Only a Fool Would Trust Rogue State
USA
By Finian Cunningham
March 20, 2017 "Information
Clearing House"
- "Sputnik"
- The United States suffers from a
chronic trust deficit, to put it mildly.
Anything that its leaders say must be
weighed against years of deception and
relentless criminal conduct by US
governments.
US
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visited
Chinese President Xi Jinping at the
weekend,
vowing
greater cooperation to reduce tensions
boiling up on the Korean Peninsula. Only
a day before, however, Tillerson was
threatening
that the US would use pre-emptive
military strikes against China's ally
North Korea if "we believe" it presented
a threat "to us".
So
what's it to be then? Cooperation or
pre-emptive war?
At
the same time that Tillerson was
seemingly conveying a cordial tone
to Beijing, President Trump was mouthing
off at home that "North Korea was
behaving badly" and that China had not
done enough to contain it.
Trump's comments angered China, with the
latter responding it had in fact gone
to great lengths over recent years
to calm tensions on the Korean Peninsula
between North Korea and the American
ally in the South, by continually
calling for dialogue, which the US has
continually rebuffed, preferring to play
hardball instead.
The weekend exchange is but one brief
insight into why Washington cannot be
trusted. The president and his top
diplomat can't even articulate a
consistent policy for even a few hours.
How could one possibly take them
seriously?
But Trump and Tillerson's mixed signals
are a mere trifling matter. Why the US
cannot be trusted has got much more
to with decades of systematic
misbehavior by Washington. North Korea
"behaving badly," says Trump. Typical
American arrogance and ignorance do not
admit the reality of the US behaving
atrociously.
The whole specter of a nuclear war
on the Korean Peninsula was created
in the first place by the United States.
Its decision to drop atomic bombs
on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945
was motivated by the Soviet Union's
imminent entry into the Pacific War.
Washington did not want to see the
Soviet Union taking Japanese or Korean
territory.
Korean communist rebels were about to
over-run the peninsula in 1945 and
reclaim it from imperialist Japanese
control. By dropping the atomic bombs
on Japan, the Americans thwarted the
advance of communists in Asia-Pacific.
Korea was de facto divided between a
communist northern state and a
US-installed southern state, which also
saw the reinstatement of quislings who
had collaborated with Japanese fascism.
The
subsequent Korean War (1950-53) was a
US-led orchestration to defeat the
communist North. Over three million
Koreans were killed in a war which
brought the peninsula to the brink
of nuclear conflagration, if American
generals had their way at the time.
Still, more conventional bombs and
napalm were dropped on North Korea
by the US than on the whole of Japan
during the Pacific War,
according to
international war crimes lawyer
Christopher Black.
Pyongyang, the northern capital, was
obliterated by US carpet bombings.
American troops committed countless
massacres against civilians, such as in
Sinchon when hundreds of women and
children were incinerated in ditches and
air raid shelters.
Koreans were forced to live in caves
to escape the brutal American bombing
of their country. One special terror
technique was the flying
of nuclear-capable bombers over the
northern territory. The people below did
not know if a fate like that
of Hiroshima was about to descend
on them.
When the bombs stopped in 1953, the US
never declared a full armistice or
signed a non-aggression treaty, as is
normal following conflicts. From the
North Korean standpoint, the Americans
still retain the "right" to attack their
country.
When the US today conducts annual war
maneuvers with its South Korean ally, we
can perhaps understand why North Korea
is alarmed by what it sees as a
rehearsal for resumed hostilities.
Over the
weekend, US Secretary of State
Tillerson said
that his nation does not want conflict
with North Korea. But Washington ruled
out the reasonable proposal from China
for the US to cancel its war maneuvers
in exchange for North Korea curbing its
weapons program.
The US is
moving ahead with installation of the
Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)
system in South Korea. That move defies
warnings
from both China and Russia that it is
destabilizing the entire region and
provoking a new arms race.
Washington's words of "not wanting war"
are accompanied by the ultimatum that
North Korea unilaterally disarm its
nuclear weapons program and testing
of ballistic missiles.
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But history has shown that any country
which is not sufficiently defended is
liable to be destroyed by Washington. We
saw this with regard to former
Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya,
Syria and Somalia. Anywhere where the
Americans can make easy prey, they will
do so with the utmost barbarity, and
then add insult to injury by calling it
"nation building".
Despite Western media demonization
of North Korea as some kind of crazy
rogue state, the people there are not
fools. They know from family histories
the atrocious cost of American war. And
they know that any nation perceived
as weak by Washington will be bombed
back to the Stone Age.
Nevertheless, there is ample opportunity
for a positive way forward. The Korean
people, North and South, have always
been willing to engage in dialogue
for the peaceful reunification of their
country, which was only artificially
partitioned by American hegemonic
meddling.
This spirit of dialogue and cooperation
is also shared by the majority
of citizens in the wider region. Chinese
and Japanese people quite reasonably
want a general demilitarization of the
region. That primarily means Washington
removing up to 100,000 of its troops
from Japan and South Korea, along with
its bases and all the other trappings
of war.
The biggest hindrance to democratic,
peaceful self-determination in Korea and
the region is Washington's insistence
on remaining there to "protect" its
allies. Washington forced its way
into the region by using nuclear
terrorism, and it remains there
through the same ploy of nuclear
menace — under the guise of blaming
North Korea.
Ironically, the US State Department
described Tillerson's tour of the
Asia-Pacific this weekend as a
"listening tour".
Well if Tillerson and his government
were truly listening, they would hear
the following: stop destabilizing whole
countries and inciting wars; leave
ordinary citizens in neighboring nations
to get on with their lives and mutual
relations; and American militarism
should pack up and go home to redirect
its monstrous resources to improve the
lives of millions of impoverished
American families.
There is a direct analogy here with how
Washington and its NATO agenda
of hostility towards Russia are
destabilizing Europe against the wishes
and interests of most European citizens.
No
wonder so few trust American power. It
is the most destructive force in the
world since the Second World War.
American criminal wars and subterfuges
have destroyed dozens of countries.
So
when an American envoy talks
about wanting peace, while at the same
time threatening pre-emptive attacks and
demanding that others unilaterally
disarm — the only appropriate response
is contempt.
Only a fool would trust Washington
because it is the biggest warmongering
rogue state on Earth.
Finian Cunningham has written
extensively on international affairs,
with articles published in several
languages. He is a Master’s graduate in
Agricultural Chemistry and worked as a
scientific editor for the Royal Society
of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before
pursuing a career in newspaper
journalism. He is also a musician and
songwriter. For nearly 20 years, he
worked as an editor and writer in major
news media organisations, including The
Mirror, Irish Times and Independent.
