Tag Archives: George W.

Washington’s Provocation of North Korea

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Washington’s Playbook to Provoke North Korea came to our attention this morning in a comment on yesterday’s Views from the Edge post “Little Boys with Toys” from a highly respected historian.

Sometimes the COMMENTS move in directions that deserve wider attention. This is one of those times. Below are 1) the comment, 2) Views from the Edge’s reply, and 3) an invitation to weigh in on the discussion.

1) The COMMENT:

As much as I agree with thoughts just posted about Kim Jong Un I think they need to be tempered by an understanding of the origin of North Korea’s behavior. Imagine a country 1/2 the size of Minnesota, N. Korea, with its 30 million people. Could Mn. feed 30 mill. people in its northern half where ag land is limited by forests and rock as N. Korea has to try and do? Not likely.

Then we have to consider the fact that in 1945 Henry Cabot Lodge was the US diplomat that unilaterally made the 38th parallel the border for the US interest in decapitating the nation of Korea to prevent it from going communist. How would we feel if an outside force turned the US into 2 countries to weaken us a nation.

At the time N. Korea has just seen the US drop 2 atomic bombs a few hundred miles away on Japan. The US then proceeds to bomb every building in N. Korea during the Korean War. Literally the US made the decision to bomb N. Korea back into the stone age. Again this done to a country that is geographically half the size of Minnesota. Why do we wonder about the behavior of the leaders of a country that has been treated this way by us. Me thinks Washington “doth protest too loudly”.

If we as a nation were willing to do what we did to N. Korea 67 yrs. ago why would we think the present US bellicose attitude is anything more than propaganda to perpetuate the neutralization of N. Korea as a force that might interfere with our interest to dominate Southeast Asia.

An understanding of geo-strategic theory we inherited from the British after WW II is instructive in understanding the hidden history of N. Korea. It is necessary to read Halford MacKinder, the 1890s British father of geo- strategic theory, to understand the Pentagon’s morally bankrupt approach to N. Korea.

2) The REPLY

I couldn’t agree more with the geo-political analysis of the sordid history that has isolated this small nation. As the old saying goes, “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean there’s nobody out to get you.” They have many reasons to hate the U.S. A nation half the size of Minnesota with 30M people devastated by the Korean “Conflict” has ever reason to fear the most powerful nation on the face of the Earth. We (the U.S.A.) have not honored the terms of the treaties with N. Korea. They have no reason to trust.

The historian’s eye brings all of this front and center, and serves to remind us that we in the U.S. are constantly conditioned by propaganda and misinformation campaigns from the highest sources.

Even so, I can’t help but see the same father-son relationship in N. Korea that we saw in George Herbert Walker Bush and his son George W. who sought to finish (and outdo!) his father’s “manly” work. In both cases a sense of the numinous is shrunk to the size of the father and the nation that once worshiped him. Or…so I think 🙂

3) YOUR thoughts on the matter?

Wiping the President’s Tears

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President Bush and ordinary citizen

Former President George W. Bush was right there – standing on the corner on Main Street in Rapid City, South Dakota. Most people were ignoring him. He looked lonely standing there all by himself. So I walked over to strike up a conversation.It was the kind of conversation I’ve always wanted to have with George – one where he doesn’t get to talk back or cut me off. I asked questions and made my points. My questions were the same as in the story of the President’s visit to an elementary school. The story goes like this.

The President talks to the children and then opens the floor to questions.

One little boy puts up his hand and George asks him what his name is.

“Billy.”

“And what is your question, Billy?”

“I have three questions. First, why did the USA invade Iraq without the support of the U.N.? Second, why are you President when Al Gore got more votes? And third, whatever happened to Osama bin Laden?”

Just then the bell rings for recess. George assures the kiddies that they will continue after recess.

When they resume, George says, “OK, where were we? Oh! That’s right! –
Question time. So who has a question?”

Another little boy puts up his hand. George points him out and asks him what his name is.

“Steve.”

“And what is your question, Steve?”

“I have five questions.  First, why did the USA invade Iraq without the support of the U.N.? Second, why are you President when Al Gore got more votes?  Third, whatever happened to Osama bin Laden?  Fourth, why did the recess bell go off 20 minutes early?  And Fifth, what the hell happened to Billy?”

All these years later, standing on the corner of Main Street with George W., I was prepared to ask Billy’s original three questions and a few others. I wanted to ask why his Party was blaming President Obama for what happened under his administration.

I never got to ask. as soon as I asked the question about Iraq, something strange happened.

I thought I saw a tear falling from his eye.

I pulled out a handkerchief and reached up to dry his tears. Only then did I realize: I hadn’t been talking with W. I’d been talking with his father, President George Herbert Walker Bush.

W is standing blocks away at the corner of 5th and St. Joseph, a thoughtful consideration for the older Bush, I thought, by the City Fathers of Rapid City. Here’s George, just like he was after declaring victory in the Iraq War: “Look at me, Dad, I finished the job for you!”

George W: “Thumbs up, Dad!”

Mission Accomplished