Anglo-American War Plan for North
Korea
By Finian Cunningham
October 12,
2017 "Information
Clearing House"
- The
United States and Britain – the two countries
responsible for so many recent wars and conflicts –
are at it again. This time, the diabolical
double-act has North Korea in its sights, despite
the risk that such an attack could ignite a global
nuclear war.
Over the past week, US President
Donald Trump has sharpened his bellicose rhetoric
towards North Korea, now declaring that
“only one thing works” in regard to the security
crisis over the Korean Peninsula. That “one thing”,
according to Trump, is evidently the “military
option”.
For the past several months, the
Trump administration has indeed repeatedly
threatened the North Korean state led by Kim Jong-un
with military force over the latter’s nuclear
weapons program. But the American threats have
always been conveyed in the context that other
options, including diplomacy, were also being
considered, or even preferred.
Now Trump is openly admitting that
the apparent option of diplomacy is no longer on the
table. It’s a belated admission by Trump that the
diplomatic option was only ever a cynical charade,
not under genuine consideration.
Washington is instead moving towards
war with North Korea.
Adding to the gravity of the moment
are reports in
the British media that Britain’s military chiefs
have drawn up plans for deploying forces along with
the US against North Korea.
British military chiefs are quoted as
saying that they are ready to dispatch a new
aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, as well as
several destroyers and frigates, to the Korean
Peninsula in support of its US ally.
Just last week Britain’s defense
secretary Michael Fallon also delivered a
belligerent speech to the Conservative Party
conference in which he declared readiness to order
“warships, aircraft and troops” in support of the US
and other allies.
Fallon repeated earlier warnings that
his government was fully prepared to order a
first-strike nuclear attack against North Korea or
any other “enemy state”.
The British minister accused North
Korea of threatening Britain’s national security,
saying that “Manchester and London are closer to
Pyongyang than Los Angeles”.
Fallon’s shrill rhetoric echoed the
scaremongering claims once made by former British
Prime Minister Tony Blair back in 2003 when he
justified the imminent Anglo-American war on Iraq
because then Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was
allegedly capable of mounting a missile attack on
Britain “within 45 minutes”. Blair’s war pretext
turned out to be a vile fraud.
Britain’s long-standing readiness to
join in American military operations around the
world is a convenient political-legal cover that
gives the impression of “an international coalition”
acting in supposed defense of “the international
community”.
But the historical record shows that
such Anglo-American militarism is nothing other than
illegal aggression carried out by Washington and
London, which has led to the ruination of whole
nations and the unleashing of sectarian conflicts
and terrorism. The British-aided American wars
against Afghanistan and Iraq in 2001 and 2003
continue to wreak havoc across the Middle East
today.
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Yet, in spite of these disasters, not
to say criminal wars, Britain’s defense secretary
“Sir” Michael Fallon arrogantly asserts that “we
should not be squeamish” about committing to further
military deployments elsewhere, and in particular
with regard to North Korea.
This coupling of American and British
military power focused on North Korea is an ominous
sign that the Anglo-American war machine is cranking
up again.
Earlier this month, President Trump issued an
extraordinary rebuke to his secretary of state Rex
Tillerson over the latter’s public comments about
pursuing diplomatic contacts with North Korea. Trump
rebuffed Tillerson for “wasting his time” in
negotiations with Pyongyang.
Since then Trump has gone on to
sharpen the rhetoric to the point now where he is
saying the US is considering “only one option” – a
military strike on North Korea.
Last week, while hosting US military
leaders and their spouses at a dinner in the White
House, Trump made the menacing remark that the
gathering was the “calm before the storm”. He
subsequently refused to clarify what he meant by
that cryptic remark.
A couple of days later on October 7,
Trump then declared through his usual Twitter feed
that diplomacy with North Korea was over. He said
the past 25 years of diplomacy under previous
administrations had failed, adding, “only one thing
will work!”
This is while the US is sending the
USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier and a full battle
group of warships towards the Korean Peninsula to
commence joint operations with allied South Korean
forces over the coming days.
It also follows this week
long-distance practice bombing raids by US strategic
B1-B Lancer warplanes over the Korean Peninsula. It
was reportedly the
first time that these US warplanes were accompanied
by both South Korean and Japanese fighter jets in
the same maneuver.
When Trump and his officials,
including defense secretary James Mattis, have
previously warned of using military force against
North Korea they have let it be known that the
action would be “overwhelming” and “catastrophic”.
This can be understood to mean the US using nuclear
weapons in any action against Pyongyang.
Trump is now positioning the US on an
all-out war footing against North Korea by
contriving a situation whereby diplomacy has been
forfeited.
This is a heinous travesty. American
diplomacy towards North Korea to settle the
decades-old conflict on the Peninsula has never been
genuinely pursued, not under Trump nor previous
administrations.
Trump is accelerating US war plans on
North Korea. US Pentagon chief James Mattis this
week warned American
forces to be ready for action and said military
plans were being furnished for Trump. Mattis’
willingness to defer to Trump shows that this is a
government policy, not merely the depraved
recklessness of a lunatic president.
The fact too that Britain, America’s
loyal war accomplice, is concurrently drawing up
military contingencies over North Korea is a
disturbing indicator of how far the Anglo-American
war machine is gearing up.
Both Russia and China have repeatedly
urged restraint by all parties. This week, Moscow
said the US naval build-up around the Korean
Peninsula was a dangerous escalation. Russia also
said that the newly deployed US anti-missile THAAD
system in South Korea was targeting its territory,
as well as that of North Korea and China.
If the US and Britain go ahead with
their war plans on North Korea, as seems likely,
they will ignite a war that threatens the whole
planet.
How quintessentially Anglo-American
is the arrogance and criminality.
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.
This
article was originally published by
Strategic
Culture Foundation
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