34] Some UNTCOK delegates felt that the conditions in the south gave unfair advantage to right-wing candidates, but they were overruled.[35]
The decision to proceed with separate elections was unpopular among many Koreans, who rightly saw it as a prelude to a permanent division of the country. General strikes in protest against the decision began in February 1948.[20] In April, Jeju islanders rose up against the looming division of the country. South Korean troops were sent to repress the rebellion. Tens of thousands of islanders were killed and by one estimate, 70% of the villages were burned by the South Korean troops.[36] The uprising flared up again with the outbreak of the Korean War.[37]
In April 1948, a conference of organizations from the north and the south met in Pyongyang, but the conference produced no results. The southern politicians Kim Koo and Kim Kyu-sik attended the conference and boycotted the elections in the south, as did other politicians and parties.[38][39] Kim Koo was assassinated the following year.[40]
On May 10, 1948 the south held a general election. On August 15, the “Republic of Korea” formally took over power from the U.S. military, with Syngman Rhee as the first president. In the North, the “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” was declared on September 9, with Kim Il-sung as prime minister.
On December 12, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly accepted the report of UNTCOK and declared the Republic of Korea to be the “only lawful government in Korea”.[41]
Unrest continued in the South. In October 1948, the Yeosu–Suncheon Rebellion took place, in which some regiments rejected the suppression of the Jeju uprising and rebelled against the government.[42] In 1949, the Syngman Rhee government established the Bodo League in order to keep an eye on its political opponents. The majority of the Bodo League’s members were innocent farmers and civilians who were forced into membership.[43] The registered members or their families were executed at the beginning of the Korean War. On December 24, 1949, South Korean Army massacred Mungyeong citizens who were suspected communist sympathizers or their family and affixed blame to communists.[44]”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_of_Korea
The situation in Korea is by no means good. But it is not the “one way street” the US wants people to believe.
“DPRK is sort of a nice angry dog behind a fence – everybody knows it may bite and everybody in the area knows they need weapons to protect against it.”
Haha, isn’t it just wonderful how the Zionazis offer benign protection from On High? This appears, shall we say, somewhat counter-intuitive to the crass materialistic individualism and anti-collectivist orientation of Western popular culture. Out of sheer love and compassion, the Zionazis bless us from the evil intents of Pyongyang.
Repeat after me: My superiors speak truth to me.
“Tens of millions of people around the globe have been killed since the end of WWII directly by the US military, or NATO, or indirectly through proxies or mercenaries by the United States.” That implies at least 20 million. Is this true?
According to this:
https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-has-killed-more-than-20-million-people-in-37-victim-nations-since-world-war-ii/5492051
“That implies at least 20 million. Is this true?”
The West kills off more than three million children under five who die each year from environment-related causes and conditions. Add to this all victims over the age of five and murdered by wanton genocide by the West. Counting from 1945, this leaves a death toll running well in the hundreds of millions if not billions.
Enter the Western bourgeoisie’s horror stories about the USSR, Russia, China, and the DPRK.
Nobody really knows who started the Korean war, whether it was South or North. There were border skirmishes and raids before the war. MacArthur’s HQ initially thought the south had invaded the North.
Actually it was officially started by the North. Crossing the 38th parallel by regular communist forces is the event that started the war. Stalin knew of the North’s war plans as early as Jan. 1950. See http://m.koreatimes.co.kr/phone/news/view.jsp?req_newsidx=21607 as an example. There’s a lot more information on Korean war everywhere. This isn’t to whitewash or prettify any side in the war, mind it, as it was a catastrophe for both the South and the North. But history’s just that, in fact Russian archives have a lot more information on war preparations as North Korea was a USSR client state back then. Actually North Korea’s troubles post-USSR have a lot to do with lack of material support it used to rely on.
Please can you take your conversation to the MFC as its off-topic. Any further will go to trash. Mod
Yes, I have read similar things, though they have all mysteriously disappeared.
China sees DPRK as an important safety buffer against US influence — military influence, that is. Which is why it is not willing to let DPRK regime fail. A united Korea under US influence chock-full of USA military bases is one of Chinese generals’ nightmares. That is also why sanctions have been “enforced” by China in a very lax way. Economically DPRK isn’t too meaningful to China, but strategically it is. Things have also been moving towards liberalisation under Kim Jeng-yn, some say he’s moving towards replicating the Chinese economic model under NK economic and ideological conditions. That might be why Trump wasn’t too anti-DPRK on his Chinese visit. The other not-so-hidden reason is that the North Korean “big bad wolf” drives weapons sales in Asia for the USA. North Korea is actually worth more (in $$$ of revenue) as an “evil rogue state” to the US rather than a “democratic” puppet or (horror of horrors) an industrial powerhouse united Korea.
Peter,
Thank you for this insightful article.
Your assessment of Trump and his deception is 100% accurate.
He’s proving to be a real failure – I never expected anything else. But he is weak and dangerous.
Certainly it isn’t good. The only realistic solution though is removal of sanctions on the DPRK and subsequent economic development of the North to enable a peaceful reunion of both Koreas in the future. That won’t happen in our lifetime though as everybody’s interested in preserving the status quo for their own reasons, DPRK leadership included. China doesn’t want a united Korea for fear of US military bases on its borders, North Korean party leaders don’t want to lose their privileges and risk people’s wrath and getting overwhelmed by Southern business, South Koreans don’t want to pay economic tolls of reunion with the poor North, Japan does not want a competitor united Korea, USA doesn’t want to lose a weapons sale cash cow. So everything’s bound to stay more or less the same, unless someone does something daft like bombing a DPRK nuclear facility.
The only possible peaceful solution here is a steady development of NK economy until it matters enough to avoid trouble in a reunion. Kim Jen-yng has been relaxing the country’s ideological restrictions, allowing private business and larger private farmlands and so on. So he’s been moving things more in the direction of “popular capitalism” China-style, making the economy grow somewhat. And now he has nukes to guarantee nobody will meddle in the country’s development with bombs. Hopefully things will stay this way, as a bad peace is better than a good war.
LOL. All the drama and hot air to a run of mill conclusion, impressive…..You need to do it more often.
Donald Trump, David Cameron
Should Russia also be on the list being the second largest arms exporter including to Saudi
https://sputniknews.com/russia/201704251052993425-russia-arms-exporter/
“… ‘the best, the most accurate, the deadliest the world has ever produced. ”
Note, omitted from the list is “most expensive” (as if by design) — it’s called plunder and tribute, or avoiding a visit from the economic hit-man.
‘Vastly outnumbered’ US forces would struggle to win war with North Korea – former general
https://www.rt.com/usa/409557-us-struggle-war-north-korea/
“The 28,500 US Armed Forces personnel in South Korea are vastly outnumbered by North Korean forces,as well as ROK (South Korean) forces that will conduct the overwhelming majority of the fighting,” he wrote.
Jouas also stressed that unlike previous conflicts, the US would not be able build up its forces prior to engagement with the North Koreans, stating that it “will take days to months to arrive in theater [of war].”
The retired general, who was “deeply involved” with developing plans to counter any potential attacks on South Korea from the North, warned that despite the US’ clear technological advantage, the sheer number of North Korean troops, coupled with the country’s “artillery, rockets and missiles,” would result in an “enormous casualty and evacuee crisis.”
Furthermore, the North Korean submarine force, “although technically inferior,” is among the largest in the world and “capable of sinking allied vessels, sowing mines and inserting Special Forces units.” There’s also the small matter of the country deploying unknown quantities of nuclear weapons against its enemies.
“An attack by the US on North Korea’s strategic nuclear capabilities, which they deem essential to the regime’s survival, would most likely be viewed as an existential threat and generate a corresponding response,” he wrote.
The letter comes just days after thousands of South Koreans flocked to the streets of Seoul to demand peace with North Korea and protest the visit by US President Donald Trump, who previously promised to unleash “fire and fury” against the “rocket man,” Kim Jong-un.”
This article by Peter Koenig is not too informative. Yes, we all know that when Trump went on his Asia tour, that he took with him businessmen. And yes, we all knew he would sign trade agreements with his hosts, as he did. What I especially wanted to know was what was discussed in China, besides trade. What about Chinese attitudes towards North Korea ? What about the Chinese intention to introduce the petro-yuan ? What about Russian and Chinese intentions to introduce gold backed rubles and yuans ? Did Trump discuss this at all ? Or was he powerless to do so, bearing in mind that the dollar is printed backed by nothing while the petro-yuan is virtual reality ?
what if : 1) n.korea is viewed just as a bargaining tool in the hands of the deep state ?
a) trump has made his business as usual taking a lot of money out from the japanese, south-koreans and china.
b) trump knows that in that region, the power is china
c) trump knows that china is the only one who has the real capability of challenging usa on the economic front
d) trump (pushed by the deep state) is actually working to weaken china, using n.korea as a threat cause that county is not by far a bigger threat to usa (just in rhetoric) but the possibility of an open war near china is a bigger threat to china itself, mostly in economical terms which could have unprecedented, bad consequences for the region and for china in particular.
e) the deal between china and usa worth 250billions is viewed by trump (and deep state) as a sign of weakness (the first ? concession) as it was always viewed in such cases by the same deep state with many other clients.
f) this type of dealing will be repeated again and again in the same way : first, hard and threatening rhetoric, then a deal.
g) as long as the greed for money and fear to say NO is still there, nothing will stop the world from the bleak future.
as somebody, here on this blog said years ago : putin will find himself alone, facing the devil, and he will do what he didn’t wanted to do, let loose the fire upon all earth.
“…in fact, this industrial octopus with all its associated tentacles – finance, IT, research, sub-contracting, mercenary funding abroad and within the US, spying and surveillance the world over – amount to more than half of the US total economic output. ”
Hello, Peter Koenig: it would be good to have the components broken down, and numerical contribution to GDP, for all to see. Do you have a handy reference we could look at? A link? If we look at sectors of the US economy, we can’t necessarily tell what is going on either. (From the government, we get a different picture of the economy, naturally. Also, some of us know that GDP is not necessarily very useful.) Thank you, if have any references.