Posted on 04/05/2013 10:32:05 AM PDT by AU72
I don’t really follow North Korea (mostly, I try to stay up-to-date on a few countries that begin with the letter “I”), but it seems to me that we are looking at recent events in the wrong context. North Korea is a charter member of the Axis of Evil, and works hand in glove with the other surviving regime of that infamous trinity, Iran. I’ve been writing for years about the intimate relationship between the two, ranging from North Korean assistance in digging tunnels in Iranian mountains and in the Tehran subway system, to Iranian cooperation with North Korean missile and nuclear programs.
Let’s just say that they work together a lot. So when I see the North Koreans jumping up and down and threatening to nuke us, I ask myself what’s in it for the Iranians? And I add the others in the global anti-American alliance. What’s in it for the Chinese? The Russians? The Venezuelans, Bolivians, Ecuadorians and Nicaraguans? Because all these guys coordinate so many of their activities that I can’t understand important events in any one of them without putting those events in the big context. When I see the Russians and the Chinese fighting against anti-Iranian sanctions, I remind myself that they, along with the Latin Americans, are in a banking network with Iran. When the Iranians sit down to negotiate about their nuclear program, I ask myself: what do the Russians want? And so it goes.
To be sure, it’s hard to find anyone this side of James Jesus Angleton who agrees with me, and he’s dead. But still, why do you think the North Koreans are threatening thermonuclear war these days? Yes, they may really be planning to attack us, but if I were the head of an intelligence service I would ask my smartest people to test an hypothesis: what if it’s misdirection? What if there trying to get us to focus on them, when something else is in the works someplace else?
Don’t ask me what the something else is, or the location of the someplace else. I don’t know. It’s only a theory after all. And I agree that the North Koreans may well be crazy enough to attack us. But if this is all part of a strategic operation by the anti-American alliance, then we should carefully go down our list of likely targets, and see what the major terrorists are up to.
I would ask my smartest people to pay special attention to people and communications moving north from Venezuela, where a very important election campaign has just begun to choose the successor to Hugo Chavez. The bus driver who served as his vice president would benefit from some dramatic event inside the United States, and the Russians, Iranians and Chinese are actively working for his victory.
However this all turns out, the basic point is valid and important: I don’t think we can understand the world anymore if we take it country by country. We have to look at bigger pictures.
Our national security braintrust couldn't connect the dots on a 2 point plot.
Funny how you never hear the bisexual Kenyan socialist call for regime change in North Korea and Iran...
Just a reminder,
Our spooks couldn’t for see the fall of the Soviet Union and they are given what several hundred billion a year!!
.......”We have to look at bigger pictures.”.....
Well...I’m sure all interested parties are and have been doing just that....however it is Kim leading the charge....remember this time sanctions cut off his personal bank accounts in other countrys...He’s a kid without the cash he’s accustomed to.
The North Koreans had sent “observers” to the Iranian nuclear program and I have seen reports that Iranians were at the last North Korean nuke test. Clearly the North Koreans and Iranians are sharing nuclear technology. For all we know the last North Korean nuclear test might have been an Iranian device. It was rumored that the Israelis similarly secretly cooperated with the South Africans with a nuclear test in the far south Atlantic in 1979.
Yep. At the last ‘accident’ at a nuke facility in Iran involved some Norks being killed/injured.
People are trying to over analyze North Korea’s behavior. This tantrum is pretty much par for the course. This is how they do internal politics, it’s part of how they brainwash their own people, it’s how they whip up nationalist feelings, it’s one of the ways they try to get their half starved population to work harder for the Juche cause, etc.
Every year, like clockwork, North Korea throws a tantrum around about the time the US and South Korea hold their annual exercises. Every year North Korea, the media, various geopolitical analysts, etc, tell us this is the worst it’s ever been. After a few weeks the shouting dies down, the Norks declare victory, and we move on.
We can plainly see with the use of satellites and other intelligence gathering that North Korea isn’t really on some war footing. They aren’t moving troops, they aren’t actually doing anything militarily that would indicate an attack is imminent. North Korea is so broke they probably can’t afford an army wide show of force anyway.
It’s possible North Korea might miscalculate and take their bluster campaign a step too far and actually shoot at something, but most likely they will continue stomping their feet for a few weeks and then return to the status-quo.
Kim Jong Un and Barry “Basketball-Jones” Obama.
Two spoiled brat Man-Boys toying with the lives and fortunes of hundreds of millions.
here’s my prediction. Missiles will be launched, NK will call it a successful military operation and show phony pictures of US destruction. We will do nothing and declare it only a test launch. We will then give them food aid. The End.
I will posit a theory that I read here on FR; the NKs don't have a large TND. Therefore, their lack of a delivery system for one is not relevant. They have successfully tested some tactical-yield weapons. The Iranians have some pretty sophisticated short-range missile systems (anti-ship) that can deliver the 'small' NK devices.
Put that combo on a fishing or other commercial vessel and move into range of 2 or 3 Eastern Seaboard U.S. cities. You now have the ability to conduct a nuclear missile strike on the U.S. while our anti-missile eyes are trained on the Korean peninsula.
If you add the Central/South American countries into the mix, they frequently have fishing vessels along our coasts. The alliance becomes deadly when you consider who has what in the weapon/delivery system/platform equation.
Iran and NK are cooperating in a technological exchange. No secret, there.
Venezuela has been inviting the Iranians over, and there's been purchases and sharing of military tech, with promises of future further cooperation.
Understand, the hatred these nations have for America is well into the irrational. They would cut their nose off to spite their face--that level of America hatred. To what end?
I'll tell you: I think Venezuela will be the launching pad for Iranian rockets tipped with Nork nuke warheads. Their range is limited, but basing in Venezuela eliminates that. They could hit ALL of CONUS with such positioning. Screw accuracy--the threat would be good enough.
Imagine the consequences: The public outcry? The delight of our adversaries being able to threaten--or carry out--an attack on the American homeland?
Would our policy toward defending South Korea be forced to change? Would we have to leave, or the war comes to the American homeland? (North Korea benefits.)
Would our policy toward Iran--sanctions--have to be lifted? Would our policy to Israel be affected? Would the Iranian regime be strengthened, instead of being unstable, due to this show of weakness by America? (Iran benefits.)
Would the regime in Venezuela be strengthened, due to the humiliation of the gringos at the hands of the Venezolanos? (Venezuela benefits.)
Lastly, and most covertly, the nations of both Russia and China benefit, in that American attention is diverted completely away from whatever they're doing, and even if we're keeping on eye on them, we're beseeching Russia and China for their vote in the U.N. to deal with the ongoing Axis of Evil (NK, Iran, Venezuela) problem.
China has been using NK as a vicious little poodle to do its dirty work. Russia enjoys it because these nations tie up our resources that might otherwise tie up Russia. (And China for the same reason.)
America is hated because it is a force for Good in the world. We need to be strong, vigilant, morally righteous (to give us that inner strength and protection from God), and militarily and economically powerful.
I wouldn't be surprised if they close this thing out with a "provocative", "unhelpful" medium range missile launch that, in the grand scheme of things, is mostly meaningless. I doubt they will claim they hit us, more likely they will just say they scared us into temporarily holding off on our evil invasion attempt.
We will do nothing and declare it only a test launch. We will then give them food aid. The End.
Would not be a surprise if the US or South Korea ended up agreeing to give them something. That is part of the reason they feel compelled to ratchet up the threats. In their past experience, the bigger the temper tantrum the better the food aid, fuel oil, etc, they get in the end.
Bing! Heard on the 1 PM news that we were having sit-down negotiations with Iran and it dawned on me that the Norks were the diversion for what was going on. Now I read this article. Fitz
North Korea uses Orwell’s “1984” as an instruction manual.
"North Korea's a pimp...but I didn't know until this day that it was Iran all along."
This reminds me a lot of the first gulf war. The media was going nuts over how the Iraqis had “desert” tanks and were superior fighters in that terrain. I remember people talking about how we shouldn’t go because the Iraqis will easily destroy our forces and we aren’t cut out for desert fighting.
Unfortunately, the media wasn’t aware of how awesome Abrams tanks with GPS tracking are. We plowed through sand storms and picked off Iraqi tanks from thousands of yards with precision while going something like 20/30mph in the desert. It was embarrassing for Iraq. I can’t remember the kill ratios but I think we only lost a couple Bradleys from enemy fire.
Not trying to get too overconfident here, just throwing in my agreement that the media does indeed have a habit of overestimating the opposition. Let the military do the overestimating, that way we can be sure they’ll turn the area into a parking lot.
The something else is Obama.
Are you still allowed to say “spooks”?
After four plus years of BronchoBammer rule, I figured that word would have been expunged from the English language.
Remember what helped start WWII.
We cut off the Japanese oil, which started a clock running until the point of no return when they would no longer be able to operate.
Maybe these pinheads have finally reached a point where they figure it’s march, or die anyhow.
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