Tag: Korean War

“Peace In Our Time”

The famous words uttered by UK PM Chamberlain after the peace deal he brokered with Hitler back in the 1930’s.  And it did NOTHING to prevent war or secure a peace.

It makes me think when I hear about the possibility of an agreement between North and South Korea…..could this be the legacy that is needed for a Trumpian win?

It would go a long way for a more positive outlook in the future….but why on the Peninsula and not anywhere else?  An interesting question that more people should ask…..

Even while the Trump administration looks increasingly likely to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal on May 12, it is simultaneously preparing for an historic summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, as part of an effort to negotiate a nuclear deal with Pyongyang. This contradictory, disjointed approach to non-proliferation is consistent with the style of a leader like President Trump, who seems to view foreign policy as a random collection of individual business deals rather than a single grand coherent strategy with an overarching goal; more often than not, there seems to be a lack of strategic linkages to US national interests. It is downright peculiar that the Trump administration is actively sabotaging the nuclear deal with Iran while simultaneously engaging in high-level talks with North Korea in an effort to negotiate nuclear constraints.

https://thebulletin.org/why-trump-supports-diplomacy-north-korea-not-iran11776

This process should be given all the optimism we can muster for it is a good start but it must continue….

After that piece I read another interesting article…..why are pundits hating the Korean thing?

According to a recent poll, 88 percent of the South Korean public viewed the recent peace summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in as a success. In addition, 65 percent of South Koreans trust Kim Jong-un on his pledge to denuclearize, and Moon Jae-in’s approval ratings have shot up to 86 percent. Broadly speaking, recent developments between North and South Korea have been met with widespread optimism and praise from the South Korean public.

“’Yada, yada, yada,’ the perennial hawk Max Boot wrote disparagingly in the Washington Post about the ‘Korea summit hype,’ adding that ‘there is very little of substance here.’ Similar hot takes were offered by Nicholas Kristof and Nicholas Eberstadt in the New York Times, Jennifer Rubin in the Washington Post, Robin Wright in the New Yorker, and Michael O’Hanlon in The Hill. Their doubts were repeated and amplified as gospel by the usual critics on cable TV.

http://theantimedia.com/pundits-horrified-korea-peace/

Keep an eye on FOX if they go against this thing so will Trump…..

NOTE:  I will be AFK (Away From Keyboard) this morning….my doctors want to have a go with me again….I will return as soon as possible….please enjoy your day and your readings….chuq

White Flags And Rice

OMG!  Pompeo had “secret” meetings in North Korea….and yet that is not the headline that should be the focus……a “secret” meeting after all the juvenile banter by the two leaders…..after the insult throwing…..there may well be a light in this cave.

Joint statement may be released during upcoming summit

North and South Korea may soon declare an end to their protracted war, according to reports detailing ongoing discussions. The two nations have been in a state of war since 1950, with the Korean War having never formally gotten beyond an armistice.

Seriously?

Or is this just one of those stories by Hanity that is pure fiction?

In 1953, North and South Korean leaders met at the “Peace House” in the border village of Panmunjom to sign an armistice ending hostilities in the Korean War. Some 65 years later, a historic meeting at the same spot may finally mean the war’s official end. In a report being shared by Western media outlets such as Newsweek and CNBC, South Korean newspaper Munhwa Ilbo says that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-In may sign a joint statement at the April 27 meeting that outlines a permanent end to the war. The paper reports the two leaders may also reveal plans to return the 160-mile-long demilitarized zone separating the countries to its original state.

Those outcomes appear far from certain, however, with Moon’s chief of staff setting expectations for the summit lower. “It may lead to the establishment of regular dialogue at Panmunjom,” said Im Jong-seok, reports Yonhap News. But, he added, “We expect the summit will confirm the denuclearization will (of North Korea), and hope to have a comprehensive agreement with the North on the matter,” per Reuters. And in a level of cooperation thought impossible only months ago, Im said a direct phone line between Kim and Moon could be set up by Friday.

Boy this could change the tune of the news for a couple of days…..something that Trump desperately needs.

I cannot wait to read the minutes of a peace meeting…..who is gonna step up as the antagonist?

This could be Trump’s big chance to actually leave a mark on history……..other than being a juvenile ego driven leader.

Why A 2nd Korean War Won’t Be Like The First

Fearless Leader is coming off his tour de force of the Asian world and as usual he has accomplished nothing that would benefit this country….although he is taunting a speech come Tuesday upon his return from the mysterious East.

The Li’l Kim mash-up has been my fave so far on this trip….but let us look at the possibility of a war on the Korean Peninsula.

I know some people will think I am being a bit of an alarmist….maybe so….but I had rather all the info get out now and not once the trouble begins.

Lots of talk about the “next”Korean War….lots of what will happen to S. Korea…..and possibly to Japan and beyond….

Here are 5 ways that it will NOT be the same……

If a Second Korean War were to erupt tomorrow, there is one thing we can be sure of.

It won’t be like the First Korean War of 1950-53.

It’s always reassuring—and usually fatal—to assume a conflict will be like its predecessor. France lost in 1940 because they assumed World War II would be fought in the trenches like World War I. Israel almost lost in 1973 because they assumed the Arab armies would collapse as they did in 1967.

So what are the chances that Korean War II would be just like Korean War I? The answer is, slim to none. Here are five key differences:

Source: 5 Reasons Why a 2nd Korean War Won’t Be Like the First | RealClearDefense

We hear all about Nk’s nukes and the damage they could inflict on the US and Asia if Kim were to unleash them…..what could worse than the detonation of nukes?

Good question and I have an answer for you……

President Trump calls him “rocket man”—but what if the nuclear bomb we’re fearing isn’t what we should be afraid of when it comes to North Korea? At FiveThirtyEight, Michael Wilner makes the case that what we really should be worried about are biological and chemical weapons, which the scientists and former defense officials he spoke with believe Kim Jong Un is much more likely to unleash, particularly during “a pre-crisis stage.” Wilner’s take: “These weapons are easier to produce, to deliver, to conceal and to calibrate, and their use would be less likely to trigger the same international response as a nuclear strike.” And the country has the goods, per an October report authored by Harvard scientists that acknowledges the difficulty in accurately assessing North Korea’s capabilities.

Per the report, intelligence reports and defector statements suggest North Korea possesses 13 biological pathogens including anthrax, cholera, smallpox, and the plague, and may have the capability to cultivate and weaponize them in as few as 10 days. Just “a few kilograms of anthrax, equivalent to a few bottles of wine” could wipe out half a city’s population, notes the report, which posits potential delivery methods: everything from putting pathogens into a city’s water supply to employing “sleeper agents” posing as cleaning and disinfection workers equipped with backpack sprayers—with South Korea’s people and the American troops there within reach. But Melissa Hanham of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies is skeptical in comments to Mic. “Part of the reason [biological weapons] were so easy to ban was because armies didn’t like using them. It risked their own soldiers too much.”

Now there is something to think about…..are we prepared for that possibility?

War should be the last option discussed openly…..you would think with all the devastation around the world shown daily on TV that those images alone could be a deterrent to a rush to war…..you would think!

Why?  Is there a possibility that the US could lose a war with North Korea?

Most Americans will answer a resounding NO!…..

If a conflict between North Korea and the United States suddenly broke out, U.S. troops in South Korea would be “outnumbered” and undersupplied, warns Lt. Gen. Jan-Marc Jouas, the former deputy commander of U.S. Forces in Korea.

“The 28,500 U.S. Armed Forces personnel in South Korea are vastly outnumbered by North Korean forces, as well as [South Korean] forces that will conduct the overwhelming majority of the fighting. Unlike every conflict since the last Korean War, we will not be able to build up our forces prior to the start of hostilities,” Jouas wrote in a November 7 letter obtained by Newsweek to several Democratic members of Congress. It’s estimated North Korea has roughly 1.2 million troops.

http://www.newsweek.com/if-war-north-korea-comes-us-military-would-be-outnumbered-former-top-commander-707212

Not something most Americans do not want to contemplate…..but if the possibility is there it needs studying so that it can be avoided.

I say talk it out!

The last this country needs is another war.

‘What If’ In History–Korea

I have been helping a friend with a course on the Korean War….so I am always looking for a fresh new perspective on the conflict.

From time to time I write or post an alternative history piece….a ‘what if’ as it were…..

I enjoy reading about these types of things to see what people feel about history and what they think would have changed if it had turned out differently.

Since North Korea has been in the news so much lately…I thought a ‘what if’ would be a fun piece to post…..

I feel I should start this piece with a disclaimer. I am a historian, and hence I am fully aware that my colleagues are skeptical of what is known as “alternative history” or “what-if history”. Perhaps they are correct. Political scientists have had an abysmally bad track record when they have tried to predict what will happen, so why should we take seriously the predictions of what would have happened? Indeed, we probably shouldn’t. But I will try to make such reversed prophecies – in this piece, at least.

Actually, this piece is based on a long and informal talk I once had with Konstantin Asmolov, a prominent Russian historian of Korea. A few years ago we spent much time discussing assorted “what-if” possibilities of North Korean history, the “roads not taken”.

Source: Asia Times Online :: Korea News – If the North had won the Korean War …

Any ideas?  Or thoughts?

What About The Korean War?

All the bravado surrounding the Korean incident got me to thinking about a war that many Americans know very little about…….it was the war between the end of World War Two and the mash up to Vietnam…..a war that has been all but forgotten bu many of our citizens.

I watched a documentary on the AHC about this war and it was entitled “America’s First War On Communism”….it was all about the start of the Korean War in 1950…although it is a lie…the first war on communism was in 1920’s….but I will let that go for now.

Anyway I got to thinking about the situation of the peninsula these days and how it relates to 1950……and I cam across this article from a couple of years ago…..

The sixtieth anniversary of the “end” of the Korean war saw President Obama attempt to rescue that classic example of interventionist failure from history’s dustbin. Addressing veterans of that conflict, he declared:

“That war was no tie. Korea was a victory. When 50 million South Koreans live in freedom, a vibrant democracy…a stark contrast to the repression and poverty of the North, that is a victory and that is your legacy.”

This is a fairytale: it wasn’t a victory, or even a tie: the US public was disenchanted with the war long before the armistice, and Truman was under considerable pressure at home to conclude an increasingly unpopular conflict. As for this guff about “democracy”: whatever the US was fighting for, from 1950, when the war broke out, to 1953, when it ground to a halt, democracy hardly described the American cause.

Source: Who Really Started the Korean War? by — Antiwar.com

The US hides behind the guise of “democracy” too often.

Your history lesson has concluded……

A Well Deserved Homecoming

With little fanfare a US soldier has come home…..

The Korean War has been over for 60+ years and yet not everyone has come home….one more causality of that war has made a much deserved homecoming……

The remains of an Army medic from Massachusetts who was reported missing in action during the Korean War in 1950 are returning home for burial, military officials said Tuesday.

Cpl. Jules Hauterman Jr. is scheduled to be buried in Holyoke on March 31 with full military honors, according to the Pentagon’s Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

Hauterman, of Hampden, will be buried in the family plot with his parents and sister, said David Stuntz, whose 94-year-old mother is Hauterman’s cousin.

Hauterman was 19 years old when he was reported missing in action during the fighting withdrawal of the 31st Regimental Combat Team from the Chosin Reservoir in December 1950, military officials said.

More than 1,300 Americans, pursued by the Chinese army, were captured or killed.

Neither the Chinese nor the North Korean armies listed Hauterman as a prisoner, and no returning American POWs reported any information about him, so he was declared dead.

Remains recovered from the reservoir area in 1954 were declared unidentifiable and buried the next year in Hawaii.

Those remains were disinterred last June and were sent to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency’s lab for analysis.

Dental and anthropological analysis and circumstantial evidence matched Hauterman’s records.

The Accounting Agency said 7,757 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Korean War.

(yahoo news)

Welcome home soldier….may you Rest in Peace…..