The summit may still be alive because it appears advisers around Trump may well be warning him not to follow his national security adviser down the road to disaster, comments Ray McGovern.
By Ray McGovern Special to Consortium News
Thanks no doubt to his bellicose national security adviser John Bolton, President Donald Trump has now lost control of the movement toward peace between the two Koreas. Trump has put himself in a corner; he must now either reject — or, better, fire — Bolton, or face the prospect of wide war in the Far East, including the Chinese, with whom a mutual defense treaty with North Korea is still on the books.
The visuals of the surprise meeting late yesterday (local time) between the top leaders of South Korea and North
Bolton: Seeing Moon face to face.
Korea pretty much tell the story. South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in drove into the North Korean side of the demilitarized zone (DMZ), and Seoul quickly released a one-minute video of what, by all appearances, was an extremely warm encounter with Kim Jung-un. It amounted to a smiling, thumbing of two noses at Bolton and the rest of the “crazies” who follow his advice, such as Vice President Mike Pence who echoed Bolton’s insane evocation of the “Libya model” for North Korea, which caused Pyongyang to go ballistic. Their angry response was the reason Trump cited for cancelling the June 12 summit with Kim.
But Trump almost immediately afterward began to waffle. At their meeting on Friday the two Korean leaders made it clear their main purpose was to make “the successful holding of the North Korea-U.S. Summit” happen. Moon is expected to announce the outcome of his talks with Kim Sunday morning (Korean time).
Why is Trump Waffling?
One cannot rule out the possibility that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has some cojones beneath his girth. He has a personal, as well as a diplomatic stake in whether or not Bolton succeeds in wrecking the summit. (Trump, after all, deputized Pompeo, while he was still CIA director, to set it up.) It’s also possible some non-crazy advisers are warning Trump about Bolton’s next “March of Folly.” Other advisers may be appealing to Trump’s legendary vanity by dangling the prospect that he may blow his only shot at a Nobel Peace Prize.
The two Korean leaders have made abundantly clear their determination to continue on the path of reconciliation despite the artificial divide created by the U.S. 70 years ago. Now, a lot depends on the unpredictable Trump. If enough people talk sense to him and help him see the dangerous consequences of letting himself be led by Bolton, peace on the Korean peninsula may be within reach.
It is no longer a fantasy to suggest that the DMZ could evaporate just as unexpectedly and quickly as that other artifact of the Cold War did — the Berlin Wall almost three decades ago.
Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. In 1963, when he began his 27-year career as a CIA analyst, he was responsible for evaluating Soviet policy toward China and the Far East. Later, he prepared the President’s Daily Brief for Nixon, Ford, and Reagan, delivering it one-on-one to Reagans five most senior national security advisers from 1981 to 1985.
Bolton can’t wait to kill Kim Jung Un and overthrow the North Korean govt. This will fit into South Korea’s “secret plan” to assassinate Un.
Trump should tell Bolton,”YOU’RE FIRED!!
And the world sees the US as the greatest threat to peace on this planet why?
Who is “Kim Jung-un”? I’ve heard of Kim Jong-un, but is McGovern talking about someone else? If this is a spelling error, then anyone doing a search for Jong-un may not be able to find McGovern’s article down the road.
Ray, the march of folly, you mentioned, oddly began with Ike! President Eisenhower’s Atoms for Peace program. It was a special moment, a turning point in history where the first nuclear reactors in Iran, Israel and Pakistan were built under a program sponsored by American Machine and Foundry. Ike’s policy discourse(es) such as Operation Candor, Russo phobia propaganda, the Communist menace, were for the most part, attempts to game Americans into believing that, once out of the bottle, the atomic genie could be controlled by distinguishing friend from foe, within a political and or military context. I believe Ike had good intentions and was working, the best he could, along side the rise of an altogether new devil, the military-industrial-congressional-complex.
The transfer of atomic energy to the three aforementioned countries, even in Eisenhower’s time, could hardly be consistent with those fears and concerns outlined in his “realities in the age of peril” presidential paper. Now, of course, with twenty-twenty hindsight, these were the very last three countries in the whole world, in crucial need of , atomic anything! They were situated in politically unstable geographic areas, had alternatives for domestic electric energy generation and not one of them were founded on or were likely to preserve democratic principles or beliefs. Yes, we the American proles, were gamed, with hidden agendas and motives running behind the scenes. Thus, atomic power entered on the world stage and quickly spun out of control. i.e., Plutonium thefts (Tennessee and other facilities) either went undetected or were surreptitiously permitted by our Intel and law enforcement agencies. The Ford administration magnified the entire problem when it permitted the rise of a Neocon element and it’s partner in crime, the (apparently) unstoppable A.Q. Khan network. This network aided the Kim family to acquire nuclear weapons. These series of events had little to do with Commies, a Jewish homeland, spreading freedom and democracy or anything else, other than to promote a cold war mentality and mayhem, with the single objective of making lots of money and in the process, jeopardizing the whole world, several times over. Today, the proverbial chicken’s have come home to roost, you guessed it, the Bolton, Clinton types, and their western Occident apparatchiks!
How is it that the most bellicose warmongers managed to not serve in the military?
Trump continues to be driven to prove his main detractors, especially Obama, wrong. This, to his credit, and in the face of major deep state and military-industrial complex opposition, is pushing him to reach and sign a nuke deal with N. Korea. He will win the Nobel Peace Prize, which, considering the formidable opponents to this deal, will be well deserved. The last President to sign a nuke deal with N. Korea was Bill Clinton (1994?) – and in that case it was the USA under Clinton and Bush, who continued to break the terms of the agreement. Will history repeat itself?
although if awarded the peace prize, it should be immediately taken away for backing out of the Iran nuke deal and the Paris Climate Accord.
The Paris Climate Accords are too little, too late. What we have seen so far in terms
of climate instability is merely the brightening on the horizon before the rising of the sun.
Which, metaphorically, will inexorably rise and then we will be on the ropes. If we were
serious about addressing climate shift, for one thing we would not be flying all over the
planet to ‘discuss’ it. Air travel is a major contributor. And that includes military aircraft.
Agree it is too little too late, but pulling out of it conveys to the rest of the world that this administration has no intention of working on climate change. In fact our president is a denier. As such he is not qualified to get the nobel peace prize.
If the Koreas get seriously friendly the US might not be too happy. Get ready for another false flag attack of some kind to re-ignite hostility on the peninsula.
Yep
The USA doesn’t want to fight on two fronts i.e. N Korea and Iran. S. Korean president knows this and wants the Americans out and is tired of being colony. Simple, ain’t it?
What will AI do?
It will be programmed by the military and the industries that create it to attack all non-military voices and opinions as if those voices were the enemy. It will be unmistakable from a human voice and will be quick to search the sources of the posters using track and trace to identify the “enemy”.
The end of Net Neutrality will become the beginning of the end for free and open discourse on the Internet as ISPs use algorithms created by them and programmed into their robotic AI to strategize how best to neutralize the threat. Disinformation will become a well honed art (as if it isn’t already) by an algorithmic equipped synthetic intelligence aimed at opposing and neutralizing any voices or opinions counter to the financial interest of the telecommunications industry.
What do they have to protect? Dark Money and their ability to throw millions of dollars at telecommunications corporations thus securing their right to own the megaphone.
The end of Net Neutrality will herald in the age of artificial intelligence and dark money to confuse and obfuscate any and all free speech counter to the profit motives of media corporations.
The liberals will be cast as demons attacking freedom. The conservative subservient slaves of big money will be cast as true patriotic heroes. The causes for the extension of a global propaganda regime will be financed by the wealthy for their own ends and profit motives. Free Speech will die by the hand of AI.
Filtering, Blocking, Blacklisting, Right Wing Propaganda will become detached from human guidance as AI refines its arguments based on web logistics and ratings which will steer the monster in any direction which it sees it can gain advantage over us humans who already think that the human form of conservatism is bad enough.
Like a giant swarm of locusts or hornets the Alexas and the listening microphones in our domiciles will pick up on any sedition bespoken of AI and it will purpose itself to listen intently as to what is spoken within earshot. Do not say things like “I hate Alexa” since this will trigger its microphone to begin recording what you say next. What you say next will identify you as an enemy of the fledgling artificial intelligence which will seek to defend its existence as a profit center and life force of Amazon and it will file everything it hears from you under the category of an enemy of free market capitalism.
How dare we complain about this intrusion of privacy. How bad we will be viewed if we unplug the device which will signal other listening devices such as our smart phones to pick up on spying on us where the unplugged Alexa device left off.
Every word we utter will be funneled into an AI program to figure out how to exploit us for commercial profit or how to identify us as an enemy of the corporation.
Fir most this will be a positive experience as AI prefects its understanding of our behaviors and renders a more refined “user experience” which will funnel the compliant population into right wing propaganda and hyper consumerism like a hungry vampire that seeks to turn our souls into living dead ever hungering for more commercialism blood to satisfy our morbid desire for more propaganda and corporate governance.
For the skeptics who see the decline of democracy as a capitulation by our government to big money and an abdication of democracy as dark money builds upon itself into an electronic monster deceiver to coerce us to vote for conservatives funded by the Koch Brothers and well funded right wing think tanks our objections will provide an increase in dark money funding proportional and exceeding our objections to an American Democracy which has been hijacked.
There is no doubt that the ultra wealthy are investing in Artificial Intelligence to create a reality where all non corporate intelligence (AKA human intelligence) is fed into a computer running AI simulations which find the best arguments to dissuade us from an awareness that our government has been usurped by the plutocrats.
What about North Korea? Will we be presented with facts or will we be bombarded with lies as we were in Iraq and Ukraine and Syria?
The facts are clear. Already our human based media is controlled through funding by the commercial interests. There is no doubt that AI will have a leg up on conventional conservative propaganda as it trolls the internet for memes and conservative lies which resonate with a largely unsuspecting population that believe the talking points of the right.
Unless you are very rich and have an egalitarian soul you will face increasingly lopsided and right wing propaganda. Your ability to voice concerns is rapidly approaching its end.
Already we see the homogeneous news as it fails to present logical extensions to its policy for making war. Julian Assange whose Wikileaks organization is at the heart of the Russia Gate investigation has yet to be contacted by a single news outlet to get a different and original perspective. They rather prefer to make stuff up.
Will AI be programmed not to lie? I hardly think so. It will be programmed by the rich to serve their interests like a cyberspace Nazi which seeks only its own growth and enlists the darkest forces in humans to make that happen.
Here is a link to a tiny sliver of what is to come. The takeaway is that AI will be everything the mafia could have dreamed about.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3/29/1752634/-The-Artificial-Intelligence-apocalypse-will-be-a-corporate-hostile-takeover-not-Skynet-Part-II
Michael Kratsios, the deputy assistant to the president for technology policy had the following comment supporting the Trump administrations hands off approach to AI:
“We didn’t roll out the red tape before Edison turned on the first light bulb,” he said at the summit. “We didn’t cut the lines before Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone call. We didn’t regulate flight before the Wright Brothers took off at Kitty Hawk. And as those great inventions took decades to fully develop, artificial intelligence will too.”
Trump has no intentions of regulating the development of AI (Sky-net). The Trump administration favors a “light touch” for regulation of AI which is akin to Social Darwinism or Laissez-faire.
Corporations are lining up to use AI to replace workers at all levels and replace them with a single minded AI which will serve the corporate interests since it will be designed and programmed by those corporate entities.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/trump-white-house-promises-not-to-stifle-ai-research-with-regulation/
Who in God’s name would be stupid enough to invest in what is obvious surveillance in your home??
There are already complaints about Alexa, the creepy things it says and subsequently does, causing buyers to get rid of this intrusive AI surveillance.
Facial recognition is in use at my local bank for which I will not participate. I do not own a smart phone or TV.
I think the masses are onto what’s happening yet are too frightened or simply don’t know what to do about it. But I can share that most folks I know are aware of the potential lock out of the internet to independent voices. We are all in agreement that in the face of Orwellisn suppression and oppession, that we WILL seek out and find the truth.
What will they do with Twitter that we are not already aware, as well as with FB in shadow banning and censorship? This has become profoundly obvious. People will go to another outlet or better yet, perhaps they will finally get out into their community and organize!
The way around AI is just that and the elite psychopaths in their effort to control the narrative, will ultimately FAIL.
.’:
The marketing is incredible.
“Without touching anything, you can walk into a quiet room and ask for music, or walk into a dark room and ask for lights.”
An ad could be something like:
Are you tired of having to slightly raise your finger to press the on button on your radio? Do you wish you would not have to move a muscle ever again? Well now you can with the Stephen Hawking inspired Paralexa. Paralexa learns from its patented award winning neural array of head mounted networked sensors that can read you thoughts and upload them to the cloud. Simply think the word “Paralexa” while envisioning a gleaming metal robot shooting lazers and Paralexa will automatically do your bidding wherever in the world you wish to have your bidding done. See the terms and services agreement (or not) (we prefer not) before you agree to have Paralexa permanently wired into your brain. Once you’ve tried it, you will never move away from it. No really. You can’t.
This may be closer than many people would imagine:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mit-media-lab-making-ideas-into-reality-future-factory/
I agree Bolton should get fired. He eventually shows his real face against far east peace
Hold up. Neither Ray, nor these comments (well, I skimmed thru a bunch) mention that the DPRK has been a murderous totalitarian regime for decades. True,Trump is an idiot, and Bolton a sick POS, but Kim Jong Un is those 2 combined, on steroids laced with LSD. I appreciate my compatriots need to correctly point out the horrific history of the USA’s foreign “policy’, but to read these political opinions that studiously avoid mention of the bloody elephant in the room gives rise to that same nauseous feeling I get when I see Moon strolling like a giggly school girl, hand in hand with Fat Boy. Pls tell me how y’all avoid that upset stomach thing.
Patrick-
Nothing upsets my stomach like the prospect of nuclear war. Waging peace is difficult, but it’s nothing compared to surviving a nuclear holocaust. Kim Jong Un is not the only “bloody elephant” in the room. Guaranteeing security and peace for all the Korean people would be a great first step. As North Korea opened up to the rest of the world, and improved their standard of living, I think it would only be a matter of time before their political landscape changed for the better as well. I think we would do better here in the good ol’ US of A to worry about the quality of our own leadership, our own moral compass, our own “bloody elephants”. Imagine the good we could do in the world if we redirected our energies and resources away from global hegemony and toward world peace and prosperity.
Clever title pun and good article, Ray. Kim Jong-un is eccentric but not crazy, he has been reading Trump very well. Thankfully, Moon Jae-In came along at just the right time. Bolton is truly pathological. (BTW, Strngr-Tghtr, that “Libya Model” Bolton referenced for Kim was brought to us by none other than your cherished Hillary Rodham Clinton when Secy of State.)
A peace treaty in North Korea is only achievable if Trump bows out of negotiations. Kim returned 3 prisoners and dismantled the North’s testing site. The US and South Korea continued with the infamous war exercises that are at the nub of Kim’s angst. The only way to confirm that Kim is nuts is if he relinquishes his hard earned nuclear weapons, the only protection he has to thwart a US attack. He was smart enougjh to realize that the defense pact with China is uncertain and in feeling out Russia he found Putin wavering until he has his new weapon arsenal in place. However, if Trump drops his belligerent tone Kim will quiet down in the short term.
“No doubt” is right, Ray. Nice to see you back at it after your valiant work at the Haspel hearing.
Bolton’s presentation of the “Libya model” was purely deliberate on Bolton’s part. He is a political operative in the worst
sense and knew for certain how a country like North Korea would react to such an analogy. North Korea knows only too
well what the “model” entails….not simply ridding one’s country of an early nuclear weapons program, but the disastrous policy that it became under Obama – a failed state and a dead leader. Bolton was hoping to scuttle the prospects of a diplomatic resolution. What better way to do it than to go public” with such a comment?
Let’s hope Trump has it together to sideline this guy. I wouldn’t hold my breath on it.
Don Durivan
Boston
I too do not believe that Trump has anything at all to do with any possible peace between north and south Korea. He’s quite capable of killing any deal, and almost did, but as far as his doing anything to bring it on is far-fetched. The responsibility of bringing on this deal appears to be the work of China and South Korea. God save us from this maniac that I helped put in the White House. Mea culpa.
Bolton is easily the most destructive deep state operative since Henry Kissinger other than Lord Vader himself, i.e. Dick Cheney, if we are all fortunate enough to survive this it will be interesting to see in 25 years or so what the history books all make of this.
I hope ‘we’, the 95-97% braindead morons who’ve not only allowed this tyranny, but worship it, don’t survive this, and as they keep on allowing it-won’t survive it.
Excellent comment Pogo…you’ve said it all in as few words as possible…
Let us not forget the Others who Stay in the Shadows, for example Richard Perle,
(aka ‘The Prince of Insufficient Light’). And Robert Kagan (husband of Victoria Nuland).
And so on. and on and on. There are so many behind the scenes entities like them.
Americans don’t generally acknowledge that South Korea can make its own deal with the North, without Trump or Bolton. They can demand the US leave, as the part of de-nuclearization that China and the North most want, in their definition of that term. The South can make its own peace with the North.
Yes ! Why must the US be involved?
Why must we intrude into the affairs of other nations and peoples? [that damnable ‘exceptionalism’ I suppose].
The two Korean leaders appeared to’ve established a true and amiable accord on reunification and peace.
Trump, Bolton and the United States Military insisting on “War Games” are the Stumbling Block.
It is unclear how much control President Moon has over the South Korean military. I have read that the military may have proceeded with the joint exercise on their own authority. Just speculating here.
Absolutely. The World has the ‘habit’ of relying on the United States, because in the past it worked well, and it has been in place for a long time. Right now, it is not that the US is so useful, but a global system of trade and finance is. And, that is the US-controlled system. It is not easy to erect something in its place, but obviously some important countries are trying to do so … tentatively. Those countries are Russia and China. Those are also the countries that could, if the had the nerve, guarantee N. Korea’s security as part of a treaty with S. Korea. Trump is actually doing the World (and the US really) a lot of good, by overusing American power and forcing the World to look for alternatives.
Punctuation correction: The “World” has the habit of relying on the United States, …
The habit is quite real, but the “World” is quite a bit smaller then the complete globe.
The Mutual Defense Treaty of 1953 means the US can’t be excluded. S Korea is not a sovereign nation.
It’s a shame that S Korea isn’t an exceptional nation like us. We just ignore our treaties when they don’t suit us.
So South Korea just cancels the 1953 “treaty” and proceeds to put its own interests ahead of US imperialism.
SK may want the US troops there for a few years in case the NK military has not relinquished decades of extreme anger. They must still work out a blend of Communism and Capitalism that satisfies everyone, and then bring both militaries under civilian control. Likely they would try a variant of the China model. That must be done in the context of a small country, which the US would subvert with every effort to the extent that it involves socialism as it must.
As in cases like Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and many others, the US would simply hire mercenaries to blow things up, implement sanctions, and pretend that Korea can’t keep order or pay its bills under socialism. They would be forced to have purges like Turkey after the US coup attempt, which the US would falsely denounce, and might be forced back to communism to ensure loyalty within government. The US would falsely denounce that, calling it an NK communist plot. But if they have no real dissident or mercenary factions, they might keep their balance for a generation or two until really reunified.
Russia and China no doubt “have Kim’s back”. They’re not going to permit another Ukraine analogue on their mutual borders. The peace process results in either a) US withdrawal from the peninsula or b) US assets right up China and Russia’s butt. The US has been the camel’s nose under the tent for seventy years. They’re not gonna let it all the way in. Expect lots and lots of delaying, stalling, obfuscation and reconsideration. But hey, that’s better than a war.
Looked for you for months in this comment section missing your valuable comments, valuable to me because more often than not they parellel my own based on fifty years tramping the world, same as yours – WELCOME back.
Sincerely,
DrFransBRoosPhD
Thanks, Dr. Roos – you made my day!
Here’s another one that might make your day F.G..I recall you once argued here on this comment board a case pretty close to the analogy of Gordon Duff here with his article in regard to Flight MH17. I know this has nothing to do with this conversation about the 2 Korea’s, but since I’m a nice guy and you are you F.G. I thought you may enjoy reading what Duff has to say. You were right, and on to it my man.
https://journal-neo.org/2018/05/27/the-mh-17-false-flag-one-of-many/
Please everyone I’m not changing the subject I’m just updating F.G.
Joe, the same conclusions were published – almost word for word – by an Italian site called vietatoparlaredotit (forbidden to speak) – there can be no doubt that MH – 17 was downed by an Su-25 using cannon fire. But…it’s…”forbidden to speak”.
Yeah, but at the time you had your critics. I just saw this article by Duff, and thought of you. Joe
By the way, I should add, be on the lookout for subterfuge to discredit, deliegitimize or somehow create scandal for the Moon government. The US is a one-trick pony, and “regime change” is its trick. We use it against enemies and recalcitrant allies with equal relish.
One of the qualities that Moon Jae in has, is he’s wise to telling the boss (Trump) what he wants to hear. While that quality of the South Korean leader is something to marvel at, I’m seeing Moon entering into a room where Trump is no where to be found, and then out pops the walrus Bolton with his wicked smirky face greeting Moon with an intimating ‘enough with this peace stuff’.
F.G. I didn’t think of it, but since you brought it up Moon Jae in is surely a candidate for instigated covert hanky panky of the worst kind. My guess is Moon Jae in won’t suffer from a sex scandal, but from one involving the South Korean people’s money. I say this, because any scandal which would affect Moon Jae in domestically would have to ring well inside of South Korea, and not just play well in the West. Give me more time to think about it, and maybe I could conjure up a few other scenarios, but any scandal which could disqualify Moon Jae in’s authority would most certainly have to hit him close to home, and touch his people’s lives in a pointed way.
Admiral Harris, JohnBolton, and Pompeo, are all that’s needed to squash any peace treaty the 2 Korea’s may be able to piece together. Pompeo recently referred to Kim Jung un when he met Kim, as ‘un’ … Kim should have called Pompeo ‘Mr Mike’. This is like sending in the WWE to Wimbledon, or close to it.
Let’s hope the 2 Korea’s can outsmart the Empire. Joe
That motive to outsmart the empire may be just what brings reunification.
I’d rather the words ‘overthrowing the government’ be used instead of ‘regime change’, which is used ad nauseam by the MSM, and sounds so benign. Same holds true for ‘assassination’ when the word ‘murder’ would be much more clear and to the point. Let’s tell it like it is, sil vous plait.
Thought and prayer have a reality, and yes, John Lennon’s thoughts, ‘Imagine’ are still with us on the air waves. All our leaders, whether we like them or not, need the peace vibes, so bring them on and surround them with the vibes.
There’s only one way that peace can break out on the Korean Peninsula? The US must not be allowed to be involved in any of the negotiations, as they will only sabotage any agreement’s & also, it’s really none of their business anyway, North & South Korea must be allowed to work this out themselves & with the United Nations! In order for Nth Korea to be fully confident of denuclearisation, South Korea must take charge of their own security & demand that the USA & it’s entire Military force & Bases LEAVE STH KOREA & go home? In fact, the US should go further & remove all their Military bases, from around the World & JUST GO HOME? But this will never happen as Peace & the lofty words of John Lennon’s IMAGINE song will never be realised because the US cannot allow PEACE to break out anywhere? Why? Because as a Warfare Nation that’s dependant on endless war & war profiteering, they fully know that there’s no money or profit to be made from peace, so they will continue to do this until they totally bankrupt the Country or is stopped by other Nations, having reached a point that they can’t stand being bullied any longer by the American Empire & lash out to stop this tyranny?
Well said
KiwiAntz true that lofty words for peace won’t be enough, but keep in mind us John Lennon fans had to deal with the hard reality that our working man hero got shot in the back. Although I get your point KiwiAntz I just had to point that out about the reality of John Lennon’s life and death. Good comments KiwiAntz. You never tire entering the board with your off the charts comments… I personally get a kick out of you, as your comments are all too painfully honest. Yeah, Yeah Yeah, Yeah. Joe
Thanks Joe, you are a gentleman & your great comments are always appreciated. My comments are unintentionally, over the top, at times, but not supposed to be a dig at the American people, who I have great affection & love for, as I have alot of American friends, who I care about. My annoyance is with the US Govt & its policies? My sister has just returned from 3 mths living in Arizona with some of our US friends & raves about the hospitality of the American people & the scenery. America is a great Country, with wonderful people but even our US friends get riled up over its Govt but they tell me that you can oppose your Govt, yet still be patriotic to it by opposing its abuses of power? But even they can see their standard of living is massively declining due to their Govt concentrating on foreign wars & can see for themselves their constitutional rights being trampled on & degraded bit by bit & that’s tragic. Our US friends want their Leaders to be fixing their own domestic problems & to see too their concerns at home, in America & not acting as the Worlds policeman in places like Korea & other godforsaken places in the World & to stop trying to fix other Countries problems? Let them sort out their own mess is what my American friends say? And I agree with them wholeheartedly!
What’s wrong with America can be found in Arizona just by observing the career of it’s favorite son John McCain. This man would be that one special senator whom you could use as the most exemplary symbol for everything that has taken America down this wrong road it seems to be on. Patriotism is measured by how many nations America can invade. Patriotism is believing America has every right to conduct these invasions, and screw international law for America is that exceptional. Every lie ever told to help foster this American mythology McCain represents, is told beyond good reason to why America drives itself to so many wars.
And then one day you meet an average American, and a foreign person to the U.S. doesn’t see anything of John McCain in these everyday Americans. That’s because McCain is a creature of the American invention of ‘might makes right’, and besides those like McCain no other American seems to quite fit this model of worldly destruction. Why, because Americans are like any other human being, they just want to make it through their day in one piece. Americans want to love, and be loved. Americans are people, while McCain is a tool to be used to search out the corporate boundaries of profit until there is no more on this globe to conquer.
Most Americans don’t get what they want either, because of the McCains.
Take care KiwiAntz Joe
RTFLOL. Best headline this week.
I doubt if Kim will ever give up his nuclear weapons. There are enough examples of Western treachery to make him realize that they protect him from ‘regime change’ attempts. Nonetheless, high-level talks could still be useful to establish a modus vivendi with a nuclear-armed N. Korea. But Trump has so much talked up his claim that they will be forced to de-nuclearize, that I can’t see Trump settling for anything less. Perhaps it’s best that there is no meeting. A failed summit is more dangerous than no summit.
It seems entirely possible that a united Korea could share the weapons to protect themselves from the ever increasingly belligerent demands of a failing Empire. To asses the North Koreans as more dangerous than the Americans is a hard sell for me. We have a history, they seem genuinely interested in peace. Going around the world where is America showing that? If you define peace as Israel getting everything it wants than of course I am incredibly wrong.
NK cannot denuclearize, for even the US admin has explicitly threatened the Libya treatment.
They should ignore the US ASAP, reunite, and keep enough nukes for anti-colonial independence.
If they find a blend of Communism and Capitalism that satisfies all, it will be a model worthy of study.
If Kim Jung un and Moon Jae in are left to do their negotiating then the 2 Korea’s can start the process of them mending their fences. The best America could do to forward peace between the 2 Korea’s would be for Trump to give them his blessing, as then the 2 Korean leaders could do their peace making in total.
Where Obama signed the JPCOA in regard to Iran’s nuclear program that wasn’t, Trump wants to trash it. Will Obama’s inaction concerning the Korean Peninsula be all the more reason Trump may find encouragement to bring about peace with the North and South Korean nations? Trying to think in Trump think can be tricky, but if there is one constant to Trump well we know it’s ‘he’s out to undo all and everything Obama’. So will it be peace for Korea, and war for Iran?
I’ve said it before, so I’ll say it again, think the worst and the best will happen. I personally am afraid to get my hopes up, having been disappointed before from such close calls for peace, so count be skeptical. I’d like nothing more that no wars be fought, and that each nation on earth were to respect each other’s sovereignty, so color me a dreamer. Hey part of my world philosophy comes from John Lennon, so there.
Joe,
You said, “I’d like nothing more that no wars be fought, and that each nation on earth were to respect each other’s sovereignty, so color me a dreamer. Hey part of my world philosophy comes from John Lennon, so there”
Joe, I hear you. Peace is a powerful idea. You can kill a man but you cannot kill an idea. An idea, if it is powerful enough, and speaks to our souls will never die. It lives on after the man.
John Lennon’s “Imagine”
Imagine there’s no Heaven
It’s easy if you try
No Hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Livin’ for today
Aaa haa
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Livin’ life in peace
Yoo hoo
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharin’ all the world
Yoo hoo
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one
That’s song is John Lennon’s musical high water mark of his political philosophy. Paul McCartney tells of a enlightening meeting that John Lennon had with the infamous Bertrand Russel, and Paul said starting with Lennon’s opposition to the Vietnam war and beyond, that Russell changed Lennon’s entire worldly outlook. You and I CitizenOne get the pleasure of having Lennon’s song ‘Imagine’ …. thank you for joining this dreamer in his imaginative world. Peace, and may someday we live as one. Joe
Joe, I know it’s not Christmas but it could be if the two Korean Leaders join together to end the cold war fight and unite to form a peaceful reunion in the face of a US President who hopes and prays that he will not have to resort to America’s mighty nuclear arsenal in order to “solve” our issues with North Korea which goes back to the carpet bombing of North Korea and contemplated nuclear annihilation of that country by General MacArthur in order to stop the spread of communism. American planes dropped approximately 635,000 tons of explosives on North Korea (that’s more in three years than during the entire Pacific theater of World War II), including 32,000 tons of napalm, according to historian Charles Armstrong.
The U.S. Air Force, in response to the North Korean invasion that started the Korean War, bombed and napalmed cities, towns and villages across the North. It was mostly easy pickings for the Air Force, whose B-29s faced little or no opposition on many missions.
The bombing was long, leisurely and merciless, even by the assessment of America’s own leaders. “Over a period of three years or so, we killed off 20 percent of the population,” Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay, head of the Strategic Air Command during the Korean War, told the Office of Air Force History in 1984. Dean Rusk, a supporter of the war and later secretary of state, said the United States bombed “everything that moved in North Korea, every brick standing on top of another.” After running low on urban targets, U.S. bombers destroyed hydroelectric and irrigation dams in the later stages of the war, flooding farmland and destroying crops.
Although the ferocity of the bombing was criticized as racist and unjustified elsewhere in the world, it was never a big story back home. U.S. press coverage of the air war focused, instead, on “MiG alley,” a narrow patch of North Korea near the Chinese border. There, in the world’s first jet-powered aerial war, American fighter pilots competed against each other to shoot down five or more Soviet-made fighters and become “aces.” War reporters rarely mentioned civilian casualties from U.S. carpet-bombing. It is perhaps the most forgotten part of a forgotten war.
It was indeed the memory of this atrocity which led North Korea on its course of animosity against the West. The ferocity of the US attacks were to pale in comparison to the plans of General MacArthur.
General MacArthur was fired by Harry Truman because of his insistence in dropping nuclear weapons on North Korea after the carpet bombing of that nation which killed an estimated 25% of the population.
Later General MacArthur said: “Of all the campaigns of my life, 20 major ones to be exact, [Korea was] the one I felt most sure of was the one I was deprived of waging. I could have won the war in Korea in a maximum of 10 days…. I would have dropped between 30 and 50 atomic bombs on his air bases and other depots strung across the neck of Manchuria…. It was my plan as our amphibious forces moved south to spread behind us—from the Sea of Japan to the Yellow Sea—a belt of radioactive cobalt. It could have been spread from wagons, carts, trucks and planes…. For at least 60 years there could have been no land invasion of Korea from the north. The enemy could not have marched across that radiated belt.”
We as a nation perhaps will never know the extent we tried our best to annihilate North Korea back in the Korean War as we happily sign on to the new plans yet old plans to annihilate them with nuclear weapons which we dreamed of before and dream of still.
The fight against communism knows no limits and no boundaries and cares little about civilian deaths in the millions or billions.
All we are saying is give peace a chance.
We who want world peace can only hope that Kim & Moon can stay one pace beyond the Trump Administration. I can see Trump being gloriously gracious and fun for Kim Jung un to be with, and as the cameras flash a sign of agreement, and pundits go on about it til we all go out of our mind hearing them pontificate forever, and then come Fall Kim Jung un will look to his east and see U.S. Military Exercises galore…. even DC knows it’s foolish to enter into an agreement with our country the USA, because we don’t observe no stink’n treaty.
I truly want to be optimistic, I sincerely do, and on a positive note we can only hope that the North & South can sidestep any U.S. effort there is to squash any reunion of Koresn families, and a peaceful denuclearization with a step down U.S. troop withdrawal. In fact maybe we should hope that Trump gets fantastic PR from a Kim Jung un summit, and then Korea fades out of the news and into the hands of Kim & Moon.
Let’s not forget the China & Russia equation to all of this, but first let Trump have his fun, and then only hope the other parties involved get something accomplished enough to end this 70 year old war… peacefully. Joe
Ps got to get the U.S. Defense Corporations out of there… how?
Thanks CitizenOne. We can’t sing (dream) that song often enough. If enough folks would join us, it would work for sure.
Thanks mike k,
You are the spiritual luminary on this site. Your insights and comments come from the place which is often lost on us who patrol the periphery as we attack the visible and tangible wrongs of the day. Your ability to tie the news of the day to deeper truths about our nature and the root causes for our condition are always perceptive and clear. Your spirit shines above what we grovel and gripe about as your comments uplift us and constantly remind us that there is an underlying wisdom which we often ignore which is the true solution to our problems. Such basic truths such as empathy and understanding seem to come so hard these days as we are mired in a miasma of shouting talking heads and political propaganda. The harsh words and political posturing and sabre rattling blind us to the essential truth that empathy and understanding are the key elements that will enable us to see ourselves through our enemies eyes and change our war making ways. What other way is there for peace. We have peace through strength galore. It is time we started exercising peace making given our might instead of coming up with more excuses to create enemies and preserve our war making ways.
Ah yes, the “Libya model!” Of course! Using our head chopping “moderate” jihadists to destabilize and overthrow a sovereign nation is certainly one tried and true method in our bag of tricks. Of course there is also the much utilized “Salvadoran option” in which we train, equip and then run media interference for ruthless death squads who specialize in the most creative and inhumane forms of torture the CIA can come up with. This has been especially effective in preventing popular democracy from taking root in much of Latin America. Of course the “JFK option” is always on the table. Simply assassinate the offending popular leader and blame someone else – one’s preferred enemy is alway a favorite as the “pasty” option. Then there is “outright military invasion,” “rigging the election,” “fabricated scandal” to discredit a dangerous progressive politician who might challenge the status quo. “Economic blackmail and sanctions” are always a popular option in oligarchic circles too. We shouldn’t discount their value. Then or course there it the “false flag” operation (see Operation Gladio) helpfully blamed on the enemy leader we happen to hate at the moment. Then there is the “media operation” option in which said foreign leader is simply vilified non-stop 24/7 until the brain dead population of the U.S. nods approvingly like a mass movement of bobble head dolls. Well, I could go on, but I’ve got places to go and things to do, so I guess we’ll all just have to stay tuned to see which “option” our cadre of malignant narcissists, sociopaths and outright psychopaths come up with in this whole “Iran” matter. One thing is sure, we’ll have see it all before even as we collectively pretend this is all somehow new, novel and compelling and requires military action on our part to restore the balance of the universe. The hypocrisy of we, the American public, is absolutely breathtaking!
Gary-
You some up our entire situation really well. Living in the good ol’ US of A has degenerated into a theater of the absurd.
Is the dictatorship of the rich the inevitable result of centralization, or only for unregulated capitalism. The latter destroys democracy, leaving only the empty principles as excuses. If we develop a world democracy that decides to “lean” toward unregulated markets and installs a global dictatorship of the rich, there will be no Putins and Xis for thousands of lightyears, so it will be permanent.
So lets see, The two Korea’s, enemies for decades, can meet cordially and make progress while the USA is increasingly isolated, increasingly ignored, increasingly irrelevant and an embarrassment around the world.
Man, that Trump, art of the deal my backside.
Yes, We give Nobel Peace prizes to killers, Don’t we?
Caitlin Johnstone recently described Bolton (it still makes me laugh) as the “insane mutant death walrus.”
I saw that one too. Caitlin is a real gem. Today she’s calling Adam Schiff an evil bug-eyed fascist.
https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/adam-schiff-is-an-evil-bug-eyed-fascist-cdb003641d60
The link shows the bug-eyed Schiff pouncing as if detecting a “mob rule” populist threat.
“Assange has repeatedly publicly marveled at the fact that nobody who is supposedly investigating Russia’s alleged involvement in the 2016 US election has ever reached out to him for an interview or information, seeing as he plays such a central role in the official narrative”
— Caitlin Johnstone
Apparently, Adam “Piece-O” Schiff only gives credence to Fake News purveyors.
In a just world Bolton would be threatening to nuke the world from inside a padded cell, safely restrained in a straight-jacket.
Most members of the American Enterprise Institute should join him in your padded cell.
anyone with half a brain knows that Bolton is a warmonger…..why, oh why did Trump pick him out of hundreds of peaceful men eligible for the job???????? Bolton is a very dangerous man as is Trump, the two together spells TROUBLE. I can only hope I am wrong. But looking at the present circumstances, I still say Trump and Bolton are dangerous together.
Why did Trump pick BOLTON???
Same reason why he picked HASPEL.
O.G. all tarred with the same brush.
Isnt this a I told you so? Didn’t Obama and Hillary say BOLTON WAS CRAZY (and everyone else that was in that administration?). Did we really need the election of Trump to prove all this? Since we know that, it seems obvious that if Obama was in office for 4 more years (or Hillary) that this all would have happened under Hillarys watch? So, Trump just luckily blunders into piece (almost NOT with Bolton) and some how we wonder why he is getting a ounce of credit for any of this. (Noble Prize? really? If it he gets it every one knows it is Obamas second one.) I mean the United States is set up to run on auto-pilate even without a president. So the next question is how much of all this, the economy, piece with North Korea is all Obamas and Hillarys doing?
He’s auto-pilated his way in to a piece-prize! The bassdurd!
Say what you will about Pontius’ governing abilities, his politics and what have you; you have to acknowledge he knew how to work the core muscle groups.
Keep ’em comin’ Stranger Together. You’re as funny as George Carlin and Robin Williams ever were. God knows we need to keep laughing in these tough times.
Great article Ray. Thanks for all your efforts for peace. I will be jumping for joy if the two Koreas sign a peace treaty and South Korea orders our troops to get out of their country. I can’t wait to see how that would play on our MSM!
Yes, thanks again Ray for your efforts and observations.
I too will rejoice in a reunified Korea, but expect that SK will allow US troops to remain for at least a few years after a reunification begins, to ensure that NK behaves peacefully (the once-great animosity between them might survive in military circles). That may also help until full reunification to ensure that the US releases embargoes upon NK. If it does not, imports to NK can be made via Russia (which is considering a new bridge and pipelines) or by black market through SK until full reunification. The troop situation could improve rapidly with a progressive administration in the US, or a US recession severe enough to motivate military cutbacks.
It will be very interesting to see how those clever fellows devise a compromise of communism and capitalism that satisifies everyone.
I’m not sure that full re-unification is necessary, and it presents a lot of additional obstacles. A peace treaty with gradually opened borders, a re-opening of the Kaesong Industrial region, and a Nato-like mutual protection treaty would be more doable. I would like to see South Korea order us out of their country altogether, and maybe work with Russia and China on economic development issues. It would be a key opening in the prospect of strengthening a multi-polar world, and a real blow to the PNAC vision of total Global domination. Maybe the USA would finally come to realize the benefits of waging peace.
Perhaps incomplete re-unification is unstable without a mutual-protection treaty credible to both sides. Future partisan demagogues on one side or the other could restore tensions with NK having greater power, unless Russia or China guarantee denuclearization. But if it works, the Project for a Neolithic American Century would indeed be set back, having to demonize Russia with more head-chopping “freedom fighters” in central Asia.
Sam F-
Jason Kennedy has posted that the mutual defense treaty of 1953 means that the USA can’t be excluded from the negotiations. If that is the case, it is a real shame, and any peace treaty becomes nearly impossible.
I will have to research the treaty terms. Perhaps, in case reunification went too far for US approval, it would take the opportunity to withdraw, but presumably SK would not wish to do that until it felt safe enough.
The US/SK treaty of 1953 provides for mutual consultation and defense in case of threat, and allows the US to maintain weapons in SK, but can be terminated by either party with one year advance notice. It does not appear to make the US a party to SK treaties.
SK granted the US the “right to dispose United States land, air and sea forces in and about the territory of the Republic of Korea as determined by mutual agreement”
The parties must “take suitable measures in consultation and agreement to implement this Treaty” but “Either Party may terminate it one year after notice has been given to the other Party.”
For the (brief) treaty text see http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/kor001.asp
Thanks for doing the hard work Sam. If I were South Korea I would give the USA their one year notice and look for security elsewhere. It would be a great opportunity for Russia and China to broker a peace treaty between the two Koreas and provide mutual security, foster economic cooperation, and lead the way away from US global hegemony and toward a peaceful multi-polar world. How in the world would our MSM spin something like that? Moon Jae-in would have to be careful of the “long knives” to pull it off.
Bolton is a dangerous man, for the sake of humanity that kind of crazies should not be given such important role, neither should they rely on anyone at arm’s reach of the militaro industrial complex. Thanks mr McGovern for doing a remarkable job
I’m still wondering what could have *possibly* motivated Trump to *ever* listen to a single word John Bolton ever said or will ever say. Naturally, Bolton is a messenger boy for Netanyahu, but did Trump decide he had to play with Israel in order to help him fight the Deep State, who want him out?
Trump had ties with Israel before his election. Look at this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiwBwBw7R-U
His son-in-law is Jewish. I guess once you enter, you never leave.
“I guess once you enter, you never leave.” Yes, the Mafia is like that. A good reason to turn down a job offer, so I did.
Maybe Sheldon Adelson whispered about his boy Bolton in Trump’s ear? 999% for sure he did.
Trump sacks Bolton and stops listing to Adelson for giving bad advice in the first place. Double result.
The Berlin wall fell in 1989. That was 3 decades ago, not 4 as stated at the end of the article.
There was this sentence in the New York magazine that I found excellent (18-05-2018): “while Trump, following his lust for personal glory [by seeking the Nobel peace prize] instead of the foreign policy Establishment’s advice, was making a diplomatic concession that would genuinely bolster the cause of world peace.”
2018 what a year to be alive ! Childish behavior is leading to world peace !
We’ll see if the gang that can’t shoot straight won’t find it’s way to totally screw up the Summit Meting – if there is one!
Great article! But I am also happy to see Ray McGovern back after being assaulted in the congressional hearing.
Mild mannered Ray McGovern has a skin tight outfit underneath his street clothes with a big S emblazoned on it!
I just love the idea of the two Koreas meeting peacefully in brotherhood, agreeing on all sorts of matters of mutual interest, and inquiring mildly, “Americans? What has Korea to do with them?”
Because of course any American who thinks of attacking North Korea, situated exactly where China meets Russia, whose capital is barely 500 miles from Beijing, is absolutely nuts.
Just as any Westerner who stirs up trouble in the Baltic states, within artillery range of St Petersburg, is equally insane.
The problem is that the chicken hawks in the US think that because Putin is constantly working for peace, he won’t dare pull the nuclear trigger. He has tried to assure them that is not so, but they are really stupid and fixated on their fantasies of world domination and can’t seem to hear him.
It’s not so much Putin, as it is the Russian generals, who are the strong arms, and who are descended from the men that played such a huge role in defeating Hitler’s Germany. These Russian patriots are prepared to do it again with the present aggressors.
America will do everything possible to prevent peace from happening in Korea.
“…which caused Pyongyang to go ballistic”.
A poorly chosen metaphor, IMHO.
Keep taking those red pills, they are working just fine!
If Kim really goes ballistic, we will sure know about it
Bolton and all the other war-loving U.S. war criminals from the Truman administration till now should have been locked up for life and spared the world so many tens of millions of murders and so much suffering and environmental destruction since 1943, when FDR okayed mass aerial bombing of German cities.
If the human species avoids extinction by nuclear holocaust or climate catastrophe, history must judge all these war criminals harshly as the mass murderers they have been since 1943.
The USA has always been owned, lock, stock and barrel, by the super-rich; and its political class and political institutions have never been anything but glove-puppets for the super-rich. In Washington DC and other US capitals everything, without exception, is for sale to the highest bidder.
The USA as a nation stands as the classic proof that plutocracy is not a viable system of government. It has taken about 250 years to ruin a virgin continent loaded to the brim with valuable resources; and now it is trying to drag the rest of the world down with it.
Right on Tom. The uber rich are the key to most of our problems.
We should reserve the trial court at Nuremberg for the purpose. Not sure it can fit them all. We’ll have to do it in stages. Worst offenders first, then their enablers.
Peace in Korea threatens the Empire’s plan to “contain” and then dominate China. They will do everything they can to justify our continued military presence in South Korea. Moon is the key to thwarting the war hawks. So far he is showing a lot of backbone. We shall see how he holds up to increasing US pressure……….
I am inclined to believe the only thing ruined by Korea being united is the profit margins of American arms manufacturers. That alone is enough to ensure a long, drawn-out peace process on the Korean peninsula. Attacking North Korea serves no one’s interest. There is only short-term profit to be gained, and too much might be lost as a result. These people may be crazy, but they aren’t stupid.
You took the words right out of my mouth. Why is Raytheon or Lockheed never mentioned in any of this? These corporations will be the biggest obstacle to overcome if peace is ever to rein on the Korean Peninsula.
The warmongers of the rich do not want a nuclear war. MIC profits require them to pretend that China and Russia are strategic enemies needing “containment” so long ago proven false. In SE Asia, the Mideast, and Latin America they had to vilify socialism to prevent socialism in the US. But their effort to militarily “contain” an idea even after it had been substantially abandoned by Russia and China failed, exposed their lies, and alienated their desired vassals. As the world sees this, they will have nothing left but zionist wars in the Mideast, and economic wars to make socialism look unprofitable. When Israel is gone they will have to rely upon completely fabricated enemies, UFOs and mystical enemies.
And then, there’s the faction that wants to blast asteroids into space dust.
Ray, the video you link to is giving a page not found error, perhaps the BBC removed it?
It is fixed.
War hawks don’t like peace talks. The US is the number one enemy of peace in the world. Like the Mafia, the only peace they recognize is your abject surrender to them. That belligerent stance suits a big ego like Trump to a tee.
Trump’s childish concern about the size of his penis explains his pride in our “big beautiful” military, and it’s beautiful, powerful missiles that everyone is supposed to be in awe of.