US Diplomatic Pretense

The US regime has been acting in blatantly illegal, dishonest, and undiplomatic ways because the US is losing. The US is no longer getting its way, and cannot do what it wants in the world anymore. So it kicks law, international obligations, and diplomatic civility to the curb in a desperate bid to hold on to its waning power.

All propaganda and rhetoric aside, the US establishment knows that it is in a weakened state. It knows that it cannot afford anymore major, protracted military operations. The US establishment will claim the opposite, but this is just turd-shining and self-aggrandizement to assuage their dumbed-down citizenry and cowardly vassals whose tired, shaky hands are forever outstretched for a few crumbs off of Uncle Scam’s table.

That’s why the US establishment has turned to other means of warfare, mainly sanctions, embargoes, and more recently, withdrawing from international agreements, such as the JCPOA. These are the acts of a loser, not a winner.

It has employed proxies and other dupes to do its dirty work, and has even started provoking unrest and tension between countries for its own interests, like between Iran and Saudi Wahhabia.

If the US establishment cannot get its way, it will try to keep others from getting theirs, even if there is no gain in it at all for the US regime from this grade-school strategy. Unable to stay on top, the US will try to keep everyone else at the bottom as well, whether they be a client state or foe.

The only difference is in the strategy employed. Client states get tariffs and ‘fines,’ while enemies get sanctions and bombs.

That’s why Trump will fail in his endeavor to “Make American Great Again.’ He will fail, because the entire idea is based on faulty and failed ideas and reckless actions. Trump won’t make the lives of the average American materially better. Only the wealthy will benefit.

Trump had a choice: warmongering or economic revival. He chose the former, so whatever he does is not going to work. He will finish his next two years surrounded by messes, old and new ones.

Trump, along with the US establishment, are not serious about any détente and agreement with North Korea. The US up to now has not offered anything substantial to NK in return for denuclearization, and has been doing everything to provoke NK so Trump can have an excuse, even a lame one, not to meet with Kim Jong Un.

The US establishment doesn’t want peace on the Korean peninsula. Too many of the US establishment’s members made their careers and fortunes off of having North Korea as a boogeyman, and they want to keep it that way. So it’s either the status quo or regime change for them.

But the problem is, that Kim Jong Un just won’t play along anymore. Kim seems to be becoming too hard for the US establishment to provoke these days, and he keeps on upsetting the US regime’s attempts to nix the talks by frequent peaceful overtures.

As stated in a previous post, the reason for Kim Jong Un’s political cooling off is not that the US and Trump have scared NK and Kim, or weakened NK with sanctions. If that were true, NK would have already been subdued long ago.

China and Russia may have come to some agreement with NK for economic and/or strategic partnership, should NK get rid of its nukes and sanctions are lifted. The deal is too good for Kim to pass up, so he has relaxed his hand and rhetoric knowing that the reward will be worth it.

There is also a cunning psychological-strategic dimension at work here, which the US most likely is finding hard to grapple with, and one which it can’t do much about in the long-term.

This has to do with indirect, secondary results of NK denuclearization and a peace treaty with NK.

Let’s say that NK agrees to fully and immediately give up its nuclear weapons, agrees to a robust monitoring mechanism, signs a permanent peace treaty with US/SK, and in return doesn’t even demand the withdrawal of US troops and missile systems from SK.

On the outside, this may seem like a foolish give-away by NK. However, in the long-term, this will actually diminish US military necessity and weapons sales to its client states in SK and Japan.

For if NK gets rid of its nukes and signs a peace treaty, sanctions will have to be lifted on NK. Tension and the threat of war will subside. The public in regional US client states will then realize that all these US troops, military exercises, and weapons are no longer necessary. The governments in those client states will also come to the same conclusion, and continuing to treat NK as an imminent military threat, and as an excuse to arm, will become quite awkward and unnecessary.

These countries will then decrease their participation in military exercises, and spending on US weapons systems. This won’t bode well for the US military-industrial complex and the psychopaths within the US establishment whose careers, positions, and paychecks depend on having NK as an overhyped on-going existential threat.

So for this reason, Trump and the US establishment nutcases that control him won’t allow for an agreement.

Sure, the US establishment may get China to take NK’s spot as the prime regional boogeyman so the US can have an excuse to keep its troops there, and its client states subdued and buying weapons, but people would see through the charade. The US would not look good in this case.

But even if the US moved on to China as a boogeyman, it would still to some degree lead to a diminished interest in further militarization by US client states. Antagonizing China, and treating it like NK, would not be worth it for them, or even for the US.

So this is why the only options for the US are to keep things as they are, or pursue regime change in Pyongyang.

The latter is a no-go.

Although, regime change would allow the US to declare a victory, call the shots in the former NK, and still have an excuse to harass China, without any agreement to gum up the works. Trump would look good, and the neo-cons would go into orgasms.

But the US will most likely either create an excuse to nix the talks, blame NK for it, and keep things the way they are, or play along with NK, sign a treaty, wait for NK to disarm, and then attack it; just like the US did with Iraq and Libya.

You don't have to be a political scientist or some expert strategist to see that the US has suspect motives. That's why NK cannot trust the US with any agreement that ends up being signed.

But there is an easy litmus test to gauge true US intentions toward NK, and it involves Russia and China.

What NK should do is announce its intent for a total and immediate de-nuclearization and a permanent peace treaty, in return for security guarantees backed up by Russian and Chinese military force, by treaty.

Then we shall see what the US aims really are by its reaction.

If the US reacts calmly, and accepts it as long as NK gets rid of its nukes, then the US is serious about peace on the Korean peninsula.

But if the US throws a hissy fit, refuses to meet Kim, and starts threatening NK, Russia and China with sanctions and other nonsense, then we will know for sure that the US aim is illegal regime change regardless of what happens.

What would be a good idea for NK to do is to tell the US that in return for full and immediate denuclearization and permanent peace treaty, the US must either withdraw all its troops and THAAD systems from SK, or accept irreversible Russian and Chinese military protection for NK as guarantee of NK’s security. This would nullify any and all future US attempts at regime change, and attempts to wiggle out of an agreement by falsely accusing NK of not complying with it (as the US has done with Syria and Iran).

If the US has no ulterior motives, and is truly interested in peace on the Korean peninsula, then accepting either choice should not be a problem.

But it is doubtful whether the US will accept anything that hinders its continued military presence and occupation of SK and Japan, weapons sales, or opportunity for future regime change in NK.

That’s why an agreement that will be honored by the US is highly unlikely, and any ‘security guarantees’ given by the US to NK that are not backed up by anything other than words and paper are worthless. The US never sings treaties that it can’t go around, or wiggle out of.

If Kim Jong Un agrees to such empty paper promises, then he deserves to be overthrown.