{"id":218467,"date":"2016-01-25T17:26:21","date_gmt":"2016-01-25T17:26:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=218467"},"modified":"2016-01-25T17:26:21","modified_gmt":"2016-01-25T17:26:21","slug":"phony-north-korean-threat-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/phony-north-korean-threat-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Phony North Korean Threat to America"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;\">by Stephen Lendman<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;\">(<a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF<\/a>) &#8211; Pyongyang long sought normalized relations with America and other Western nations. Washington wanting adversarial relations maintained prevents it.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;\">A<a href=\"http:\/\/sjlendman.blogspot.com\/2016\/01\/why-north-korea-wants-nukes.html\"><span style=\"color: #1255cc;\"> previous article<\/span><\/a> explained why North Korea wants nukes. It fears America for good reason. It knows it wages endless imperial wars, raping one country after another.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;\">Truman\u2019s naked aggression turned most of North Korea to rubble. Millions died, mostly civilians. Pyongyang wants protection against a possible repeat of what happened earlier.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;\">It chose nuclear weapons as its strategy, for defensive, not offensive purposes. It wants peace and stability, not war, devastation and chaos.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;\">Washington duplicitously claims Pyongyang poses a nuclear threat, a pretext for greater US regional militarization, the real threat all Asian nations face.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;\">According to US Pacific Command spokesman Capt. Darryn James, Washington may further militarize Hawaii, Guam, and continental America from (nonexistent) Pyongyang ballistic missile threats.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;\">Kauai\u2019s Aegis Ashore site\u2019s \u201cproven test capability\u201d can be converted to a combat complex, he said.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;\">US Pacific Command head \u00a0Admiral Harry Harris \u201cis always exploring options to forward deploy and operationalize the latest advancements in ballistic missile defense technologies in the Pacific, where we face increasingly sophisticated threats to the homeland,\u201d according to James.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;\">Fact: America faced no external threats since WW II ended &#8211; only ones it invents as pretexts for endless wars of aggression, deployments of US combat troops equipped with weapons of mass destruction worldwide, and homeland police state repression.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;\">China justifiably expressed concern about possible greater US regional militarization than already, a clear threat to its national security.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;\">\u201cAll measures seeking to increase military capacities will only intensify antagonism and will not help to solve the problem,\u201d Beijing\u2019s Washington embassy spokesman Zhu Haiquan stressed.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;\">America\u2019s west coast and Alaska are heavily militarized against potential threats even though none exist.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;\">Russia is justifiably concerned about US-led NATO\u2019s Eastern Europe buildup, increasingly close to its borders.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;\">It\u2019s deploying additional forces with state-of-the-art weapons in its southwestern areas &#8211; countering US-led NATO plans to expand its Black Sea region presence, along with aiding Ukraine increase its combat readiness.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;\">Black Sea Fleet spokesman Captain Vyacheslav Trukhachov said over 15 new Russian warships were deployed in the Black Sea in 2015.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;\">They include two missile carriers and two nuclear submarines, equipped with state-of-the-art Kalibr-NK cruise missile systems &#8211; able to strike targets with precision accuracy up to 3,000 km away, proved effective in Russia\u2019s anti-terrorist Syrian campaign.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;\">Russian Northern Caucasus and Rostov region forces have warplanes able to strike targets accurately throughout the Black and Caspian Sea regions.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;\">Its Iskander-M ballistic missiles can penetrate existing missile defense systems. Its effective range is 500 km.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;\">Russia\u2019s sophisticated weapons can match or exceed America\u2019s best &#8211; why Pentagon commanders call its capability \u201cawesome,\u201d a force to be reckoned with.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;\">US Air Forces in Europe commander General Frank Forenc called its aerial qualitative and quantitative capability \u201calarming.\u201d<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;\">Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;\">His new book as editor and contributor is titled &#8220;Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;\">http:\/\/www.claritypress.com\/LendmanIII.html<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;\">Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;\">Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal;\">It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; by Stephen Lendman (RINF) &#8211; Pyongyang long sought normalized relations with America and other Western nations. Washington wanting adversarial relations maintained prevents it. A previous article explained why North Korea wants nukes. It fears America for good reason. It knows it wages endless imperial wars, raping one country after another. Truman\u2019s naked aggression turned [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":149795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461,1622],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-218467","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-editorials","8":"category-featured"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}