My biggest concern is not the
embarrassment of a U.S. public afraid of the tiny impoverished nation of North
Korea. If that embarrassed me, how would I survive what U.S. culture makes of
ISIS, or — for that matter — the election of Donald Trump? My biggest concern
is that U.S. war profiteers may end up using Korea to get us all killed.
The
United States bombed the living hell out of North Korea, and — in hopes that
nothing would survive — dropped diseased insects on the place, hoping to start
plagues. One bit of later collateral damage was the release of Lyme disease in
Lyme, but Hollywood came out of it with the concepts of brainwashing and
Manchurian candidates, so some might call it a fair trade.
The
United States has thus far refused to ever end the war, sign a peace, or allow
reconciliation. Southern and Northern efforts toward peace have been thwarted.
Northern proposals (echoed by China) to halt nuclear testing if the U.S. will
halt the “exercises” in which it practices for the nuclear bombing of the North
have been mocked and scorned. North Korea has committed to no first use, as has
China. The U.S. has proposed first use and made plans for it, while heavily
militarizing South Korea, building a new base on Jeju Island, sending armed
drones to the border, and installing THAAD.
Terminal
High Altitude Area Defense, formerly Theater High Altitude Area Defense
(THAAD), is part of what the United States calls “missile defense” and much of
the world thinks of as missile offense. The U.S. calls it a (highly profitable)
tool to protect South Korea from the attack that the North is not threatening.
China sees it as part of U.S. efforts to encircle China and to be prepared to
strike first and to minimize the Chinese response.
Giving
not a rat’s rear what China or North Korea or even South Korea has to say,
distracted by its efforts to stir up World War III with Russia, and obsessed
with prolonging its numerous wars in the Middle East and Africa, the United
States simply pushes ahead.
On
Wednesday, April 5, a group of South Koreans plans to demonstrate against the
current course in front of the White House in Washington, D.C. One of them,
Rea-kyung Lee, Chairman of the board of the Tomorrow Association, provided me with
a statement that I paraphrase thus:
“The
Korean people will be closely watching how U.S. President Trump and the Chinese
National Chairman Xi Jin Ping deal with the deployment of THAAD onto the Korean
Peninsula when they meet in the United States on April 6 and 7.
“The
United States is unilaterally imposing THAAD deployment without any normal and
proper agreement with South Korea. The former Korean president who initiated
the process has recently been impeached for corruption. A new election is
planned for early May. Meanwhile, China is imposing sanctions on South Korea in
retaliation.
“The
United States must halt THAAD deployment. China must end sanctions.
“The
democratic citizens of South Korea have ousted a corrupt president using
peaceful, non-violent candlelight demonstrations. The hurdles still faced are
long-standing. Following the period of Japanese imperialism, the Korean people
desired to establish an independent and unified nation but were frustrated by
the U.S.-Soviet military occupations of the peninsula, and the war between the
United States and China.
“The
residents of the Korean peninsula have been being forced to undergo the tragic
status of national division, while constantly experiencing daily life under the
threat of war for more than 70 years. The U.S. and China, in fighting for
supremacy over the Korean peninsula, should not repeat such historical crimes.”
