By Edwin Cooney
Okay, I’ll risk it! The biggest fake news story in recent times is the Trump/Kim drama. Sure, the existence of nuclear weapons is real enough, but the story behind the story is nonsense.
In the first place, Americans have been historically hornswoggled about North Korea by both Republicans and Democrats since 1953. Richard Nixon campaigned three times for president insisting that there had been peace in Korea since Ike put Kim Il-sung in his place by privately threatening him with nuclear destruction. Second, President Clinton, President Carter, President George W. Bush, and President Obama all allowed themselves to be snookered by generations of the Kim gangster family that rules North Korea. In 1994, in 2005, and throughout the entire Obama administration, American administrations had been the victim of whiny threats coming from Pyongyang. Finally, “Dealer-in-Chief” Trump is now insisting that he and “Rocket Man” (Kim Jong-un) have a workable understanding that will lessen tension on the Korean peninsula.
I’ve been accused by some readers of being naive regarding the significance of the threats emanating from North Korea. I’m convinced, however, that my analysis is absolutely on target. In their use, nuclear weapons are deadly. Ah, but the existence of nuclear weapons is a hell of a bargaining tool. You may never intend to use nuclear weapons. However if you never tell the world you’ll never use them, the world will be scared to death wondering if you really might.
As for North Korea being a Communist state, whether it is or isn’t is quite irrelevant. North Korea isn’t really a Communist state in the true sense of the word. The Kim family has exploited Communist doctrine because it ideologically fits the Kim family’s generational goal to maintain power. Essentially, they insist that they’re part of the worldwide movement to advance Communism when their real ambition is primarily to plunder for the family’s social, political and financial benefit. Someone, I’ve forgotten who it was, once observed that the same was true of Soviet Communism, that Soviet Communism was merely state-sponsored autocracy no different than the rule of the Czars. Only the Chinese, it has been observed, really and truly have attempted to practice pure Communism. In this analysis lies the basis of my own assessment of what’s really going on.
Between 1945 and 1991, Americans were indoctrinated to believe that we were in a struggle between “Godless Communism” and “God-fearing moral freedom.” On the surface of that struggle, it seemed that both sides were determined to live and die for their core principles. Another important factor in our analysis of Soviet or World Communism was our belief that Communism was a religion rather than an ideology. What we failed to understand was that there’s a difference between a belief system and a religious or a spiritual orientation.
Belief in God, Buddha, or Allah is neither contrived nor ideological, but based on faith. Belief in human ideology is both contrived and conditional. (An agrarian society for instance has little interest in capitalism.)
As I see it, where the rubber meets the road is what whole societies are willing to both live and die for. Twentieth and twenty-first century history teaches us that Communists, who are primarily materialists, exist for material things. Lacking a spiritual dimension they tend to prefer living to dying. Of course, patriotic Soviets fought bravely against Hitler’s Nazis during World War II as did we. However, the decision-makers at the highest levels of Soviet society ultimately preferred the preservation of their vacation dachas to the deadly risk of a nuclear confrontation with the United States over North Korea, Berlin, Cuba or even North Vietnam.
As for North Korea, it is unlikely that it could get involved in a nuclear exchange without seriously affecting the well-being of China which has been its primary support system since Kim Il-sung crossed the 38th parallel on Sunday June 25th, 1950.
I’m convinced that North Korea’s insistence on building a nuclear capacity was designed, at the least, to scare the hell out of those “capitalist running dogs.” Obviously, Kim Jong-un, upon taking power in 2011, made the decision to escalate a nuclear program with the full compliance of both Communist China and the former KGB agent Vladimir Putin.
Having created this frightening scenario, Kim has lured President Trump into the same concessions as Presidents Clinton, G.W. Bush and Obama. The agreement signed last Tuesday, June 12th, 2018, has no more guarantees and understandings in it than the 1994 and 2004 agreements. Yet, Kim Jong Un has moved one step closer to dominance over the Korean Peninsula than ever before.
As for President Trump, it’s hard to grasp what is in it for him except the immediate historical precedence of the first ever meeting between an American president and a North Korean leader. What’s even more puzzling is the degree to which President Trump’s Republican Party, which has traditionally been fiercely anti-Communist, seems to be going along with him. My guess is that had Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton or Barack Obama made such concessions to one of the world’s most ruthless and murderous dictators, the GOP elephant would be fighting mad.
Hence the fake news! I insist that neither Chinese, Russians, or indeed the American taxpayer will be likely to approve a nuclear exchange between North Korea and the United States. Too many very powerful people would lose everything they have including their very lives should such a confrontation take place.
If you are looking for a genuinely scary international crisis, that could come if the Shiites get control of a nuclear weapons system. For Shiites, death is as much of a reward as a military victory. Now you would be talking about the possibility of Armageddon. Then it would be time to be very, very afraid. Over the past ten days, the real news has been President Trump’s contempt for the top leaders of democratically elected societies along with his admiration for Putin and Kim. Progress in our relationship with North Korea could conceivably be real news over time, but for now, it’s no news at all.
Therefore, to the degree that it’s yet to become news and not yet news, it is fake news.
What say you, Mr. President?
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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