Today it's impossible to switch on any radio or television without being bombarded by "news" of the supposed North Korean threat. The current news cycle repeating the same thing over and over. "Be afraid! Little Kim is going to kill us all!" All of this naturally borders on absurd and as usual an alarming amount of the American public is lapping it up. I am a dual citizen of the US and Britain and I have extensively traveled and lived in various countries and from what I've seen the United States public is one of the happiest out there when it's got a bad guy to fixate on. To say that as a country the majority either side of the aisle are so self absorbed that their bordering on autistic would be murdering it with an understatement. However, as the current administration begins to whip the American people up into a frenzy let's examine a few things.
Size: North Korea is approximately 46,541 square miles in size with a population of 25.37 million... The state of Florida is 65,755 square miles in size to give you a comparison here.
Neighbors: North Korea shares borders with Russia and China to the North and the South Korea to the south.
Military Capabilities: Now despite the shifted time line that the pentagon came up with in regards to North Korea being able to hit us now with nukes rather than 2022 or 2020 let's look at the realities. A report released by the pentagon last year described the North Korean military as antiquated with 1.2 million men and loads of broken equipment. You have to love how the media was pumping up how we should be worried after the North Korean military parade was widely televised on every western mainstream media outlet. And in the end military analyst both current and former came out to state that a lot of it was window dressing and also that it was incredibly likely/almost certain that the missiles displayed were ineffective. Up until the past three months the usual analysis of the North Koreans military has usually been disciplined yet archaic.
Geo Political and economic position: North Korea is surrounded by three of the largest most powerful military powers in the world. It also sits atop over 11 trillion dollars worth of rare earth metals with barely the means to defend itself. It has been subject to sanctions and restrictions that have brought its people to their knees causing starvation and desperation at every turn forcing its government to become increasingly creative in methods and ways to get around these sanctions to feed its people. Every year it watches to the south as one of the largest military powers conducts exercises simulating its destruction.
Posture: If smaller nations learned anything from Libya and Gaddafi's fate it's this: Don't disarm when America says disarm no matter what. Libya had a prosperous economy and a stable government before the US covertly knocked it asunder creating a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions in the process. This was only achievable due to the fact that they were no longer a nuclear power and Gaddafi was over thrown. North Korea has been squirming under boot heels for a while and watched the reiteration of a simple truth. Don't trust Americas motives in foreign policy. This observation combined with military exercises simulating its annihilation every year needs to be examined before we start screaming for this small nations destruction.
Conclusion: If the United States people were to be informed of a Russian or Chinese sponsored drill off the coast of Cuba simulating an attack, there would be deafening calls for war from the American people. Missiles would fly within hours of the announcement. What would you do if I walked up to you every day and dry fired a revolver in your face and before walking away I assured you that one day it might be loaded? Every year the North says it will cooperate with the United States and South Korea if we stop our simulated exercises of attacking and wiping out the North Korean military. Every year we refuse. Now yes, the little hair parted hobbit know as Kim Jong Il is a despot. Yes, the North Korean people are economically struggling, mainly due to sanctions imposed by the west. Yes, his posture is highly aggressive. But in light of all stated points which can be factually validated you have to ask yourself...... Are these these actions of a suicidal tyrant or the actions of a nation trying to deter a world power dead set on its annihilation?
I understand that here in the west we have this obsession with a myth of ending. Our thanatonic glands juice at every end of the world myth or potential threat. From the Mayan calendar to Russian aggression we get a massive hard on at the mention of the apocalyptic. Even in our recreational media we are obsessed with walking dead zombies and struggles for survival. Meanwhile the victims of our intervention in nations like Syria, Libya, and Yemen are living around true horrors of the walking dead and understand all to well the effects of America spreading its own personal brand of democracy. We tend to suffer from collective short term memory loss as a people which is why we continue to repeat the mistakes again with alarming regularity. I invite you to remember the Gulf Of Tonkin when the US government systematically lied to the American people leading to the loss of 1,450,000 human lives if you count all deaths. Not just American. This was brought about by lying and declaring the North Vietnamese attacked. In closing I humbly invite the reader to entertain and research these points of view before subscribing to the mainstream narrative that's demonizing North Korea. I'm not saying their a great country or not despotic. I am simply suggesting that we weigh in all facts when developing an opinion or voicing our support for actions that could lead to loss of life, as well as roll the dice on a war that could spiral out of control. Thank you for reading.
