THE END OF THE WORLD AS YOU KNOW IT ( Archived) (9)

It was 72 years ago this month that President Harry Truman dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan. Some 90,000-166,000 people were killed in Hiroshima. The Nagasaki bombing killed 39,000-80,000 people. There is also a little known fact that the US military bombed Tokyo on Aug. 14, 1945, after destroying Hiroshima and Nagasaki and after Emperor Hirohito expressed his readiness to surrender. The Tokyo firebombing raid was followed by larger ones against Nagoya, Osaka, and Kobe, some of Japan’s largest cities. Then Nagoya was hit again. All in all, 1,595 sorties had flown in 10 days, dropping over 9,300 tons of bombs. Japanese cities, large and small, were continually hit with conventional and incendiary bombs through the end of the war. History also echoes in a sense and today – it echoes loudly again as President Trump issued a powerful warning to North Korea Tuesday, threatening to unleash an unprecedented assault on North Korea. Trump declared to the White House Press Pool “They will be met with the fire and fury like the world has never seen. He has been very threatening beyond a normal state, and as I said, they will be met with the fire and fury and, frankly, power the likes of which this world has never seen before.” Many say that Trump’s declaration echoed those of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un – when he has declared that he will turn the United States into “a Sea of Fire.”

As we reported months ago during the Bilderberg meeting, the North Koreans have had nuclear payload capacity for some time and the only thing that was keeping them from using their weapon was problems with the reentry process. Now, it appears that they have now overcome this problem and have once again threatened the United States with nuclear attack. First thing this morning it was reported that according to a 500-page report by the Japanese Defense Ministry, North Korea may now be in possession of a miniature nuclear warhead. The mainstream media first said that the report was inconclusive. Shortly thereafter, the exact same narrative escalated when the Washington Post echoed what Japan said, only it “confirmed” that North Korea had successfully produced a miniaturized nuclear warhead that could fit inside its missiles, “crossing a key threshold on the path to becoming a full-fledged nuclear power, U.S. intelligence officials have concluded in a confidential assessment.” As the Washington Post added that the analysis completed last month by the Defense Intelligence Agency came on the heels of another intelligence assessment that sharply raised the official estimate for the total number of bombs in North Korea’s atomic arsenal. So while the mainstream media was still fishing for Russian collusion stories, we were right about the successes of North Korea, back when we first reported the Bilderberg findings. North Korea has had and now wishes to use an intercontinental ballistic missile that expert observers assess can deliver a nuclear payload to cities across the continental U.S. The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved new sanctions against North Korea over the weekend, stepping up pressure on Pyongyang. In response to the new resolution, North Korea announced that it will “make the U.S. pay dearly for all the heinous crime it commits against the state and people of this country.” North Korean state media warned that the U.S. will “pay the price for its crime … thousands of times” and threatened to teach the U.S. a “decisive act of justice.”

The Trump Administration has been pursuing a diplomatic solution to the North Korea problem, investing in a strategy of “maximum pressure and engagement,” which involves military deterrence, economic sanctions, and international pressure. Now we seem to be going from brinkmanship to being on the brink of a nuclear face off. Trump thought that his bluff would be sufficient to finally shut up North Korea, and put an end to Kim’s provocative behavior. It appears that Kim Jong Un has called his bluff because North Korea’s state-run KCNA news agency reported that not only did North Korea escalate the tensions up another notch, but explicitly warned that it could carry out a “pre-emptive operation once the US shows signs of provocation”, and that it is “seriously considering a strategy to strike Guam with mid-to-long range missiles.” What is so ironic about the whole affair is that while the mainstream media routinely pushes the idea that we have lost our moral standing because of our choice of President, the only nation in history to employ a weapon of mass destruction on an epic scale, may have to do it again over 70 years later, and this time we have to ask is it the moral thing to do? After all we need to look at this terrifying irony in the face – it was our fire and fury in 1945 that let the deadly genie out of the bottle. America’s lack of prudence and introspection over one of the single most destructive days in the history of human warfare continues, with 21st century consequences.

Undoubtedly, Kim Jog Un is that consequence that needs to be abated somehow. North Korea’s rapidly advancing nuclear program has prompted politicians in Japan and South Korea to push for the deployment of more powerful weapons, in what could lead to a regional arms race. Some of the new capabilities under consideration in Tokyo and Seoul are politically contentious. Adopting them would break with decades of precedent and could require delicate diplomatic finessing. Other military options are already being rolled out. That bleak assessment is likely to feed a growing debate in Japan about whether the country should acquire destructive weapons to launch pre-emptive military strikes — attacks that could destroy North Korean missiles on the ground before they are fired at Japan or other targets. Lawmakers are already pushing for such capacities; acquiring them would amount to a profound change for Japan, who’s post-World War II Constitution renounces war. Japan has long limited its military to a strictly defensive role. Although successive governments have argued that, in theory, striking an enemy pre-emptively to thwart an imminent attack would be an act of self-defense, and therefore constitutional, the country has mostly avoided acquiring the kind of armaments it would need to do so. They include long-range cruise missiles, air-to-ground missiles and refueling aircraft that extend the range of fighter jets. Some senior officials are now arguing that Japan should acquire such weapons. Japan has already committed to buying advanced F-35 fighter planes, and it is shopping for an upgraded land-based missile defense system to improve its chances of shooting down any incoming North Korean missiles.

Russia’s top diplomat downplayed North Korea’s new nuclear threats following a diplomatic summit today and said the United States has to take “prudent” steps to deescalate the crisis. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov emphasized that North Korea always complains about sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council. However, I think Guam, Japan, South Korea and the United States don’t see this as some idle threat. Remember what it felt like a couple of months ago when you, as an American, didn’t give much thought to North Korea? Remember when we spoke about how we should not underestimate North Korea? Some talking heads in the mainstream media will insist that we don’t want war. But with a subtle shift in narrative, there comes a sense that “we” will rationalize that we have no choice and that this is needed to protect the world. American military action will begin to feel inevitable. Talks about diplomatic options will be brushed away with “we tried that” and there will be no other course but war. Then come the country singers cashing in on bumper sticker patriotism with sick and stupid war songs, Then come the slogans: These colors don’t run. America Love it or leave it: you’re either with us or against us.

And no matter how many times you insist that while you would love to see Kim Jong Un taken out, yet don’t want to see war, you will be called a naive traitor, who doesn’t understand how the real world works. In North Korea, every person is taught from childhood that the United States and Japan are the most evil countries on the planet. Something tells me that North Korea’s standing army of 1.3 million troops won’t greet American or Japanese forces as liberators. Even if North Korea’s elite dictatorship were wiped away with a magic wand tomorrow, it’s difficult to predict how the populace would react. Behind the Trump Administration’s sudden urgency in dealing with the North Korean nuclear crisis lies a stark calculus: a growing body of expert studies and classified intelligence reports that conclude the country is capable of producing a nuclear bomb every six or seven weeks. Unless something changes, North Korea’s arsenal may well hit 50 weapons by the end of Donald Trump’s term as our president. American officials say that North Korea already knows how to shrink those weapons so they can fit atop one of its short-to-medium range missiles, putting South Korea and Japan, and the thousands of American troops deployed in those two nations, within range. The best estimates are that North Korea has roughly 1,000 ballistic missiles in eight or so varieties. Again, this might be a good time to pause and think about your feelings on North Korea a few months ago. Was the country an existential threat to you then? When we reported what was discussed at Bilderberg, did you downplay all of it? Have you changed your mind now that the mainstream media has confirmed what we reported months ago?

The benefit of war to Trump is the same as it has been to every president who has capitalized on it, it’s an artificial means of unifying the country and distracting them from domestic division. This is how cynical, things have become – we only unite when we have a common enemy; otherwise, the enemy is us, and we are our own worst enemy. Trump has been getting absolutely battered domestically. The media has been relentless and none of his reforms are being allowed through the courts, his approval rating was at its lowest point this month, even his conservative support base is steadily eroding. For Trump, a war with North Korea is relatively safe. He doesn’t care about other countries in the region and when likely retaliatory strikes from North Korea hit South Korea he’ll be quick to spin it solely as the actions of a madman and bury the notion that it was a predictable response to US military action. Of course, we will be told that there will be a quick end to it, but that is only if we observe the nuclear bombing of Japan with the nuking of North Korea.

AUGUST 11, 2017