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   From: acoustic@panix.com   
      
   "Nothing devious about North and South Korea talking" [Rick Salutin]   
      
     The South Korean government earlier on Tuesday rejected criticism   
     that Tuesday that next month's Winter Olympics had been hijacked by   
     North Korea, saying the Games will help defuse tensions   
      
     Moon's approval rating has fallen to a four-month low at 66 percent,   
     a poll showed on Monday, due to a backlash over the decision   
     regarding the combined ice hockey team.   
      
     U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, who will represent the United States   
     at the Olympics, said on Tuesday he would seek to counter what he   
     called Kim's effort to "hijack" the Games with a propaganda   
     campaign, a White House official said.   
      
     President Donald Trump and top advisers have publicly welcomed the   
     intra-Korean talks, but U.S. officials have warned that Pyongyang   
     might be trying to drive a wedge between Washington and its South   
     Korean ally.   
      
   Well, guys, seeking peace with your brethren is not free.  S Korean   
   president Moon's approval rating has fallen to a 4-month low of 66%.   
   What a big disappointment for SK's number one "ally" on earth!   
      
   I'll admit that G W Bush did better with the public opinion polls when   
   the American people didn't realize at the time that he was misleading   
   them about Iraq.   
      
   But while Bush didn't go to war in Afghanistan and Iraq because he had   
   a promise to his voters he needed to keep, Moon was elected to lead   
   South Korea on his promise to bring sunshine back to the Korean   
   peninsula.  And he was elected by a large margin because the Korean   
   people want to live with their brethren from the north in peace.   
      
   So, Moon knew he had a promise to keep, for as long as he remains the   
   country's president, regardless of whether it would cost him   
   popularity.   
      
   But he was criticized for playing nice and talking to his brethren.   
      
   What is the criticism?  Isn't peace better than war?   
      
   No, apparently not.  Unnamed officials of South Korea's most important   
   "ally" are worried that by talking to North Korea, the host of the   
   2018 Olympics had let its brethern in the north "hijack" the Games   
   and "drive a wedge" between SK and the US.   
      
   The unnamed officials do have a spokesperson in Vice President Mike   
   Pence!   
      
   And, still another unnamed spokesman for Pence's office wants to let   
   you know that the vice president will have a "high-profile" presence   
   in Korea during the Games to let you know that North Korea is a   
   "master manipulator" and a "murderous state".  And Pence's objective   
   is to ensure that North Korea won't get two long weeks' worth of a   
   free ride to promote its own brand of propaganda.   
      
     "He has grave concerns that Kim will hijack the messaging around the   
     Olympics," the official told reporters aboard Pence's plane as he   
     returned to the United States from a trip to the Middle East.  "The   
     North Koreans have been master manipulators in the past.  It's a   
     murderous state."   
      
     Pence will conduct media interviews during his visit to South Korea,   
     the official said.  "He's going to root on our Olympians, and he's   
     excited about that.  He's going to ensure that from a messaging   
     standpoint that it isn't turned into two weeks of propaganda," the   
     official said.   
      
   Well, the Olympics were supposed to be a break from savage wars.  Now,   
   Pence and company are so eager to have their war that they don't want   
   to give the Games a break.  They want to tell people how crucial it is   
   to see the North Koreans starve to death before we finish them off   
   with our bombs.   
      
   But who would trust Washington after the kind of insensitive things   
   the likes of Lindsey Graham have said:   
      
     There will be war between the United States and North Korea over the   
     rogue nation's missile program if it continues to aim   
     intercontinental ballistic missiles at America, Sen. Lindsey Graham,   
     R-S.C., said President Donald Trump has told him.   
      
     "He has told me that. I believe him," the lawmaker said Tuesday on   
     TODAY. "If I were China, I would believe him, too, and do something   
     about it."   
      
     Graham said that Trump won't allow the regime of Kim Jong Un to have   
     an ICBM with a nuclear weapon capability to "hit America."   
      
     "If there's going to be a war to stop [Kim Jong Un], it will be over   
     there. If thousands die, they're going to die over there.  They're   
     not going to die here. And He has told me that to my face," Graham   
     said.   
      
   In reality, North Korea has always said that its missile-launch and   
   nuclear programs are for self-defense and would be put into use only   
   if they have to defend themselves against foreign attack.  And I have   
   never seen anything they say about invoking their nukes without the   
   conditional.  And it doesn't make any sense for North Korea to   
   activate its nukes without provocation because the consequence is the   
   country's instant and total destruction.  The consequence described is   
   just the way deterrence works.   
      
   Furthermore, people like the current CIA director Mike Pompeo are fond   
   of saying is: North Korea wants to have a nuke program for "coercive   
   purposes".  But how can the small country coerce another country to   
   follow its orders using its nukes when the latter's effectiveness lie   
   entirely in possession of them but not in using them?   
      
   What the powers-that-be in Washington are worried about is their   
   hegemonic ambition of indefinitely stationing US troops on the Korean   
   peninsula might not be a safe thing to do anymore because, e.g., North   
   Korea can start a conventional war to drive the American trooops out   
   of the peninsula while the country itself is at once protected by its   
   nukes under deterrence principles.   
      
   So, the bottomline of going to war against North Korea, killing   
   "thousands over there" on the peninsula along the way, is not due to   
   any tangible threat from NK on US territories, but rather to its   
   "threat" to US hegemony in Far East Asia.   
      
   The logical solution to the "North Korea crisis" is very simple:   
      
   In fact, there is a very easy way to keep America safe with a single   
   peaceful declaration from the US president, whoever it may be. It is   
   to withdraw American troops currently on the Korean peninsula.  For   
   that matter, we should also withdraw all troops from Japan and the   
   Philippines.  There is an ocean separating the U.S. from those faraway   
   places.  And like the Canuck below tells us, it is not a wedge,   
   rather, it is a great big ocean.   
      
   But Mike Pence will again pretend that North Korea is threatening us,   
   so he will stop in Alaska to inspect US military installation over   
   there, according to the unnamed official who just told the world that   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)