- Editor's Note - Journalist Anthony C. LoBaido
has spent the past two and one half years traveling between South Korea,
Burma, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Taiwan and Sri Lanka and in
a quest to understand the emerging dynamism of Asia. LoBaido has also spent
the last several years teaching 25 courses involving topics such as Advanced
Global Journalism, Advanced Globalization Studies, Strategic and Crisis
Communication as well as Psychology of Communications.
-
- He also worked as a radio reporter for e-FM in Seoul
while broadcasting reports from Thailand and Cambodia, trained high-level
South Korean Army officers up to the rank of General, appeared in the definitive
Korean documentary on U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, took his students
to Thailand to work with abused and injured elephants and was also profiled
in a full-page article in the Korea Herald. - ed
-
-
- SEOUL, South Korea During the 19th Century various
European powers squared off for influence in Central Asia for control of
people, territory and natural resources. This was known as "The Great
Game." Just as that long-ago quest continues today over opium, rare
Earth metals like lithium, oil, natural gas and pipelines -- as contested
in Afghanistan between the U.S./CFR/CENTCOM/NATO vs. Russia, China and
Iran, as well as various non-state (Taliban) and supranational actors (Big
Business, UN, IMF, World Bank) in and around Central Asia -- another battle,
perhaps equally as vital, continues to emerge among the Kings of the East.
-
- Students of postmodern history might call it "The
Greatest Game."
-
- The main players in The Greatest Game are Mainland China
and the United States. The prizes they covet are influencing the future
direction of Burma/Myanmar and North and South Korea.
-
- As a journalist, I often say the purest journalism is
akin to a multi-level, multidimensional jigsaw puzzle with multiple realities
all simultaneously co-existing. All of the pieces of the puzzle must be
considered both individually and as a part of the greater whole until the
ultimate picture emerges.
-
- In the case of Burma and the Koreas, the puzzle pieces
seem almost limitless and the overall picture remains elusive at best.
The mirage of archetype Oriental order, tradition, custom, language and
respect finds itself overwhelmed by a mad cocktail of regional factionalism,
fascism, communism, racism, greed, female gendercide, drugs raging from
crystal meth to heroin, jade, timber, the smuggling of exotic animal parts,
elephant smuggling, trade (both legal and illegal), migrant workers, rice,
oil, natural gas, jade, high technology, the war on monks seeking democracy,
control of the Internet, tourist dollars, nuclear weapons, counterfeiting,
arms dealing and human trafficking.
-
- Behind them all lay the terrestrial gods of money, control
and power. It's really just that simple. (James 4:4)
-
- To understand how The Greatest Game is being played out,
on various levels one must consider North Korea's love triangle relationship
with Burma and China. Then there is China's one-on-one relationship with
both Burma and North Korea and inclusive of that is the issue of
cross-border trade between those nations. Add to that China's contentious
relationship with the U.S., as well as the often rocky U.S. relationship
with an increasingly uppity South Korea, which is watching America's rapid
decline with fear, loathing and sadness.
-
- As a player in the Greatest Game, you'll need cut right
to the chase and ask the most vital of questions. For example, will Burma,
like North Korea, shock the world by acquiring or building an atomic bomb?
-
- Will China continue to see the Burmese junta as a reliable
partner or will they also shock the world by turning to Nobel Prize Winner
Aung San Suu Kyi as a more stable, long-term and internationally correct
economic partner?
-
- For their part, the Burmese junta see Suu Kyi as far
too Westernized and outspoken for the typical behavior expected of a Burmese
woman. Her words are viewed by Burma's Generals as not being "proper."
Yet proper is a word invented by men who would seek to enslave women who
don't live up to their very own definition of the term.
-
- Suu Kyi, now a senior citizen, is also viewed by Burma's
elite as a female (and equally well-meaning) Nelson Mandela; a person the
West can use as a rallying point to overthrow an entire nation's leadership.
But the Burmese junta is not F.W. De Klerk, and they will seek a far better
deal, and far larger slice of the pie than the once-humble-turned-greedy
Afrikaners received at the end of their ruling dispensation in 1994.
-
- The questions continue; what will happen if and when
Kim Jong-il's son Kim Jong Un
- (seemingly more normal, Swiss educated and less prone
to cognac and Swedish prostitutes than his fighter pilot-trained father)
takes power in the Hermit Kingdom?
-
- What about South Korean culture, whose traditional values
are under assault from seedy U.S./UK MTV values?
- How would South Korea react to a merger with North Korea?
What would happen to the balance of power in East Asia, and in fact all
of Asia, if such a merger were to take place? How is this future merger
viewed by both China and U.S.?
-
- North Korea is a mutual headache for China, South Korea
and the U.S. Of course the U.S. worries more about China's increasing influence
in Africa, Central and South America, her astounding economic growth, alleged
currency manipulation, thirst for oil and various raw minerals, de facto
control of the Panama Canal through a Hong Kong-based-PLA-front company,
attempts to send AK 47s to California street gangs, forced abortions, gendercide
vs. females, cyber attacks, espionage, purchasing political influence in
the Clinton White House and intellectual pirating of U.S. entertainment
products.
-
- Yet nevertheless, North Korea remains high on the list
of U.S. worries in Asia. China, North Korea and Russia understand America
is their enemy. Sadly, far too many of the American Mandarins in control
of Washington, D.C. aren't listening to that siren's song.
-
- North Korea is used as a pit bull by China to tie up
vital U.S. forces in South Korea and on Okinawa. That usefulness is not
likely to soon change. The true and ugly face of the Chinese Politburo
is revealed by The Greatest Game, for they see North Korea as an ally.
-
- Of course no nation has permanent friends and permanent
enemies only permanent interests. That's part of what makes The Greatest
Game so fascinating to play.
-
- Burma's Many Ethnic Faces
-
- Still yet, more esoteric questions linger; will the Burmese
junta turn the armed militias in Burma's distant, restive border reaches
into a latent "border guard force" or will China turn them into
a more potent revolutionary army that can tie up the junta?
-
- In August of 2009, Burma's hardened army sent almost
40,000 refugees scurrying across its border into China when it overran
an ethnic rebel army known as the Kokang. This event did not please Beijing
for several reasons. First, it was viewed as an attempt by the Burmese
junta to show Washington, D.C.'s political and defense establishment that
Burma's army could be used as an active military force to harass China.
-
- Just after the Kokang operation, the U.S. turned a blind
eye to its visa restrictions in regard to top Myanmar leaders and let Thein
Sein, Burma's Prime Minister, come to New York to give a special talk at
the United Nations. Was this a quid-pro-quo maneuver?
-
- Second, this seemingly minor sideshow in the greater
Myanmar theater showed the Chinese they can no longer assume the junta
will go along with anything and everything Beijing wants. Burma's army
is hungry, cheeky and unafraid of combat. They can be mean-spirited and
have shown no compunction about engaging in ethnic and religious cleansing.
An activist I interviewed in a Thai-Burma border town working with Magicians
Without Borders said the persecution of Burmese-Christian ethnic groups
like the Karen, "Is more cultural than anything else." It's not
as if the Burmese Army has studied the Gospel of Luke and decided to wipe
out those who follow its precepts.
- In the end, the relationship between China and Burma
is merely a convenient marriage. China is Communist while Burma is fascist.
(It should be noted Burma's Socialist and Communist governments did not
stand the test of time after independence from the British Empire in 1947.)
China is atheistic while Burma is both terribly superstitious and Buddhist.
There are some fundamental differences between the two nations.
-
- Regardless, the Kokang ethnic clash forced the PLA and
the Politburo to reevaluate Burma's border issue in respect to her restive
ethnic groups. These groups form an alphabet soup ranging from the NDAA,
KIA, UWSA (the United Wa State Army whom the U.S. has publicly classified
as a drug cartel) to the MNDAA among others.
-
- It should be noted that the Kokang were trained by Mao
in the 1960's as part of the Communist front group fighting against Burma's
then-ruling socialists. In past decades, Chinese regular army soldiers
actually dressed up in Burmese military uniforms and fought against Burmese
infantrymen. In the 1950's and 1960's, Burma's leaders were anti-Beijing.
Those in power these days in Burma won't forget the mindset they grew up
with. They're fully aware Mao murdered over 50 million of his own countrymen
through his misnamed and bloody "Great Leap Forward" and "Cultural
Revolution."
-
- That said, since China has established a semi-autonomous
region in Hong Kong, some of Burma's ethnic groups have turned to Beijing
in a quest to pressure the Burmese junta to consider a similar grouping,
special status, confederation and/or autonomy for Burma's multicultural
conundrum. This is where The Greatest Game becomes very tricky, for there
are many players with conflicting agendas acting in ways one would never
expect.
-
- One thing is certain the money changers want this
China-Burma marriage to last.
-
- The Yunnan border crossing is the key to keeping peaceful,
lucrative trade relations going between China and Burma. The peoples on
both sides of the border have forged sexual/blood and financial ties. Peace
on the border means lots of money to traders of all stripes. HIV/Aids,
mostly from shared Aids needles and prostitution, form the darker side
of life in this area. The US$ 2.5 billion plus in annual trade between
China and Burma (up 25 percent or more since 2008) trumps all when considering
the other options war, counter-insurgency and ethnic cleansing. Capitalism
needs consumers.
-
- If you're wondering about ASEAN's position on dealing
with Burma the issue, don't hold your breath. For its part, ASEAN has seen
Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Brunei, along with Burma, all reject the idea
of issuing a formal statement declaring the Burmese junta should free Suu
Kyi. (Recall that ASEAN was originally formed in 1967 as an anti-communist
alliance, but has now assumed a less artificial role as a regional building
block for the emerging world government and world state.)
-
- China for its part does not need to fear nor heed the
dictates of ASEAN. Burma gives China a representative of sorts in ASEAN.
And more than a few of ASEAN's members are still nominally Communist, Maoist,
Marxist and Stalinist-orientated. As China is an atheistic, fascist, one
party dictatorship, it has no problem in principle with the Burmese junta's
way of ruling that nation. Burma joined ASEAN in 1997 even though both
the EU and the U.S. lobbied very strongly to prevent that from happening.
The remnant of the Vietcong, Pathet Lao, Khmer Rouge and others saw no
problem with expanding their circle to include Burma. In the end, there
is little if any regional pressure on Burma to effectively deal with her
ethnics or release Suu Kyi from house arrest. That's the reality.
-
- Crazy-Beautiful: Understanding the Korean Mind
-
- The Korean component of The Greatest Game requires understanding
that South Koreans don't hate North Korea. Most Koreans hail from a handful
of dynasties and thus share last names like Lee, Shin, Kim, Lim and several
others. They call one another (even total strangers) "Ajoshi"
or "Uncle" or "Ajuma" meaning "Aunt." Truth
be known, North and South Koreans hate Japan due to Japan's brutal colonization
of Korea, various environmental crimes and turning some of the most attractive
Korean females into "comfort women." This hatred is still white
hot in South Korea and might be even worse in the North.
-
- Yet this is where the puzzle that forms Korean norms,
mores and social values becomes complicated almost beyond imagination.
For what the Japanese did to Korea, South Koreans continue on some level
to do to themselves. Korean self-hatred is complex.
-
- It must be noted that prostitution is rampant in South
Korea and is almost semi-openly marketed in certain areas. Additionally,
Korean men are well known for their cheating/running around/affairs, alcohol
abuse as well as for being terribly controlling and breaking the spirit
of their own women both Korean and foreigners alike.
-
- For example, a thin, drop dead gorgeous foreign woman
married to a Korean man might find herself hearing she's fat and has an
ugly face. She won't be allowed to go to church alone if he is a non-believer.
A divorced Korean woman is considered a "dead leaf" and will
find her social status and work options curtailed. Divorce is frowned upon
because South Koreans correctly understand its devastating effects on the
stability on children, teens, families and the nation as a whole.
-
- Traditionally speaking, women must carry the burden of
holding bad marriages together. But Koreans have "jung" or a
tight bond of holistic and generic love. The women in South Korea remain
strong and work to make society as wholesome as possible in the face of
the discrimination they face. (Of course there are good marriages anchored
by excellent Korean men, fathers and husbands who adore their wives and
children.)
-
- More important to understanding the Korean mind is the
fact that Koreans value their racial purity and distain the idea of obese,
gluttonous and unattractive white men polluting their gene pool. Rare is
the Korean daughter who can introduce her foreign boyfriend to her parents.
When a white man marries a Korean woman and her parents pass away, it is
not uncommon to hear the words "We got lucky." This kind of racism
is also a part of The Greatest Game in Asia.
-
- Of course South Korean academics and business leaders
have no problem with using and misleading whites and other foreigners who
are seen as lackeys for enabling their own fraudulent agenda. These sellouts
and non-talented individuals trapped in failed careers are legion in South
Korea.
-
- Some are seen as having no honor and even suicide cannot
offer them redemption in the truest Asian sense. These are kind of foreigners
who help South Korean elites lie to students, steal their parents hard
earned money, offer substandard and almost worthless degrees while playing
the role of the "Great Man" to a Korean public ignorant of the
truth. Yet some foreigners stay on in South Korea out of true love for
the Korean people
- -- acting as cultural change agents and trying to teach
South Koreans about normal, Christian and decent behavior. Such foreigners
are zealous missionaries in Korea today.
-
- That said, there are many foreigners available for exploitation.
The sad truth is that South Koreans are adept a profiting off of the desperation
of foreigners. Like the Afrikaners under Apartheid and to some extent the
Israelis, South Koreans are quickly forgetting what it was like when others
had them by the throat. Word continues to spread about how foreigners are
treated in South Korea. This is a much-needed revelation.
-
- South Koreans prefer to operate in smoked filled rooms,
making decisions like American robber barons at the turn of the 20th Century.
It is that modus operandi; "like fighting a wool sweater," and
that very same racism which helps keep South Korea strong today.
-
- Many South Koreans lament that Russia, China, and Japan
have all in their own way kept the two Koreans apart. Yet it is the United
States, via the betrayal of President Theodore Roosevelt, who gave away
Korea to Japan for annexation at his summer White House on Oyster Bay,
Long Island at the end of the Russo-Japanese War, which remains the Big
Brother that's no longer needed or wanted in some quarters. It could be
fairly said that South Korea has outgrown America. Like a teenager ready
to go away to college, South Korea is ready to stand on her own two feet.
-
- One might as just why? For one thing, Koreans are smart,
featuring the world's highest average IQ at 107. According to the CIA World
Fact Book, only 7 out of 100,000 South Koreans take illegal drugs. South
Koreans admire the historical ideals of America but can see the handwriting
on the wall concerning America's decline -- with China acting as America's
bank, open borders, 20 million illegal immigrants, the reduced value of
citizenship, insane and delusional leaders, lost wars, divorce, gangs,
Aids, broken schools, weakened families, teen rebellion and the decline
of spiritual values.
-
- Many South Koreans now fear a similar decline is already
gripping their society. Yet of the 20 largest Christian congregations in
the world, ten of them are in Seoul. (Seo means "capital" and
ul means "place.") There is still hope for South Korea
make no mistake.
-
- Furthermore, America's economic model has been discredited.
South Korea wisely refused to buy Lehman Brothers during the most recent
subprime financial Armageddon scenario, when duplicitous and greedy American
bankers tried to pawn off that rotting institution to the more than astute
South Koreans -- who themselves have perfected lying to an art form and
thus know a giant lie when they see one.
-
- The aforementioned MTV values, the decline of American
culture, tattooed and pierced kids and Big Pharma-tranquilized American
youth combine to scare older, normal South Koreans. They don't want their
daughters whored out to American gang culture, music and clothing. They
still have their pride. They understand the concept of crawling into the
sewer, having battled cultural colonization over the centuries from various
invaders.
-
- So when Koreans offer you the lamentation "It's
not Korea anymore" they're talking about things like the new wave
of teen sex, teen suicide, famous actresses killing themselves like hotcakes
after being forced to have sex with the wealthy Korean businessmen who
sponsored their careers, children now being given courses on how to identify
strangers and foreigners who might hurt them, pornography, a "sexed
up culture" and the dilution of their traditional norms and mores
through the mad dash for "segewah" or globalization, proliferation
of the Internet and of course, learning English.
-
- Sometimes it seems as if the entire nation has gone mad
all at once like a Titanic Tsunami of filth has washed over this
5,000 year old civilization. The Korea you saw on M*A*S*H does not exist
anymore, if it ever did. (Still there are many great Koreans, so one must
try not to be overwhelmed by the current moral direction of South Korea.)
-
- By first understanding South Korea, readers can finally
begin to understand Wizard of Oz behind the curtain in North Korea and
become more astute players in The Greatest Game.
-
- It's not the North in North Korea that matters
it's the Korea
-
- In terms of cognition dissonance, Koreans (North and
South) are well known for their manipulation of events in order to create
a stir that brings their private agenda to the forefront. They are also
well known as frauds in the business world, for (as noted) misleading foreigners,
secretive behavior, stubbornness, continually evaluating their personal
position of age and status in comparison to others, putting up a false
front, preying upon the weakness of others, propaganda and bravado aimed
at internal consumption, bad tempers, over-working to the point of a tremendous
loss of productivity as well as an over-reliance and trust in large numbers.
(Student groups, economic output).
-
- Just as South Koreans are adept at using Christianity
as a pseudo-pious means to expand business and social influence, so to
has Christianity in North Korea been perverted by "juche" or
"self reliance" in which the Holy Trinity is comprised of the
"father" and "son" from the ruling Kim family while
the "Holy Spirit" is juche itself.
-
- As such, it is vital to remember that when Kim Jong-il
is "acting out" in terms of threats to "turn Seoul into
a lake of fire," or actually his launching missiles, exporting weapons
and tunnel digging expertise to the Burmese junta, or showing off his budding
nuclear arsenal, he is merely acting on a level consistent with the basest
elements of the total Korean cognitive profile. He is saying in effect
"Look at me! Pay attention to me!"
- And treachery is not just a North Korean virtue. Recall
that while South Africa and Rhodesian pilots fought and died in the Korean
War, South Korea still betrayed those countries at the United Nations through
"pro" votes on sanctions. This even while North Korean mercenaries
trained the 5th Brigade in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe to kill more than 20,000
30,000 Matabele tribesmen who opposed the wicked rule of Robert Mugabe.
-
- While South Korea has battled North Korean terrorism
(the recent Choenan naval attack, the downing of the Korean Airliner and
a bombing at the South Korean embassy in Burma), South Korea had no problem
throwing Rhodesia and South Africa's anti-communist governments over to
the terrorism and Marxism of the ANC and South African Communist Party.
(Mugabe's ZANU-PF is more Maoist than Marxist.)
-
- More sobering is the fact that South Korea had no trouble
torturing and murdering her own citizens as recently as 1980 during the
infamous Kwangju Massacre. (By the way, South Korea, once ruled by autocratic
Generals, has no problem doing business with the Burmese junta. South Korean
men relate well to patriarchal societies.)
-
- Again, it's not the "North" in "North
Korea" that's the problem. It's the "Korea(n)."
-
- Alternative Futures
-
- In light of this, one must ask what the future will bring
to the Korean Peninsula war or peaceful economic integration? One
possible alternate future for the entire region would involve peace hinging
upon a "soft landing" for North Korea, reunification with South
Korea and a high speed rail (KTX) that would ostensibly run from Pusan
to Seoul to Pyongyang to Vladivostok/Siberia, Beijing and Ulan Bator. That
is the best possible of all fantasy worlds.
-
- What will happen if and when North and South Korea undergo
reunification? China would then be witness to a unified, highly patriotic,
nominally Christian, capitalist society right at its doorstep. A reunified
Korea would boast a well-trained, two million man army complete with almost
a quarter million Special Forces (North Korea also trains Burma's Special
Forces as attested to an agreement signed by North Korean General Kim Kyok-sik
on November 27, 2008), as well as nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
-
- While China and North Korea are both communistic, have
spilled blood together, live in varying kinds of police states, use slave
labor and see America and Japan as enemies there are limits to their
relationship. It is doubtful that China wants to single-handedly be responsible
for fixing an imploded North Korea. China could welcome South Korea into
her fold as a partner in rebuilding the North. South Korean "chaebols"
or mega-corporations would be able to expand and grow in the North. There's
money to be made.
-
- China doesn't want the North Korean regime to totally
collapse and thus hand over a plethora of problems for the PLA and Politburo
to fix. Especially after China's successful hosting of the Olympic Games,
the achievements of her maverick space program and other 21st Century advances.
Mishandling North Korea could be a black eye for China.
-
- Keep in mind that this "New Super Korea" would
be racially homogeneous and perhaps highly motivated to gain revenge against
ancient and recent conquerors of the Korean Peninsula such as a Mongols
(who brought the popular "soju" alcohol to Korea from Persia,
where the Mongols first encountered what was originally known as "Arak-ju")
and the Japanese. The weakness and needless dissolution of human identity
through multiculturalism and political correctness would not be a factor
in this New Super Korea.
-
- These facts have not, are not, and will not be lost on
the rulers in Beijing.
-
- Reunification would also fix South Korea's abortion issue,
with females mostly being the victims, hospitals charging higher fees for
abortion according to how far along in the pregnancy a woman is, and abortion
having been in the past encouraged while illegal by the government
in effort to raise the GDP. Reunification would allow South Korean boys
to marry North Korean girls and strengthen the Korean race.
-
- Korean men want sons to carry on their family name. The
fact that sons are given favored has transformed South Korea's (and China's)
social fabric. Many South Korean boys are unable to take criticism, are
effeminate, metrosexual in manner and dress, crave attention, are spoiled
and prone to emotional outbursts like punching walls and so forth. Luckily
for South Korea, the Army is the great leveler of manhood, as all able
bodied males must serve in the Armed Forces.
-
- South Koreans can export racy, popular K-pop, they can
develop, change, mutate and reinvent themselves 100 times over, but they
cannot undo certain aspects of their culture thus abortion remains
a vital battleground for the soul of Seoul. Along with Guatemala, South
Korea is one of the leading providers of adopted children on Earth. Abortion
will remain a key issue in Korean society for the foreseeable future. If
China is seen by the Western transnational elite as the perfect autocratic
model of the emerging world super state, then South Korea's abortion craze
is seen as a "positive" to the sick minds lording over the West's,
and the worlds, population reduction nihilists.
-
- Would China allow really allow North and South Korea
to reunite, perhaps if the U.S. were to relinquish protected status over
Taiwan? Perhaps as an olive branch, on the 60th anniversary of the Korean
War, China has officially rewritten the history of that conflict, no longer
calling it an American war of imperialism but actually blaming North Korea.
-
- Finally, no player in The Greatest Game would fail to
consider the fact that South Korea has invested billions of dollars in
China. A reunited Korea would mean Seoul, like Germany, would have to recalculate
its foreign investments to rebuild the house of its immediate neighbor.
-
- Beyond that, China is already heavily invested in the
most lucrative North Korean mining operations and would hesitate to lose
those investments. Any reunification of the Koreas would probably have
to continue to allow China to profit from those mining ventures.
-
- Again in the end, the Almighty Dollar and Almighty Won
will take their rightful place.
-
- Plan 5029: Securing WMD's if North Korea Implodes
-
- Perhaps the most vital question in The Greatest Game
is what is going to happen if North Korea implodes before a peaceful reunification
can take place? Issues such as famine, starvation, crime and refugees would
spill onto China's borders. North Korea is also well known to be the finest
counterfeiter of U.S. currency and as a drug trafficker in league with
arms and drug merchants based in Burma. Thus a total collapse of North
Korea would unleash those smart, well-trained, well-funded and unscrupulous
elements to run wild on China's eastern border. Yet the WMD's are paramount
to all concerned.
-
- Towards that end, Gen. Walter Sharp, commander of U.S.
forces in South Korea, has organized drills for a joint Republic of South
Korea and U.S. team (believed to be the 20th Support Command and known
under its working name "Plan 5029") to train for removing North
Korea's weapons of mass destruction in the event that nation completely
falls apart. Plan 5029 seeks to address issues such as civil war in Korea,
a North Korean coup, a revolt by the North Korean army and untold refugees
fleeing North Korea into South Korea and perhaps China. (North Korean defectors
living in South Korea are not exactly welcomed with open arms. They struggle
to fit in and are viewed as outsiders.)
-
- Of course one must remember North Koreans are the world's
best tunnel diggers and that their WMD's are heavily guarded by elite troops.
It should be noted that one North Korean Special Forces soldier stranded
in South Korea during a failed black op killed more than a handful of South
Korean troops attempting to capture him. He made it back across the border
into North Korea with the relative ease of a Korean Rambo or 007.
-
- Securing North Korea's WMD's might be easier said than
done. Korean soldiers are known to be tough and excellent fighters. (Ask
any American who served in Vietnam). Would those guarding the WMD's in
North Korea simply give them up? Would they be tempted to sell them to
various Central Asian, Middle Eastern or North African state and non-state
actors? Would they smuggle at least some of them to Iran, Syria, Burma
or Zimbabwe? Would they give them to the KGB/FSB, PLA, CIA or even to Jason
Bourne?
-
- The training to remove North Korea's WMD's was held last
spring during Operation Key Resolve. If and when the U.S. turns over operational
wartime control to South Korea's Armed Forces (OPCON, which is slated for
April 17, 2012) it has been agreed that U.S. troops would still spearhead
"WMD removal operations elimination and site exploitation" according
to the March 12, 2010 edition of the Korea Herald.
-
- (Keep in mind this whole scenario comes from the same
American establishment that gave you Katrina, BP, 9/11, Af-Pak, the "cakewalk"
of Iraq, fun times at Abu Ghraib, the Wall Street meltdown, epic and un-payable
debt, errant predator drone strikes and open borders. Can America's politically
correct, feminized and sexually-experimental military even begin to take
on highly patriotic, hardened North Koreans guarding their WMDs?)
-
- The previous regime in South Korean, under President
Roh Moo-hyun, had wanted South Korea to lead such operations. It opposed
the development of a contingency plan on North Korea, arguing it "could
infringe on the country's sovereignty and cause a full-scale war on the
Korean Peninsula should the U.S. military take unilateral action against
North Korea."
-
- Perhaps most interesting is the fact that the U.S. has
approached Mainland China about working together to secure North Korea's
WMD's in the event that North Korea implodes. This was done by U.S. Deputy
Secretary of State James Steinberg during a visit to China. That notion
has been flatly rejected by Beijing as "estate planning for grandpa
while he's still living." The U.S. has also asked China about setting
up rules of engagement (ROE's) and other various ground rules to prevent
the PLA and U.S. forces from shooting at one another as they did during
the Korean War.
-
- (Again, can America, which had to pay off half-baked
militias in Iraq not to fight, and can't seem to defeat the Taliban in
ten years of conflict, take on the PLA and/or North Korean Army on North
Korean soil?)
-
- According to the AP in an article by Charles Hutzler
published on August 4, 2009, "PLA researchers told a group of US Scholars
in 2007 that contingency plants were in place for the Chinese military
to handle North Korean refugees and even go in to secure nuclear weapons
and clean up nuclear contamination." China has its own version of
Plan 5029 but won't share it with U.S. military or diplomatic officials.
So much for "The Big Two," America and China's allegedly blooming
friendship and co-ruling of the el mundo.
-
- The amount of troops the U.S. has in Iraq and Afghanistan,
in addition to forces already in South Korea (about 28,000) and Okinawa
would probably been needed to at least attempt to subdue, conquer, clear
and hold the land area of North Korea. Even then nothing is certain. North
Korea for all intents and purposes is still caught in the war-like scenario
which gripped Korea during the Japanese colonization and Korean War. It
can be fairly said that Brazilian kids play soccer, Dominican kids love
baseball, Afghan children learn to fight wars and North Korean children
are bred to live without bread.
-
- On the Border between North Korea and China
-
- For now, North Korea teeters along like Frankenstein;
strong yet fragile, a product of the mad doctors who engineered a Stalinist,
hereditary cult. North Korea is propped up by trade with China. Without
help from China, North Korea would probably collapse in short order. North
Korea gets almost all of its petroleum from China (US$ 300 million per
year) and much of its food stuffs (Around US$ 150 million).
-
- About 250,000 North Koreans continue move back and forth
across the border between China and North Korea. Cross border trade along
the 1,400 kilometer/840 mile (a kilometer is .6 of a mile) border between
the two states was about US$ 1.6 billion according to rough estimates.
-
- The route between Dandong the cornerstone of the
Great Wall's Eastern Flank -- in China and Sinuiju in North Korea across
the Yalu River (where General MacArthur had wanted to place nuclear waste
in an effort to stop Chinese troops from reinforcing North Korean forces
during the Korean War) being the most heavily trafficked path.
-
- China has its own issues to contend with, including keeping
the ruling Communist Party together, elites vs. populists and the urban
vs. rural dwellers conundrum. As previously noted, North Korea remains
just another headache China would rather minimize.
-
- Perhaps the saddest facet of The Greatest Game is the
fact that Koreans are considered some of the finest gardeners and agriculturalists
on planet Earth. As such, given a fair chance, North Korea's agricultural
sector would bloom as it does in the South and famine would become a dirty
six letter word. Such is the plight of the human condition in Korea.
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- Beyond Rangoon: The Wooing of the Burmese Junta
-
- Players in The Greatest Game will consider the visit
of U.S. Senator James Webb to Burma as a small gesture of rapproachment
with the Burmese junta which is adept at playing off the West vs.
her Big Brother in Beijing. Webb's visit allows us to entertain the notion
of what will happen if Burma tilts back towards her historical allies in
the West? Recall if you will the brave Karen fighters who helped the Allies
during their darkest hours of World War II against the Japanese.
-
- But will China let Burma slip out of its orbit that easily?
-
- China covets Burma's Indian Ocean coastline as a part
of her "String of Pearls" outpost strategy to expand her naval,
intelligence gathering and economic power. That string now stretches all
the way to the once-troubled island paradise of Sri Lanka where Biblical
kings of old are rumored to have found ivory and precious gems and stones.
China has made inroads with the Sri Lanka government to forge maritime
logistical ties.
-
- The ability for China's budding navy to carve out ports
of call, military and intelligence bases along Burma's long coast (and
thus counter American power on Diego Garcia, as well as to project power
to counter India or assist Pakistan) reminds researchers of the famous
Chinese Admiral Zeng He, who centuries ago commanded an armada that made
Columbus and Magellan look like amateurs.
-
- While China has the upper hand right now in regard to
influencing Burma, the junta itself still sits in the fabled catbird seat
in firm control and sitting on a mountain of natural resources and
associated cash.
-
- In the 1990's, the U.N. offered the Burmese junta a cool
U.S. $ 1 billion to hand over control of the country to would-be native
democratic forces. They were given a flat out "No." Why? The
Burmese junta is making a fortune from oil, natural gas, uranium mining,
rice, jade, teak wood, opium and gems.
-
- The junta has promised to hold elections this year (however
fraudulent) and to stamp out the opium trade by 2015. The junta won't just
sit idly by and see the future totally dictated to it by any foreign power
be it China or the West. There's simply too much money involved.
Drugs rest at the tip of the spear as they have for centuries in terms
of enriching those who control the cultivation and exportation.
-
- The opium trade in Burma is largely controlled by various
ethnic armies and groups on the hitherto border regions. One of the major
players has been the Wa State Army, which is one of the largest private
armies in the entire world. The January 27, 2010 edition of the Bangkok
Post reported that Burma's opium production is actually on the rise and
that the Burmese Army extorts money from poppy growers. In fact, in the
Shan State alone, between 2006 and 2009, the amount of land used to cultivate
poppies increased five times over. The Shan State provides 95 percent of
Burma's opium. Burma is the world's second largest producer of the raw
element of the drug. Afghanistan remains the opium Mother Ship.
-
- One of the dirty little secrets of The Greatest Game
is that more opium in Burma means more drug addicts and more HIV problems
for Mainland China. And under pressure from China, the Burmese junta has
at times engaged in drug eradication programs.
-
- (This is akin to the CIA and DEA fighting against the
"unsanctioned" drug networks not controlled by the West's transnational
elite in various hotspots around the world ranging from Lebanon to Syria
to Colombia and points beyond. It's all just one big money game.)
-
- Regardless, it could be fairly said that a Second Opium
War, much more limited in scope, exists in certain parts of China. In fact,
it has gotten so bad that Beijing has gone so far as to offer financial
and technical assistance to farmers in Thailand, Burma and Laos in an effort
to get them to grow crops other than opium.
-
- Will Burma continue to seek cover from China against
the West in regard to resolutions that would otherwise be passed by the
U.N. Security Council? Regardless, Burma is "in play" and there
is no telling how this story will ultimately play out.
-
- The key player for now remains strongman Than Shwe. He's
the "Grandfather" called "Aba Gyi" who could buy Ross
Perot several times over just from the proceeds the junta earns from the
Yadana Natural Gas Project. He has ruled Burma with an iron fist since
1992. Not many Americans or Westerners know that Than Shwe is a high school
drop out, former postal clerk and an expert in psychological operations.
He's also a financial entrepreneur busy these days building a brand new
capital city Naypyidaw -- and an airport that will accommodate 10
million visitors annually.
-
- He even changed the name of his country from Burma (a
perversion of "Bama" which means one of Burma's tribes) to Myanmar,
which is inclusive of all of Burma's tribes.
-
- (From ''Pusan'' to ''Busan'' and ''Peking'' to ''Beijing,''
and from "Bombay" to "Mumbai," changing the names of
cities remains an annoying Asian proclivity. Can you just wake up one day
and change the name of "Miami" to let's say, "Salami?")
-
- Than Shwe has entered into agreements with Thailand (via
PTTEP), India (through ONGC and GAIL) as well as corporations like Daewoo
in South Korea to develop its off shore natural gas resources.
-
- (In one of journalism's all-time great ironic moments,
the well respected Irrawady Magazine, the Bible of Burma watchers around
the world, on Page Six of the July, 2009 edition, featured a picture of
Kim Dae-jung, the former South Korean President, and his quote, "Aung
San Suu Kyi's continued detention shames Asia." The same page also
featured a sidebar reading, "US$ 10 Billion is the expected profit
for South Korean industrial giant Daewoo from its investment in Burma's
offshore gas field over the next 25 years."
-
- Other investors who have thrown in their lot with the
Burmese junta in a quest for oil or natural gas or both are as diverse
as Australia, France, Russia and even the British Virgin Islands. Burma
and China are working on a gas pipeline that would stretch almost from
St. Louis to Philadelphia, ranging from the Bay of Bengal into southwest
China in a quest to help quench China's growing thirst for energy to feed
her industrial and high tech machine.
-
- Chevron and Total (France's national oil company) are
major players in Burma's energy sector. One prominent NGO recently stated
that the junta's profits from business with Chevron and Total will enable
it to proceed with trying to procure or build and atomic bomb. Chevron,
Total and other major energy giants traditionally ignore calls to boycott
Burma as they might have agreed to do in the Sudan or South Africa under
Apartheid. As for the singling out of Chevron and Total, foreign investment
in Burma was almost US$ 1 billion in 2009 and almost 90 percent of that
number comes from Beijing's rulers.
-
- Despite how Than Shwe is portrayed in the Western media, players
of The Greatest Game should remember Burma is more than just a typical
''outpost of tyranny'' as former Secretary of State Condi Rice referred
to that nation. Burma boasts everything from its own professional soccer
league to punk rock. Punk Bands such as Outsider typically produce cleverly
concealed lyrics in songs like "I Want to Kill You" that allow
a small measure of freedom of speech. However, lyrics that demean Buddhism,
promote smoking or alcohol abuse are banned -- as Than Shwe realizes the
danger they present to the health of the nation. MTV values are not welcomed
in Burma for some odd reason.
-
- Also dangerous to the health of the nation is the way
Than Shwe has allegedly gone on killing sprees against the ethnic Christian
Karen tribe and Suu Kyi's supporters. Worst of all, according to Time Magazine's
October 19, 2009 edition, defector Aung Lynn Htut, a former Army Major
who defected to America in 2005, claims that Than Shwe ordered the summary
execution of 81 Burmese men, women and children on a remote island off
of Burma back in 1998. It's not just his postal pony of old that Than Shwe
wants to terrorize it is entire villages.
-
- These days, as noted, some claim Than Shwe is trying
to get a hold of an atomic bomb. Burma has long had interest in atomic
energy, dating back to the 1950's. Today several Russian firms are actively
digging for uranium in extreme Northern Burma, adding to the worries about
Burma's future nuclear ambitions. The junta has confirmed no less than
five uranium deposits. Russia, which is busy revamping its own nuclear
weapons and delivery systems, obviously has her own reasons for digging
for Burmese uranium.
-
- Players of The Greatest Game must remember that Russia
and China can destroy the United States of America in a nuclear war. The
leaders of Russia and China are actively and openly practicing for such
a war. (Witness the shrewd Comrade Putin boarding a Russian sub not long
ago to take charge of an all-out nuclear attack scenario. As such, Burma's
uranium is a strategic plus in the Russian column.)
-
- When criticized for his response to Cyclone Nargis, (by
not accepting foreign aid and intervention) Than Shwe pointed back a finger
at George Bush Jr. and Hurricane Katrina, where New Orleans' political-levy
disaster (Mayor Nagin) and the horrific devastation of Mississippi (which
took the full brunt of the storm) showed the relative decline of American
pride and power to the world at large. Than Shwe was quick to pick up on
that theme and use it to the junta's advantage. Who could argue with him
-- then or now?
-
- Burma has many friends in the arms trafficking business
beyond North Korea. To be certain, North Korea's anti-tank, laser-guided
munitions, Scuds, nuclear technology, tunnels to hide aircraft and ships,
and the aforementioned special forces training being high on the junta's
shopping list. These "friends" range from India (Burma wants
to use India as a counterweight to its reliance on China) to Russia (which
sold Burma a state-of-the-art anti-aircraft defense system) to Pakistan
to several former Warsaw Pact countries.
-
- Since China is building a new crude oil port in Burma
as a part of a vital pipeline to reduce China's reliance upon safe passage
of oil through the Malacca Strait, relations between the two nations will
probably continue to progress in a positive direction, despite the bumps
in the road the mutually encounter along the way.
-
- As for South Korea -- that country has the lowest birthrate
in the industrialized world. This has do to their aforementioned abortion
Holocaust, the high cost of living and other social factors.
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