The subject is North
Korea. An interesting conversation at the John Batchelor Show: Gordon Chang, in
discussing a piece he wrote at the Daily Beast regarding North Korea and the
seeming inevitability of war; I paraphrase the concluding remarks:
Thaddaeus McCotter: let me be
sure I understand you: there are means at our disposal to pressure communist
China to stop their client state from developing nuclear weapons and generally
being a rogue state, but there seems to be a lack of political will [within the
US] to do that so instead they are willing to risk American soldiers’ lives to
stop him?
I will interject – the number
of “American soldiers’ lives” at risk will be a rounding error in this
one. More numerous will be the lives of millions, if not tens of
millions of Koreans, potentially Japanese, and depending on how far things go,
all of us.
Gordon Chang: that is 100%
accurate description of my feelings right now. The threshold for war
is lower than the threshold for taking effective non-kinetic actions in
stopping North Korea.
He speaks of taking on the Bank
of China, etc. But American business interests are not supportive of
such steps.
McCotter sums it up: from the
Leninist / communist China point of view, they believe that greedy capitalists
care more about money than the lives of their soldiers, and “God forbid we
prove them right!”
The last part, a direct quote,
with disdain in his voice.
But he is right. It has always
been true. Ask General Smedley Butler.
