Trump flunks North Korea
News out overnight that Trump has walked away from the North Korean summit shouldn’t surprise anyone more than the original announcement of the summit.
Trying to read between the lines you get the following assessment.
North Korea – They were genuinely spooked by the unpredictable and erratic fury of Trump and believed he was seriously looking to strike against them and so made overt overtures of peace.
South Korea – They were also spooked by this crazy American President and feared any military strike would lead to all out obliteration of their own country and over sold peace prospects to America.
China – Bewildered that Trump was seriously looking at a military strike, they urged North Korea to give Trump some signal that they were backing down, but then when they witnessed the speed with which Trump seized upon the possibility of peace, they reasserted pressure on North Korea to pull back because the last thing they wanted was to reward Trump for his aggression.
So where does this leave Trump? He was either bluffing about the military strike on North Korea in the first place so this all goes no where and Trump looks like a windbag which pops his credibility or he pauses to see if there is any chance to rekindle a deal and if that isn’t possible, he goes straight back to planning a military strike on North Korea the very first time they test a missile.
There was a moment here when we all breathed a sigh of relief.
We shouldn’t have.
A game of ‘chinese chess’ it looks much like now eh Martyn?
This whole “denuclearisation” (i.e. North Korea but not the US) of the Korean peninsula was always an over-hyped pipe dream. The egos and rhetoric of all involved are simply too large to let any one gain an upper hand. Also Trump won’t invade as long as China has North Korea’s back (which they do). Far more likely is an invasion of Iran, to cynically spike oil prices to maximise Saudi Arabia’s Aramco IPO.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-opec-oil-exclusive/exclusive-opecs-new-price-hawk-saudi-arabia-seeks-oil-as-high-as-100-sources-idUSKBN1HP1LB
I believe most so-called news is faux, stuff made up to keep the ‘proles’ confused and on edge. What is not fabrication is largely irrelevant bullshit focused on the royal family, corporatised sport, celebrity gossip and fashion etc.
The economies of oil-exporting nations have suffered immensely since oil dropped from its 2014 plateau, and frackers in America struggle to make money when oil is below $50 a barrel.
On the other hand, higher oil prices hurt the economies of oil-importing nation, putting up the cost of practically everything and reducing discretionary spending.
It is no-win predicament. And it will only be ‘solved’ when extraction (by whatever means extraction can be achieved: conventional, tar sands, deep-water, fracking, condensate etc) goes into terminal decline.
Then the real fireworks will commence.
Given that North Korea was looking for a peace deal that involved the US respecting its sovereignty and it keeping its nukes as a deterrent, and the US was looking for North Korea to give up its nukes, there was zero chance of any deal ever being made, anyway.
It’s amazing how an unbridled narcisist can maintain such a hold over his brainwashed, information-starved supporters and, despite spouting a litany of lies and threats on a daily basis, still maintain stewardship of a nation.
And then there’s Kim Jong-un.
Let’s see…
There’s peace overtures made by the North Koreans, who begin to dismantle their atomic testing facilities. There’s a meeting between Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in. Trump accepts an invitation to meet with the North Korean leader…
… and then the US proceeds with war games with the South and wonders why the North Koreans got pissed of?!?!
ref: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/20/us-south-korea-war-games-that-freak-out-north-korea-coming-soon.html
Oh, well done, Uncle Sam! Failure snatched from the jaws of success!!
Any other great examples of US-led peace-making?
If so, Mr Trump, I hope you keep it to yourself.