Photo by Stefan Krasowski | CC BY 2.0
Last month, North Korea conducted two missile tests that were designed to demonstrate that the isolated country had achieved a major advancement in its missile technology. North Korea’s missile tests on July 3 and July 28 were immediately declared by the mainstream press to be successful tests of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which puts part or all of the US in range of a strike. Hawkish “experts” immediately sprung into action and stated the missile tests undeniably proved the North can now strike the United States.
The corporate media’s hyping of North Korea’s “threat” instantly began pushing the country towards a catastrophic war. The Trump administration, which has already been immersed in chaos, sent mixed messages in response and Americans became alarmed. Polling from the beginning of August found that 62% of Americans now believe North Korea posed a “very serious threat” to the United States, a jump of 14 points since March. Fourteen years after the disaster in Iraq was sold to Americans on the pretense of WMDs, which never existed, the mainstream media continue to push war hungry narratives.
It was against this war-frenzied backdrop that Trump unloaded a series of outrageous and off the cuff threats, signifying the US may consider a nuclear first strike on North Korea. An attack along the lines the president was threatening would likely kill at least a million people and possibly…