U.S. Troops and Warships in Korea following dropping inert bombs by B-2 Bombers, deploying F-22 warplanes, drones and troops at North Korea's front door. The current U.S. military aggression on the border of North Korea can be understood by revisiting their history in Korea. For nearly 60 years the US has chafed at their failure to defeat North Korea in their war against that country from 1950 to 1953, with Dwight D. Eisenhower being forced to sign the armistice agreement on July 25, 1953. Backdrop for the 1950 US invasion of Korea The Korean war began like so many other US wars. It was the result of the US taking it upon itself to divide Korea into two political divisions after defeating Japan when "In August 1945, two young aides at the [US] State Department divided the Korean peninsula in half along the 38th parallel." The U.S. claimed the right to do this saying that the Korean Peninsula "fell into their laps" as a spoil of their war with Japan. After imposing this division among Koreans, the North and South (predictably) fought to gain control with battles being fought between them along the 38th parallel for control and unification of the country. But when the North gained the upper hand to establish the country under a communist government they were accused of "invading" the South. Without U.S. "intervention" the North would probably have won and unified the country to the dismay of the United States. Watching their plan for Korea falling apart, the U.S. entered the conflict, sending 300,000 troops into South Korea in 1950 to defeat the North. It's just another case of the US meddling in the domestic affairs of another sovereign country. Only the Korean people had the right to resolve their differences for self- determination. Any other view is revisionist history. The Pretext for the U.S. Invasion The US tried to distort the reason for their invasion of Korea with the same "dominoe theory" they later used to justify their lost war against Vietnam, and as an effort to "liberate" North Korea from the communists. In more recent years the U.S. has "liberated" Iraq and Libya by destroying their countries and are attempting to "liberate" Afghanistan from the Taliban and Syria from the "evil dictatorship" of the Assad government which has refused to kow-tow. But they're not finding either of the latter two countries so easy to destroy nor the "cakewalk" they thought they'd be. At the outset of the Korean War, Harry Truman declared, “If we let Korea down, the Soviets will keep right on going and swallow up one [country] after another.” The West's revisionist historians later claimed, "The fight on the Korean peninsula was a symbol of the global struggle between east and west, good and evil. As the North Korean army pushed into Seoul, the South Korean capital, the United States readied its troops for a war against communism itself." The U.S. even claimed their war against Korea was aimed at preventing the Soviet Union from attacking Europe with atomic weapons. Today we're hearing the same bullshit rhetoric but now the "global struggle" is between the "evil" Muslims and the "good" US/NATO world saviors. The U.S. Defeat in Korea The US also tried to save face after their ultimate defeat at the 38th parallel with Truman claiming they only stopped fighting to save lives and to prevent a war with China after actually provoking China into defending its sovereignty against this US aggression on their border. The US spun their surrender at the 38th parallel as "a stalemante" but in the end, their effort to gain control of the entire Korean peninsula was defeated. Following their defeat in Korea they launched inhumane sanctions against the country causing severe hardships among North Korean citizens including starvation as the West's government-corporate media decried North Korea's inability to provide for their own. In the 3 year US war in Korea Korean, nearly 5 million people were killed. More than half were civilians - 10 percent of the prewar Korean population. The rate of civilian deaths was greater than that of WWII and Vietnam. About 40,000 US soldiers were killed and more than 100,000 wounded. Americans died in action in Korea, and more than 100,000 were wounded. The "crisis" with North Korea we are watching played out today has all the same trappings of the prelude to US war in Korea in the 1950's. Washington continues to think of the Korean Peninsula as a spoil of war that righteously belongs to them, a prize for defeating the Japanese in WWII by bombing Nagasaki and Hiroshima, They have provoked North Korea and China with their aggressive "war games," flying over 10,000 kilometers to conduct an unprecedented, "mock bombing" of Korean soil, dropping inert bombs on the North's border from B-2 war planes, deploying advanced F-22 fighter jets, war ships and drones to South Korea and a plan to boost a missile "defense" system against the North. In his robust, defensive response to this aggression, North Korean President Kim Jong-un points out that his country has the missile capability of attacking U.S. military bases in Guam, Hawaii and Japan. On April 3 at the National Defense University, Ft. McNair, Washington, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel reversed the order of who posed the first threat and described US aggression in Korea as "measured, responsible, serious" while stating that North Korea has "ratcheted up her bellicose, dangerous rhetoric," presenting "a real and clear danger." "I think we have had measured, responsible, serious responses to those threats. We, as you know, are undergoing joint exercises with the South Koreans now. We are doing everything we can, working with the Chinese, others to defuse that situation on -- on the peninsula. "And so as they have ratcheted up her bellicose, dangerous rhetoric -- and some of the actions they've taken over the last few weeks present a real and clear danger and threat to the interests, certainly of our allies, starting with South Korea and Japan; and also the threats that the North Koreans have leveled directly at the United States regarding our base in Guam, threatened Hawaii, threatened the West Coast of the United States. As secretary of defense, and I think beginning with the president of the United States, and all of our leaders, we -- we take those threats seriously. We have to take those threats seriously." So there we have the "bellicose, dangerous rhetoric" and the "real and present danger" leveled at North Korea by the US government. So it goes. Meanwhile, the US corporate industrial war complex is loving every minute of it. The North Koreans respond as any responsible people and government should, defending themselves with civil and military preparedness: North Koreans Protest the US Aggression North Korean Troops in formation, preparing to defend their country. Corporate-Western Media The Western Media have trampled each other to demonize North Korea and President Kim, while exaggerating and distorting the threats against the west and ignoring the US provocation. The US and European waterboy-media portrays Kim's response as aggressive, belligerant and dangerous while discounting North Korea's resolve as "bellicose threats" and "muscle flexing." They depict Kim as "dictator," as a "warmonger," as the "North Korean Crackpot" and North Korea as a "Rogue State." The Sun (UK) headlines, "Crackpot Kim could nuke UK. Cam alert as tensions rise and world holds its breath" followed with 'North Korea is capable of nuking Britain if despot Kim Jong-un’s missile claims are true', David Cameron warned yesterday. The PM said the threat posed by 'extremely dangerous' weapons in the crackpot dictator’s rogue regime was a “real concern.” The Telegraph(UK) headlines, North Korea: 'outbreak of war hours away' as Kim Jong-un plans US strike. They continue, quoting Dylan Harris, director of Lupine Travel: "I contacted the Foreign Office and if they say it's unsafe we will not travel or organise further trips to North Korea." No shit! Sky News screams, North Korea Rockets 'Ready To Hit US Bases' The West's "Muslim" mouthpiece, Al Jazeera headlnes: N Korea 'readies' rockets to strike US bases. BBC Radio broadcasts, "North Korea has authorised a possible nuclear strike in the face of what it has called a nuclear threat from the US." and "If North Koreans get caught trying to listen to foreign radio, they're likely to be punished in a labour camp." BBC Video: North Korea: 'It's a mad, sad and bad place' and the BBC website headlines, North Korea enters 'state of war' with South and The Terrible Price of a Korean Defection and North Korea threatens "final destruction" of South Korea. Meanwhile, the BBC laughably accuses North Korea of "hyperbole" ! - in an article they title, "Mobilising the propagandists in North Korea" New York Times: North Korea Threatens to Attack U.S. With ‘Lighter and Smaller Nukes’ and North Korea Faces Pressure From U.N. on Human Rights Washington Post: Experts: North Korea might have know-how to fire nuclear-tipped missile at South Korea, Japan. Los Angeles Times: North Korea's Kim is making U.S. officials nervous Chicago Tribune: North Korea to target U.S. with nuclear, rocket tests These mad and frantic 'shock and awe' messages are devoid of any serious context, designed to villify North Korea, terrorize the North Korean people and instill fear in US and European populatons. They are reminiscent of the media lies that Iraq had capability of striking the East Coast of the U.S. in only 45 minutes from launch. Cyber Attack on North Korea In addition, wearing the mask of Anonymous the west has hacked major domestic media organizations inside North Korean and China with mock-up carcactures of Kim with the ears and nose of a pig and Mickey Mouse tatooed on his chest and statements like, "First we gonna wipe your data, then we gonna wipe your badass dictatorship' government." Imagine!! North Korea or China taking over C-SPAN, CBS, NYT, WP or CNN showing Obama in these insulting cartoons with words like these! In their propaganda show last night, the CNN TV program followed this news spreading fear that Chinese "superhackers" could wipe out electronic services of western corporations, banks and government sites calling them, "very dangerous." CNN's expert went on to express fear that these "Superhackers" could even attack Israel but that Israel is "well prepared." The "expert" quietly admitted that there is no way to know who committed the hacking against Korea and China which they earlier attributed to the well-known decentralized group who call themselves Anonymous and who has a history of hacking imperialist websites and western government and corporate electronic sites. In our view, given Anonymous' political views and practices, it seems unlikely that they carried out this attack on North Korea. CNN TV claims South Korean Workers are trapped in North Korea The latest episode has the CNN TV and other corporate media lying about 800 South Korean workers, "trapped" in a joint North-South Korean Industrial Complex, implying that they are not permitted to leave despite many others who have left for a lack of work and returned to the South. CNN covers its ass with their Korean correspondent saying that there's no way to know the fate of these South Korean workers nor "how many will be allowed to return home." When their reporter at the 38th parallel interviewed a South Korean Manager at the industrial site as he left the North, she appeared embarrassed as he said in a relaxed manner, not to worry, they can return if they want but have remained because they need their jobs. (more of this propaganda at the CNN website) In his concise analysis (below) of the current US-North Korea showdown, Stephen Gowans explains more. - Les Blough, Editor Axis of Logic Washington’s “playbook” on provoking North Korea What's Left By Stephen Gowans More: North Korea declares 'state of war' with South RT News (article). Axis of Logic (commentary) In an April 3 Wall Street Journal article, “U.S. dials back on Korean show of force,” reporters Adam Entous and Julian E. Barnes revealed that the White House approved a detailed plan, called ‘the playbook,’ to ratchet up tension with North Korea during the Pentagon’s war games with South Korea. The war games, which are still in progress, and involve the deployment of a considerable amount of sophisticated US military hardware to within striking distance of North Korea, are already a source of considerable tension in Pyongyang, and represent what Korean specialist Tim Beal dubs “sub-critical” warfare. The two-month-long war games, directed at and carried out in proximity to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, force the North Korean military onto high alert, an exhausting and cripplingly expensive state of affairs for a small country whose economy has already been crippled by wide-ranging sanctions. North Korea estimates that sanctions and US military aggression have taken an incalculable toll on its economy.1 The playbook was developed by the Pentagon’s Pacific Command, to augment the war games that began in early March, and was discussed at several high-level White House meetings, according to the Wall Street Journal reporters. The plan called for low-altitude B-52 bomber flights over the Korean peninsula, which happened on March 8. A few weeks later, two nuclear-capable B-2 bombers dropped dummy payloads on a South Korean missile range. The flights were deliberately carried out in broad daylight at low altitude, according to a U.S. defense official, to produce the intended minatory effect. “We could fly it at night, but the point was for them to see it.”2 A few days ago, the Pentagon deployed two advanced F-22 warplanes to South Korea, also part of the ‘play-book’ plan to intimidate Pyongyang. According to Entous and Barnes, the White House knew that the North Koreans would react by threatening to retaliate against the United States and South Korea. In a March 29 article, Barnes wrote that “Defense officials acknowledged that North Korean military officers are particularly agitated by bomber flights because of memories of the destruction wrought from the air during the Korean War.” 3 During the war, the United States Air Force demolished every target over one story. It also dropped more napalm than it did later in Vietnam.4 The reality, then, is exactly opposite of the narrative formulated in the Western mass media. Washington hasn’t responded to North Korean belligerence and provocations with a show of force. On the contrary, Washington deliberately planned a show of force in order to elicit an angry North Korean reaction, which was then labelled “belligerence” and “provocation.” The provocations, coldly and calculating planned, have come from Washington. North Korea’s reactions have been defensive. Pressed to explain why North Korea, a military pipsqueak in comparison to the United States, would deliberately provoke a military colossus, Western journalists, citing unnamed analysts, have concocted a risible fiction about Pyongyang using military threats as a bargaining chip to wheedle aid from the West, as a prop to its faltering “mismanaged” economy. The role of sanctions and the unceasing threat of US military intervention are swept aside as explanations for North Korea’s economic travails. However, Entous’s and Barnes’s revelations now make the story harder to stick. The North Koreans haven’t developed a nuclear program, poured money into their military, and made firm their resolve to meet US and South Korean aggression head-on, in order to inveigle aid from Washington. They’ve done so to defend themselves against coldly calculated provocations. According to the Wall Street Journal staffers, the White House has dialled back its provocations for now, for fear they could lead to a North Korean “miscalculation.” In street language, Washington challenged the DPRK to a game of chicken, and broke it off, when it became clear the game might not unfold as planned. According to the Korean Central News Agency, March 26, 2013, “The amount of human and material damage done to the DPRK till 2005 totaled at least 64,959 854 million U.S. dollars.” Jay Solomon, Julian E. Barnes and Alastair Gale, “North Korea warned”, The Wall Street Journal, March 29, 2013 Julian E. Barnes, “U.S. pledges further show of force in Korea”, The Wall Street journal, March 29, 2013 Bruce Cumings. The Korean War: A History. Modern Library. 2010. Source: What's Left