-By Dan Scott
The world can be a dangerous place and even more so when we fail to understand the motivations of the various actors on the world stage. Recently, North Korea (DPRK) has provoked the world yet again with the launching of another alleged missile over Japan. For well over a month there was an uproar over the impending launch with warnings and counter warnings. The US threatened to shoot the missile down and the DPRK said shooting their satellite down would be an act of war thus the line was drawn in the sand, each side daring and doubling daring each other. The DPRK claims it was a satellite and most of the world says it was a missile. The DPRK launches and says the satellite is harmlessly orbiting the earth broadcasting patriotic songs but the US says it shot the third stage down. So whose truth (sarcasm intended) do we believe? I guess that depends on the most probable believable story. The US has already demonstrated it can either shoot down a missile in flight or a satellite in orbit. Given the anti-war stances of President Obama, would he risk war with the DPRK in shooting down a missile? Given the Dear Leader’s cushy little spot in power would he risk finding himself in the same position as Saddam Hussein??? The Dear Leader is no slouch in world affairs, after all he got Madeline Albright to play basketball! Maybe the most believable story is the dummy load fell into the Pacific Ocean instead of achieving orbit and Obama never gave the order to shoot down the alleged missile. So both the Dear Leader and President Obama claim victory and war was averted, works for both of them doesn’t it?
For those who don’t know the Dear Leader, I am speaking of Kim Jong-IL, the dictator of North Korea. Under his and his father’s rule, the people of North Korea have been reduced to abject poverty to the point even the city lights at night don’t up on satellite pictures save for his capitol Pyungyang. He is known to his people as the “Dear Leader”. His activities include: the production and distribution of narcotics as well as the counterfeiting of foreign currencies, cigarettes, and pharmaceuticals. To give you the full understanding of this man’s idea of truth, North Korea is formally known as the DPRK – Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea.
What really happened was the Dear Leader of the DPRK has tweaked the nose of President Obama in order to see how far he could go and what consequences would result. The response of the President Obama? Empty Moralizing. We all have to band together and do something, who will back me up? … “Words must mean something. The world must stand together to prevent the spread of these weapons. Now is the time for a strong international response. North Korea must know that the path to security and respect will never come through threats and illegal weapons,” In other words score one for the Dear Leader! The first test of President Obama’s position as a world leader has just exposed him for what he really is…a paper tiger.
Let’s take another example of leadership from our inexperienced newly elected president. When dealing with the British, our major ally in the Global War on Terror (GWOT), President Obama’s administration dissed the British saying, “There’s nothing special about Britain. You’re just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn’t expect special treatment.” Apparently, President Obama doesn’t understand that being a leader necessitates prioritizing those whose relationships most advances your agenda. Clearly if the US is the leader of the free world then Britain’s relationship must be more special than the one between it and the Sudan or the multitude of tin pot dictators around the world. Even more importantly, in order to be a leader of any coalition you must have an AGENDA to accomplish. What agenda does President Obama have in mind that doesn’t require the special relationship between the US and Britain? Obviously, spreading Democracy or the idea of self governance is not on President Obama’s mind, so apparently his interests are purely of parochial self interest. Nor is the GWOT of primary interest either as President Obama renamed it to a mere circumstance distraction: Overseas Contingency Operation.
What I find of interest is Chavez’s recent pronouncement that the US is still an empire even under President Obama. The US is still seen as a competing power to the modern day Axis (Venezuela, Iran and North Korea). So in Chavez’s view, under President Obama even though the US has ceased to be an agent of Democracy, no longer a leader of the free world, it is now a self serving agent of one among many nations each jockeying for their maximum self benefit however they define it. Given the Obama administration’s view of Britain as just one nation among many, Chavez’s view of the US is probably very accurate in an ironic kind of way. Even Iran has rebuffed President Obama’s overtures of peace in our time in their fashion.
So have we come full circle in US foreign affairs with the world where the US is just one nation among many and therefore it has no leadership role as after World War I? In the 1920’s and 30’s the liberals all said fascism was the wave of the future. They adored Hitler and Mussolini. It wasn’t until Hitler turned on Stalin that they changed their tune and decided Stalin’s version of dictatorship was the one they would rally behind due to the Axis being at war with the US. Even liberals back then were not so stupid as to be found on the wrong side of a conflict.
When we connect the dots, as it were, how President Obama is currently handling the US position in world affairs, I am left to conclude his behavior is one of a passive-aggressive tendency. Thus President Obama, not interested in being the leader of the free world, is calling all the other nations to react to the DPRK not with military force but strongly worded protests and eventually sanctions. This suggests to me that Obama like FDR will be open to using war as a pretext for distracting the public from his own failures, as the economy continues to tank, his failures will be rightly pinned on him. The victim card is a powerful play on a national basis and it works well for distracting from the obvious, it certainly worked for FDR. FDR and the then leadership of the US along with Britain (lead by Neville Chamberlain 1937 to 1940) and Holland via their colonies in the Pacific were strangling Japan economically. This was due to Japan’s invasion of Manchuria in 1931. Don’t get me wrong, Japan was not a victim, but a rising power who used military force in order to break the economic stranglehold in 1941 with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Isn’t this what we see now with the current Axis (Iran, DPRK & Venezuela)? We and other countries as an instrument of foreign policy are economically strangling them to achieve certain goals without resorting to open military conflict? All Obama lacks is a sneak attack by some foreign power (primarily from one of the Axis powers) to rally the country behind him.
It seems to me history is about to repeat itself, the only unknowns at this point are the details and the ACT that officially starts a war. The world has just become an incredibly more dangerous place because Barack Obama following liberal tropes has abdicated the US’ leadership of the Free World. Showing weakness and fecklessness to a gang of thugs invites the belief that they can do anything with zero or minimal consequences. Sure, the US will economically embargo the DPRK, big hairy deal, the Dear Leader will order up the printing of more $100 bills (US of course) because if the Federal Reserve can print up a trillion what’s a few hundred million more in counterfeit bills going to do in inflating the money supply? How utterly foolish can one be for drawing a line in the sand that the Dear Leader would gladly cross? They have set up the path to another world war, repeating the exact same foolishness that led up to WWII. Economically strangling and politically isolating this group of thugs sets them on the path to a sneak attack military response. Instead of dealing with these thugs one by one with a strong show of force President Obama instead has helped them to thumb their collective noses to the Free World. So this is the new international politics promised by the candidate of hope and change?
———-
Dan Scott calls himself a “Member of the Global Capitalist Cabal preaching Capitalism and personal responsibility as the economic solution to world poverty.” He is also a member of the 14th Amendment Society — victimhood is a liberal code word for denying the civil rights of others. He is also a proud member of the Global Warming Denier Cabal, insisting that facts not agendas determine the truth.
Dan can be seen on the web at http://www.geocities.com/fightbigotry2002/ as well as http://www.geocities.com/dscott8186/saidwebpage.htm, And can be reached for comments at dscott8186@yahoo.com.
Fair Use: This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material available in my efforts to advance understanding of political, human rights, economic, democracy, and social justice issues, etc. I believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research, educational, or satirical purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site/blog for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.