Monday, March 18, 2013

The Korean Pivot

The MSM appears to believe that Obama’s decision to beef up missile defenses in Alaska and on the West Coast is simply another element of his Pacific pivot designed to encircle China.  I believe the game of musical missiles is more intricate than that.

First off, the young Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, has nothing to gain by attacking the United States, and one can assume that he is neither deranged nor stupid.  Therefor his threats must be serving some other purpose.

China, which has long been North Korea’s only ally, supplying it with energy and food, has suddenly joined the West in condemning its protege’s nuclear threats.  But perhaps its seeming abandonment of Pyongyang is mere appearance.  One possible scenario could start from the fact that both North Korea and China support Iran. Obama’s decision to reduce the European missile defense system theoretically aimed at Iran but credibly considered by Russia to be aimed at her, moving some of its hardware to the Western United States, largely takes the pressure off Iran to bow to what its allies agree is unreasonable interference in its nuclear research.

Alternately, there could to a quid pro quo between China and Obama whose quo we ignore. (Meanwhile, the turnabout keeps the chattering classes guessing.) One can even imagine Putin soliciting the new Chinese President Xi Jin Ping’s cooperation in a scenario that may again enable Obama to reset relations with Russia.

Thirdly, the missile reset comes just as Obama is about to visit Israel, the only country loudly crying ‘Wolf!’ and threatening to attack Iran preemptively.  Obama’s shift of hardware is a way of letting Israel know that - to paraphrase Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel - Obama is not the president of Israel, and has no intention of going along with the Jewish state’s bellicose stance toward Iran.

Finally, if Obama’s intention is to mollify Russia by downgrading Europe’s missile defenses, he must mollify the military/industrial complex that together with Wall Street now runs the world. Hence he robs Peter to pay Paul, moving the missiles from Europe to the west coast of the United States.

Whatever is moving the North Korean ‘threat’, I suspect President Obama’s knows that nothing he can do will prevent the Chinese economy from equalling that of the United States by 2017, as predicted by the Western-oriented OECD, to then overtake it.

 

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