Hi Miriam,
The US claims they are protecting South Korea in all of this mess. But if
South Korea wants to de-escalate things, then there is not even a hollow
justification for the US to continue its aggressive stance. I suppose there
is always the risk that North Korea will try to take over the South if we
change policies, but keeping the level of force we have in the region makes
very little sense to me unless we're doing it just to keep our defense
contractors happy.
Bob Hachey
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Miriam Vieni
Sent: Monday, March 12, 2018 3:53 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Why Won't the U.S. Give Peace a Chance?
Why Won't the U.S. Give Peace a Chance?
By Ted Rawles
In a February article in The Wall Street Journal, former U.N. Ambassador
John Bolton, above, wrote a legal case for a first strike against North
Korea. (Alonzo Adams / AP)
Give peace a chance, the song urges.
But the United States wont have it.
Olympic diplomacy seems to be working on the Korean peninsula. After a pair
of South Korean envoys visited Pyongyang, they issued a promising
communiqué. The North Korean side clearly stated its willingness to
denuclearize, the statement said. Considering that the Korean crisis and a
derpy emergency management official had Hawaiians jumping down manholes a
few months ago, this news comes as a relief.
Then comes the rub. The South Korean statement continued: [North Korea]
made it clear that it would have no reason to keep nuclear weapons if the
military threat to the North was eliminated and its security guaranteed [my
emphasis].
In other words, the DPRK is sayingreasonablywell get rid of our nukes but
only if you promise not to invade us. That guarantee would have to be issued
by two countries: South Korea and the United States.
This would directly contradict long-standing U.S. foreign policy, which
clearly and repeatedly states that the use of military force is always on
the table when we dont get our way in an international dispute.
Kim Jong-On has good reasons to be afraid of us. In a speech to the UN
President Trump threatened to totally destroy North Korea. President
George W. Bush declared them a member of the Axis of Evil; we invaded and
currently occupy Iraq, one of the two other supposed Evildoers. After
deposing and enabling the execution of Iraqs president. Last week Bushs UN
ambassador John Bolton published a legal argument for nuking North Korea
without provocation.
Believe it or not, this is the soft side of U.S. foreign policy.
For decades South Korea has tried to deescalate its relationship with the
North, not infrequently expressing its desire to end formal hostilities,
which legally never ended after the Korean War, and move toward the
long-term goal of a united Korea under a single government. And for decades
the United States has stood in the way, awkwardly trying to look reasonable
as it opposes peace. We do not seek to accelerate reunification, a State
Department spokesman said recently.
To say the least.
South-North talks are inextricably related to North Korea-United States
relations, South Korean President Kim Dae Jung said in 2001, after Bush
canceled dialogue with the North. The South, dependent on more than 20,000
U.S. troops stationed along its northern border, was forced to suspend
reunification talks too.