Is it inevitable that the world will have to accept North Korea as a nuclear power? For now the international community is committed to a denuclearized Korean peninsula. The world may be forced to reconsider this proposition.
We have seen countries consider development of a nuclear weapon (or in possession of such technology), but later change their position (almost always under pressure from the international community and the West in particular). Libya did, after being made into a pariah in the West, though not in the rest of the world. South Africa came clean on its weapons program after the apartheid regime relinquished power. Ukraine actually inherited an arsenal when the Soviet Union collapsed, only to later, and wisely, relinquish them to Russia. South Korea has seriously given thought to building its own nuclear deterrent, but to this day it has accepted American security guarantees instead.
Then there is the other side of the coin – countries that did drive toward nuclear status in spite of international concern or even condemnation. It is widely believed that Israel has a large arsenal of nuclear weapons. However, because of its special status as part of Washington’s strategic thinking, Israel is allowed a special indulgence around and in defiance of international law. Pakistan and India are also in the nuclear arms club. The other members of the club, over the years, have bowed to this political reality.
Many believe Iran aspires to join the nuclear arms club. It claims otherwise and also claims it is in compliance with its international obligations on the issue. According to Tehran it is only interested in peaceful use of nuclear power. This story is ongoing and remains to be played out.
North Korea is in a category of its own. It has contempt for anything it has signed regarding weapons development. In fact, it has shown that it can use words of conciliation while planning to up the ante to get what it wants. This is where we are at. Not only is North Korea a member of the nuclear club, but it also demands to remain in the club and use membership to green-mail the entire world to secure the country’s sovereignty and extort badly needed aid.
I find it very odd that the mainstream continues to regard North Korea as a crazy or irrational state. The opposite is true. North Korea is acting in a way that is very pragmatic given its international standing and domestic conditions. It is simply wishful thinking to assume North Korea will disarm because others countries have done so in the past. Those countries had many reasons to reverse course – North Korea doesn’t.
Hopefully, long and hard negotiations are ahead and not a conflict of any kind, but it should be remembered and reflected upon how North Korea has taken extreme advantage of the poor state of the current international non-proliferation regime. This has happened because the West has been too selective on its implementation. Now we are being made to pay the price for this negligence.
Nothing is inevitable, I suppose, but I won’t be surprised that the world will eventually have to accept a nuclear North Korea and a very much nuclearized northeast Asia. The alternative is to destroy the North Korean regime. Is the world prepared to do this? I think not. The negligence and complacence of the past is catching up with us.
The past is never really in the past as long as it pervades our present. And recent history is very much with us.
This is why Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has established a commission to protect against "falsification of historical facts and events aimed at damaging Russia's international prestige." This move has sparked considerable controversy both in Russia and in Western mainstream media. This is as it should be; history matters.
Medvedev's history commission is a reaction to the way history, particularly events before, during, and after the Second World War, is being reinterpreted and even rewritten in a number of post-Soviet and Eastern European states. This approach often undermines, or even denies, the role the Soviet Union played in the defeat of Nazi Germany. In some Baltic republics and Ukraine, Nazi collaborators are even honored as war veterans, while Soviet war memorials are moved or dismantled. Many in Russia consider this not only insulting, but also a dangerous rehabilitation of ideas that their countrymen paid such a high price to eliminate.
The hitherto accepted history of the Second World War (or the Great Patriotic War, as it is known in Russia) is undergoing revision. This should not surprise anyone; that traditional narrative was a product of the Cold War. The ideological conflict that pitted Soviet developed socialism against Western capitalism resulted in diverging, ideologically couched explanations for the defeat of Nazi Germany.
The Western take was that the Allies, specifically the United States, "saved the world from tyranny in the name of democracy and other liberal values." Soviet ideologists, by contrast, stressed "the defeat of a murderous and very aggressive ideology: fascism."
As long as the Cold War continued, these two renditions could coexist, although the West consistently understated the Soviet contribution to Hitler's defeat. All of this started to change with the self-collapse of the Soviet Union.
Every country and every society needs a common history. National narratives bind a nation together and create a sense of community. All the new sovereign states that came into being with the end of the Soviet Union are very keen to establish new national histories. But in doing so, most of them have to address specific episodes related to the Second World War.
Warring Histories
As the successor state to the Soviet Union, Russia adheres steadfastly to the belief that it liberated a great swathe of Europe from fascism. To craft what they believe are coherent, if not self-satisfying, national histories, many in the Baltics, Ukraine, and some eastern European states are challenging Russia's historical rendition. They claim that not only did the Soviet Union not liberate them from fascism, but that it replaced Nazi Germany as the occupying power.
Embedded in this claim is a double-edged sword. First, those who argue that the Soviets should not be credited with defeating fascism implicitly also deny the role of those in the Baltic republics, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe who sacrificed their lives to end Nazi rule. Second, there is also denial about how many Soviet republics, and even eastern European countries, bowed to Soviet domination, but also benefited from it.
To be sure, there were those who didn’t, and their grievances are legitimate and should be heard. However, history is not as black and white as nationalist historians and governments would like us to believe. For example, I lived in Poland during much of the 1980s when the free trade union Solidarity was enjoying its greatest popularity. At the time, Polish society was polarized; one-third of the population strongly supported Solidarity, and one-third the pro-Moscow regime, while the remaining third waited on the sidelines to see how the standoff between those two would end. And to this day, some Poles still have many good things to say about Communist Poland.
What is very disturbing about historical revisionism when it comes to the Second World War is the attempt to airbrush from the record fascist ideas, groups, and individuals that infested Europe in the 1930s and 40s. The Cold War-era interpretation of the Second World War was a convenient opportunity to overlook nasty homegrown fascism all over Europe, particularly in the east.
After the war ended, few wanted to dwell on how fascism and gross rightwing nationalism -- very often anti-Semitic -- captured the imagination of the European body politic. Political imperatives were far more important, and so confronting the Soviet Union took precedence. It became acceptable to ignore unpleasant episodes.
This is still happening today. Instead of facing up to the sins of the past, it is all too easy to blame contemporary Russia for the real or imagined sins of the Soviet Union. Using this line of argument, Russia can and should claim it, too, was a victim of the Soviet Union.
It is unfortunate that a new discursive pathology has come into vogue. Many feel that the sole way to prove their historical legitimacy and virtue is by casting themselves in the role of victim. This is history gone wrong. All too often a person's national identity is defined by how someone else wronged him or her.
Today states blame other states for their own problems in the present because of a very specific, and again self-serving, interpretation of what happened in the past. Equally unfortunate is the knee-jerk tendency to blame "undemocratic" Russia for the woes of its neighbors. This is politics on the cheap and a contemptible attitude to what history should really be all about.
Denying the Holocaust is a legal offense in Germany. This is the case in many countries in the world, and is morally right. Consigning to oblivion the murder of millions of people is simply wrong. Russia wants the same to hold true for the 27 million Soviet citizens (at the very least) who gave their lives to defeat Hitler's murderous regime.
It is a real shame that Russia feels it needs a commission to monitor how others interpret history. History should not be used as a political tool to divide people and countries. In fact, just the opposite should be happening.
Germany and France embarked upon an open and honest discussion to reconcile their long-standing historical differences. What we see now is the opposite: history is being used to divide countries and peoples. These divisions in turn open the door for the worst possibility: the slow but very real rehabilitation of a new form of fascism.
First published at RFE / RL.org
05 July, 2009, 21:46
Many nations (including the nations of a religious group), get involved in revisionism, for self-serving, selfish purpose.
* Turkey denies the genocides of the Armenians.
* Japan still denies the genocides in China (WW2), especially Nankin.
* The United-States claims to be the sole winner of WW2, and implicitly denies the sacrifice of the Russians who fought Hitler facism.
* The US by denying french Clement Ader the first human powered flight, attempts to give the credit to the Wright brothers.
* Today the US claims to " have liberated the Iraquies from Saddam" when the real story accounts in hundred of thousands of Iraquies killed for oil, and power.
* Russia does not recognize the genocide in Tchechnya as its own.
* Serbia does not recognize that Kosevo was a genocide.
* The catholic church, is pretty clever at denying the worse of the Inquisition...
The Story goes on, and it is not very pretty.
One possible way to limit revisionism, would be to have a world wide historical institute, where historians from many countries not only contribute, but also agree on their side of history. Of course it would still be difficult to have representatives from Tchechnya, if Russia can deny Tchechnians naationals to be represented (for example), but with time and many players, this would still be a better situation, in some aspect like the International Court of Justice, in the Hague, where the idea i s that no nation has full control.
What is your take there?
Anonymous cowards.
07 June, 2009, 12:49
Jedinite, I don’t know of anyone at all who has ever denied Russia’s casualties and sacrifice in the War, do you? Denial of Russian casualties is not the issue; denial by Russia of its crimes against the Baltics and Eastern Europe before, during and after the War, is.
07 June, 2009, 04:15
Great article. It is said that there are three sides to a story: 1. The left side of the story, 2. The right side of the story and 3. The truth. Unfortunately, the ideal version is always told by the victors who claimed the spoils and it is sometimes exploited for political and ideological reasons. Millions died in WW2 and defeating Nazism was necessary and just but denying and forgetting the sacrifices that Russia made by suffering the most casualties is wrong and ignorant even if Stalin brought no milk and honey to his people.
05 June, 2009, 14:16
Giustino wonders why people are still defending Stalinist history. I suspect it has something to do with the toxic effects of sustained and terror-enforced propaganda. This is what Russia suffered for generations, and it is naïve to assume that the psychological damage this wreaked was anything but terrible. Even though the barbarities of Soviet Communist rule are now history, the damage it caused is not. As a nation, Russia still glorifies Stalin and deliberately ignores his crimes, just as if the great man’s ghost is still standing behind Russian people, from its President on down. Foreign apologists pick up this ongoing Russian proclivity of effectively trembling before Stalin, and hence the nature of some of the posts on this forum. If Stalinist rule was to collapse in North Korea tomorrow, imagine the shockingly damaged state of those poor people that will then be visible to all. Their psychological trauma and damage will last for generations. That is what Stalinist states do to their people. Russia was the original Stalinist state.
04 June, 2009, 18:50
I don't see why people are still defending Stalinist history. I mean he had Trotsky killed with an ice pick and split Poland with Hitler. Not a nice fellow.
The propaganda authored by his regime SHOULD be revised, namely to tell what happened, outside of some great communist ideological narrative.
03 June, 2009, 20:10
Svetlana - you are absolutely right, people are trying to use history as a divisive weapon, not as the learning tool that it really is. They are locked in a politically unwinable war to the death, they just can't move on, and employ politics more and more, creating a more and more rediculous facist revival situation to try to win a batlle that shouln't be fought, one that can never be won, with a weapon that doesn't exist. The numbers game as you say is a pointless one, the extremist maths appears quickly with telephone numbers for casualties or rogue percentages that don't stand up to even the most basic mathematical analysis. The extremist perversion, just goes on and on, and all the people loose, based on this piosoned minority. I fully support an anti-facist law in the EU, becuase without it, it will return, based on extremists creating a weapon from perverse interpretations and manipulations of history.
03 June, 2009, 14:02
I personally would like to see the archives open so that historians, not politicians, can do their jobs.
03 June, 2009, 06:24
I do agree with Peter. Far too often historical past is used by politicians to prove their legitimacy, consolidate the nation, and find a resolution in its search for identity. Sadly, it’s based on differences, opposition to other countries. It becomes more and more radical. When national identity is based on hatred to another country – it’s equally bad for all. It creates breeding ground for homegrown fascism. I think we don’t need another commission in RF to defend government policy. RF must own its position as a successor of USSR (source of Stalinism, terror) and stand higher moral ground: apologize whenever it’s necessary, pay compensations to the families of victims etc. It must make public all archives of NKVD, open free discussions on different interpretations of historical events. RF and EU must demand creating common law against fascism and Stalinism in all countries. RF must change government policy of putting state above the person and promoting glamorization of the past. It works against interests of citizens of RF, takes away their tragic past. At the same time grievances and criticism of its neighbors create an impression of Russia being surrounded by enemies. Our neighbors need to take their responsibility for accepting Stalinism, understand why they would do that. It’s important for the future of all not to step on the same rake. There is no point in blaming each other or which country had the most victims. It only divides us on “us” and “them”. We must respect each others’ history interpretations; sometimes learn to agree to disagree. To Littlesoul: I've got most of the text in my last post from the speech of A. Roginsky to the conference on history of Stalinism in Moscow, 2008 and support every word. This and more about modern Russia is available on www.polit.ru in Russian.
02 June, 2009, 21:05
You really have to laugh at anyone who raises the ECHR as a serious source of fact. Just have a look at the composition of judges, maybe a bit EU focused, wouldn't you say, when I will see one EU judge and the rest from the ROW, then I may start to believe a judgement meets the basic Jurisprudential requirements. We all know the EU does politics and not law, it is its DNA. remember everything in the EU justifiable in political terms, is allowable, regadless of it legality. At least the Nationalist historians are biased and make no claim to judicial independence. The EHCR dresses in justice, and dances to a corrupt tune.
02 June, 2009, 16:44
Isn't Russia's version of the Second World War as "self satisfying" and "black and white" as those of the "nationalist historians" in adjacent states?
And isn't Russia whitewashing part of its history by neglecting to atone for its pact with Hitler in September 1939, which enabled Hitler to occupy Poland just a few weeks later?
Stalin was no dummy. He knew that France and the UK would be obliged to enter the war on Poland's side. But his purpose wasn't the defeat of fascism, it was just to gain more territory, seeing as his policies had already destroyed the landmass he inherited from the tsars.
But Russia was not the USSR you say? That's fine. But neither were the Baltic countries functional states by the time the Germans occupied them in 1941. They had already been occupied by the Soviets since 1940.
The Baltic countries did not willingly join the USSR. This is a fact of history. Don't ask "nationalist historians" -- you can settle for the European Court of Human Rights.
Medvedev's "history commission" cannot change history. I don't even understand why those men even seek to perpetuate Stalinist myths. Are they such cowards that they cannot even face up to the past?
As for suffering, Russia is playing the victim game as much as anybody else. You read it in these blog comments -- the citation of war dead.
But why is it that the USSR lost so many people? Was it because of sacrifice or the incompetence of its leadership at that time?
I can see why the Russian elite would not like such questions to be raised. Because its army isn't in the greatest shape, and who wants the people to know that, in their most heroic moment, the state used its people as cannon fodder to protect its own hide, in a war the USSR itself had helped to start.
Better to go on believing myths. Because if you own the media, you might think that you can control reality.
01 June, 2009, 22:17
I find some of what Svetlana says very much on point. Because of the clash between the shame /grief over the Stalinist repressions and the extraordinarily painful but proud, ash-covered, blood-soaked, nightmarish yet noble, unifying, and ultimately triumphant chapter in our history that was the War (Great Patriotic War is a horrible mistranslation that somehow just...took), it was a common experience to minimize the Stalinist imagery in the popular depictions of the war -- after 1956, of course.
I must run but will add more later. Thank you, Svetlana.
29 May, 2009, 12:58
@Marzipan6
But it wasn't the Russians it was Marxist communists in Estonia with there offices in Sweden and finance the two main Kaganovich organisations Licht and Schalom Aleichem who conspired since 36 to bring Communism to Estonia who were its prison interrogators, militia members, new government no it wasn't Russians.
One of membes of Licht is the one who hosted up the Soviet flag.
The same pattern can be found in the other Baltic states, Poland, Ukraine, Hungry, etc
Actually its interesting as Germany was trying to get charges against the prison administrator of POW camp of Germans in Poland and either Latvia and Lithuania trying to prosecute people for crimes during WW2 and it turns out there living in Tel Aviv. some even working for Yed Vashem.
29 May, 2009, 10:39
I think we need to understand the history of our country first to be able to respond to grievances of our neighbors. Let’s have a look at the state of memory about Stalinism at present Russia.
Stalinism is a system of state governing of Stalin, based on terror as universal tool of solving any political and social tasks. It created centralized system of governance, with broken horizontal connections, high vertical mobility, hard ideology, big army of slave labor…
So memory about Stalinism is a memory about state terror in connection with different events of that time.
What memory about Stalinism is in modern Russia?
1) It’s always memory about victims, not perpetrators. There is no any special law, where terror is a crime. There are no significant processes against participants of Stalin’s terror. And not only that.
Acceptance of any historical tragedies by mass conscious is based on choice of Good or Evil. Better is Good (victim or fighter against Evil) – Eastern Europe. Accept to be an Absolute Evil in the past in order to get rid of it (Germany) – “unfortunately, we were like that, but now we are different”. To separate victims and their killers in soviet terror is very difficult: a) today’s killers became victims themselves; b) we killed our own (as opposed to Nazis, killing other nations) and mind just refuses to accept this fact! This impossibility to alienate Evil is the main obstacle on the way to formation of full memory about terror and it’s pushed aside to periphery of historical memory.
2) On the level of personal memory it’s disappearing memory together with last witnesses.
3) Personal memory is gradually replaced by set of collective ideals of the past, formed by mainly state historical policy. From the beginning of 1990th political power started search for explanation of its legitimacy in the past. At the same time population had crisis of identity after collapse of USSR. Both found acceptable ideal of Great Russia for its heir, modern Russia. Ideals of Stolypin, Peter the 1st , offered by politicians had too little connection with modern time and did not find much support among the population. So, gradually search for concept of Great Russia moved to Soviet period, Stalin’s.
Putin’s administration well understood this readiness to renovate past and fully used it. It did not intend to rehabilitate Stalin, only offer idea of great country, which remains great and with honor goes trough all trials and tribulations. The ideal of glorious past was needed to consolidate population, restore authority of state power, and strengthen its “vertical”. But independently from these intentions, on the background of Great country, surrounded by enemies (like ever before), appears mustached profile of the great leader. This result was logic.
Two ideals of Stalin’s period went into confrontation: ideal of Stalinism as a criminal regime and ideal of period of glorious victories (especially Victory in Great Patriotic War).
4) Memory about war.
Memory about horrors of war, difficulties of everyday life, 1941, evacuation, mass deaths, and victims was very anti Stalin’s, because was connected to memory of terror. Today memory about war is replaced by the memory about Victory. Process of replacement started in 1960th (when memory about terror was prohibited for 20 years!) and completed only now, with the death of almost all old generation of witnesses. There is no one to correct collective stereotype.
Memory about Victory cannot be anti Stalin’s without memory about its price. Simplistically it looks like that. If state terror was a crime than who was the criminal? State? Stalin? But we won the war with Absolute Evil. So, we were not citizens of criminal regime, but a great country on the side of Good?! We defeated Hitler under the leadership of Stalin. Victory is Stalin’s period and terror too. To accept both becomes impossible without any changes. So, memory about terror was put on periphery of mass conscious.
State policy in general does not support historical memory about terror.
Memorials (more than 800) are placed mainly by volunteers, always to the victims, far away from centers of towns. There is no mention of criminals.
Books of commemoration are also local initiative.
300 museums include topic of terror sometimes in their exhibitions. But it represented fragmentally. There is no impression of systematic terror on the whole territory of USSR. There is no National Museum of Terror.
Only 1/3 of mass graves found to date. The memories about killers are not supported. Remained buildings of NKVD, prisons, factories don’t become places of memory.
TV. There are talented films, based on Shalamov and Solzhenicyn. But under propaganda of “great country, surrounded by enemies” public chooses more glamorous films about that period.
School textbooks. Stalinism is represented as systematic, but terror is as unavoidable, without alternative tool to solve problems. There is cry for victims, but there is nothing about criminality of terror. It’s not result of idealization of Stalin. This is natural side effect of other policy: state is always right and higher than any morals, laws or society, because it has state interests at heart. This point goes through the whole book.
As we can see, to make memory about Stalinism national, we need cooperation of State and Society. Historians bear special responsibility.
29 May, 2009, 08:57
To Johnx who wrote, “Marzipan6 you said before that it was Russians not Kaganovich's that were in charge of deportatation, WW2 militia's, prison detention centre.” No I didn’t. I said that it was Russians who committed the crimes against Estionians and others – I did not venture an opinion about who might have been in charge. The excuse that “I was only following orders” did not impress at Nurnberg. It does not impress now.
29 May, 2009, 08:42
To Marzipan. The Hitler situation was different because Austria was not part of Germany, they were not one people. Ukraine, Georgia and Russia were one nation, they were all ruled mercilessly by the Georgian, Stalin. So Georgia must apologize for Stalin's purges and Putin can apologize for whatever Lenin might have done. Deal?
28 May, 2009, 20:07
Mr Lavelle.
Since you were in Poland in the 80s, you must have learned how, one of that country citizen became pope in 1978. The ramifications for that choice which occured after the quick death of three popes (plus a banker' suicide under a London bridge) and a serious financial crisis at the Vatican. For some he was a CIA pope. Personnatly, I don't care;
Jean-Claude Meslin
28 May, 2009, 19:42
This distorsion of history is done on purpose. You don't seem to realieze that the cold-war is not yet over. all the countries refered in your article are manipulated by those who want to control your phenominal natural ressources and to make sure that russians adopt the american way of life. Those same peoples have used and abused the vocabulary in the same manner 30 years ago ( a man who fighted a communist state was a freedom fighter and the same man fighting a capitalist oriented state was a terrorist). Soon or later, russians and most of all, their leaders will have to make the difference between wishfull thinking and realistic politics. Any state or person has the right to make the decisions of its choice; which we may not like, but each one of us must assume his own actions. Consequently, if Russia consider having lost millions of its citizen to liberate ungrateful countries; why selling oil and gas to those peoples.
If those prostitute-states like America so well; just tell them to go buy their energy in Alaska. To be respected, it require sometime to take firm and radical decisions.
A certain US president (Kennedy) called that: the courage in politics.
Sincerely. Jean-Claude Meslin
28 May, 2009, 19:09
@Marzipan6
You said before that it was Russians not Kaganovich's that were in charge of deportatation, WW2 militia's, prison detention centre. That's not how it was.
Marxist groups organised the takeover of Estonia with head of the NKVD in Russia Mr Beria financed by there banking connections in Sweden. .
I would like to get a copy of this book 'Under the Sign of the Scorpion' by Juri Lina. does anyone know where you could get an online pdf of this book.
28 May, 2009, 17:30
Svetlana - I enjoyed your post, you certainly have balance, I am interested a little bit more in the 2.7 million you came up with for repressed and killed people under Stalin. This is a lumped figure. For my personal interest, can you break it up a bit, into deaths and other suffering to start with. If you can be more granular all the better.
For me I would love that history, didn't need state actors, however the sad truth is that other states have actors in this area, but they are secret actors. So I am not sure that having an open state actor is worse than a secret one.
Historian - also if you have some good figures throw them in again.
28 May, 2009, 10:48
To John Rush: for a short post, you included a startling number of errors. This is because you simply repeated the bottom lines of Soviet/Russian propaganda chants, and provided zero factual analysis or evidence. Your errors of fact include (1) the apartheid jibe about Estonia; (1) the claim that it is anti-Russian rather than anti-Soviet; (3) that Estonia had a Nazi past – its only such past was that of a Nazi-occupied land and it never had a Nazi government, Nazi sympathies or Nazi policies; (4) reputable international agencies have never accused Estonia of human rights abuses, let alone of “gross” human rights abuses; (5) Europe holds Estonia in high regard and has never expressed any supposed embarrassment. Since you will not detail any actual evidence supporting your propaganda-based accusations (the originators of that propaganda don’t, either), it would be fascinating if you would at least detail for us your vision of how Estonia “will be properly dealt with”.
I couldn’t pass this one up considering Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s first visit to the Obama White House.
Today the US Commerce Department reported that housing starts in the country plummeted 12.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 458,000 units. This is the lowest on record going back to January 1959. This is a bad sign. Housing starts have traditionally been a good indicator of the US economy’s health.
The housing market in the US is taking a bath, but not so in Israel’s “legally defined occupation” of the West Bank. There has been an officially sanctioned housing boom there since 1967 – all of it illegal under international law.
According to an AFP story, citing the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) as the source:
* Since 1967 Israel’s occupation and later annexation of all of Jerusalem resulted in the expropriation of 6,000 acres (2,430 hectares) of occupied territory.
* By the end of 2007, a total of 50,197 homes had been built for the Jewish settlers on the expropriated land. And this applies to greater-Jerusalem, not the rest of the West Bank. In the meantime, not a single dwelling for the Palestinians has been built. Indeed, as I write this blog, Palestinian dwellings are being torn down – again illegally.
* In this year alone, 23 homes and other dwellings in east Jerusalem were leveled and 1,052 demolition orders have been issued.
* This is at a time when new building permits are mushrooming for Jewish settlers in east Jerusalem.
* How has the housing boom impacted the local population? More than 100,000 east Jerusalem residents now have no direct access to the city because of Israel's separation barrier. These residents effectively live in ghettos.
The US and Israel have very different housing issues to attend to. In the US, corruption, greed, and the lack of regulation have brought the American economy down to its knees. In Israel, the blatant disregard of international law and obvious determination to force the Palestinians to leave the West Bank has resulted in Jewish settlers eyeing bargains backed up with (il)legal guarantees from people like Netanyahu.
All of this could be stopped if the US and Israel observed international law. And this can happen. First, the US should finally face up to fact that Israel only wants “negotiations” – never a resolution to the conflict. Second, Obama can make the Israelis change course. Does he have the vision and moral strength to do so?
25 May, 2009, 06:38
Why are the rise and fall of home prices such a big deal? Because today, many people buy homes not to live in, but to make a profit. They buy houses, make improvements and resell them, making a HUGE profit. This practice is called "flipping". The price of the home goes way up. This is immoral when so many people cannot afford a home to live in.
Sincerely, Gene H.
24 May, 2009, 00:20
But do they have a McDonalds?
@Gene Hopkins
Guantanamo is just a smoke screen to divert you from secret prisons they have in the Balkans, Africa Middle East, etc
Guantanamo is just a holiday resort from Muslims from Britain and the EU, Middle East, etc who got capture after the US war after 9/11 training in CIA/MI6/ISI camps there to fight there proxy wars and make controlled human rights organisations like Amnesty and HRW look good when they protest Guantanamo.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they had X360 and Playstation 3’s there playing Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare with there “interrogators”.
22 May, 2009, 23:32
Re: Guantanamo
I personally think that the USA even having a base on the island of Cuba is a form of bullying a smaller but disagreeable neighbor. That would be like Russia having a military base in Georgia. Gene
22 May, 2009, 21:46
That was a great article, Mr. Lavelle. Short, full of facts, and directly presenting the real problem here, that Benjamin wants to keep dragging this out. Shame on him for not wanting to move forward on an issue that the rest of the world knows needs to be resolved. And shame on us(the US) for condoning(or turning a blind eye, same thing) their practices for so long. Thank you for the real facts. I think Obama is going to keep hammering at him but it's hard to say when he'll give in as he is acting stubborn and dismissive over the issue. He will soon realise his mind games are not fooling anybody.
22 May, 2009, 03:08
Yeah!!! Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins win at hockey.
20 May, 2009, 12:53
Excellent article. Our military an financial support of Israel has helped destroyed this country's international reputation.
20 May, 2009, 09:25
Peter, I like to see you are back on the big issues. You understand, so it feels good to read it. Keep the yellers cleaning up their own rubbish.
02 June, 2009, 20:21
Meslin - Of course you are right, people are much the same wherever you go. Bringing people together and creating secure enviroments is what it is all about, to create and maintain peace. If the USA had paid for 100,000 American mums to meet Iaqi mums, it would have made a far better contribution to changing Iraq than sending even a single soldier. However, security is the key word here, and that only comes with being able to deter an aggressor. Sadly at the moment Nuclear weapons are the only way to hold back US and NATO, who are ideologically driven without respect for other nations, customs and people. I do like the idea of a controlled central deterrence umbrella against likely further US and NATO agression, to pretect smaller states, and remove their need for nuclear weapons. However, it would have to be credible, for people to buy into. Without a deterrent, I assure you, you will have more wars, more deaths and more suffering, a sad thing, but reality all the same.
02 June, 2009, 18:26
Mr Lavelle.
Riding the comments that you have received about North-Korea make me wonder about the ratio of our species'stupidity. In my 70 years of living, I had the chance to know americans in their country; russians, also in their country, africans and south-americans (same way). There is good and bad peoples everywhere. The average human, regardless of his color, religion or political aspiration is a decent person The main problems are human-nature and
leaderships.
I have no hard feelings toward the USA or France or anybody else; but I studied the American constitution and it french equivalent. It is difficult to understand why those documents have been so quickly ignored.
It is no good for badly governed nations, to have nuclear arms but our main objectif is to have a total denuclearisation. This could be obtained only with the major powers showing the good example. In that crazy world, we are very far from it and nearer and nearer fom our own species' total extinction Radical changes are an urgent necessity. Beckering about a nation or an other is a waste of time and energy.We need a usefull and absolutly neutral ONU, not under influence or residing in the USA, Russia etc.
(same apply for every other planetary institution). Since America pretend to be the leader; she must accept to be judged. Needless to make a bilan of her last 60 years' actions to realize that its imperialist attitude has done more harm than good to Humanity. (This can be objectively discussed with anyone who desagree).
Sorry Future Generations ! Jean-Claude Meslin
02 June, 2009, 18:26
BillyBob - now I always worry about criminals with form; now is there any one we shouldn't trust, like someone who has used nuclear weapons against civilian targets as a direct premeditated act. Can you think of anyone I shouldn't trust BillyBob? Now as for dictatorships, you know the Democraps and the Republicants, the mafia families, aren't we a bit worried about a two headed dictatorship just a trifle. I suppose next you will tell me Americans won't torture you, I like your fairytales BillyBob, you might win Eurovision with them.
02 June, 2009, 17:50
@David
I wasn’t comparing the North Korean regime to Israel I was just mentioning that genetic weapons is the next big weapon.
Personally I couldn’t care less what is going on in the Middle East I’m more concerned what’s happening in Europe with the likes of George Soros stirring up trouble in the Balkans and in and near Russia.
@BillyBob
When I was mentioning the genetic bomb I meant that in reference to nuclear weapons this seems to be the next big weapon that everyone or at least the main countries are trying to develop. I only referenced Israel as that is the country that was referenced in the article about genetic weapons. It was a general comment it wasn’t direct at you personally that why I separated it before writing another comment directed at you but because of the format layout of text when it gets published its laid out in one block of text.
02 June, 2009, 15:41
johnx, my point is that regardless of what the US does, i hear a lot of comments that are supportive to North Korea, which is a dictatorship. North Korea's self preservation lies in the hands of Kim Jung Il, a madman. The people living there are screwed. A dictatorship is crazy, and crazy people shouldn't control nuclear weapons. A really simple concept.
In 2009, any country that has an elected government, will be more responsible with nuclear weapons. Any country that is tied economically to world will be more responsible with nuclear weapons.
Is anyone worried about Obama detonating a nuclear bomb, or Sarkosy? No. Is anyonw worried about North Korea or Iran, Yes! Both are run by a few crazy individuals that do not represent the population within the country.
As for the Isreal comments. I am an American and could care less about Israel and Palestine. Both have blood on their hands, and both are there for some crazy RELIGIOUS revelation. The US is screwed by getting involved here.
Anyways, good luck to us all.
02 June, 2009, 15:12
Thanks to both Peter and Bianca for the insights.
02 June, 2009, 13:03
You are right, R John, people are just people anywhere. But governments are not the same everywhere, and some of them do some very, very unfortunate and damaging things to people. In general, democratic governments exist more or less to facilitate the wish of the people, while despotic regimes exist to crush people, befuddle their thinking, damage their psychological health through terror driven personality cults, distort their view of everything in closed societies where no aspect of the outside world can reach them, all for the sake of keeping the ruling criminal clique in power. Stalinist states are like that, John. Stalinist Russia was, and the Russian people still haven’t recovered from it. I am from a country that suffered Stalinist occupation, and it would make your hair stand on end if you truly grasped the horror of what Stalinist rule actually meant and did. North Korea is currently such a country, and no recovery process there has even begun to be contemplated yet, the mass damage is still being sown. All experience of Stalinist societies demonstrates that it is not possible to deal with those countries as if they are normal, for the simple reason that they are not.
02 June, 2009, 12:13
Exactly, there is a huge difference btwn North Korea and Israel. Israel is illegally occupying and killing Palestinains and Lebanese civilians at will and in the name of God. North Korea does not occupy or kill other people. That is the major difference.
02 June, 2009, 08:10
It you can't make distinctions between Israel and North Korea you need to get out a little more, maybe do some reading.
02 June, 2009, 00:14
It’s been speculated that Israel is developing genetic weapons and I would probably presume the US and other major countries.
@Billy Bob
Peter is an American himself how does he hate America?
I think the point of his article is that Washington’s strong arm approach in Iraq won’t work against North Korea.
That the North Korean regime is using its nuclear arsenal to gather attention to pressure Washington into direct negotiations so it can negotiate aid for self preservation.
That it is not going to give up it’s nuclear arsenal which is it’s only bargaining chip.
He didn’t say the regime was good or it’s economic and political model.
01 June, 2009, 15:16
Just because you hate the US, you should still use common sense in your opinion of North Korea.
If North Korea and Kim Jung Il are so rational, and good for the people of N. Korea, I dare you to move to that country.
Look at how much growth and prosperity has occured in South Korea, they are a really smart people, peaceful democracy, with a huge opportunity for further prosperity. North Korea (geographically the same people) have been driven into there current situation by a failed ex-Soviet era regime. Their model doesn't work, but everyone on this board seems to be blindly be supportive of N. Korea, b/c they don't like the U.S.
01 June, 2009, 12:59
As a youngster because of the way the Soviets were portrayed in the media and through films I had this perception of this group of drone like fanatics ready to invade my country and slit my throat at the drop of a hat. After the end of the soviet regime Russia opened up and on the other side of the iron curtain what we found were people like us, mostly decent family minded human beings who just wanted a better life for themselves and their families.
This same vilification process is happening with North Korea. This is a scared poor nation, millions of its people are starving, and more sanctions could lead to an implosion and humanitarian catastrophes. I believe there is an internal power struggle going on, for now we should take a step back and leave ourselves an option to negotiate with any new leadership that may emerge. I don’t believe the North Koreans would try to launch a nuclear strike after all they have exercised military restraint since the end of the Korean War. The real danger is that this country collapses and rouge elements may decide to sell nuclear weapons to terrorist groups. China/Russia’s more measured approach is the correct one.
01 June, 2009, 11:22
Mr Lavelle.
This forum should be called: America and the inevitable; because when you don't bind over and refuse the capitalist way of life and way of thinking you take tremendeous risks.
De Gaulle created his retaliation nuclear force for that purpose. After seeing what happened in the past 60 years, all over the world, that rule has never been so evident. As I explained several times before; unless we have the courage to face the facts and take radical measures, the situation will get worse and worse and mankind's chance of survival will diminish year after year. North-Korea or Iran's nuclear arsenal mean nothing; what count is the already 25000 bombs existing now and knowing that this number will keep on increasing, regardless of what the super-powers will say. The real ennemy and cause of all troubles is the arrogant way of thinking and doing business of the capitalist which, actually control the whole globalisation. The masters of that insane system have no patriotic feelings and don't care about countries' actual borders. They are only concerned about power and money. Look how hard americans try to involve other nations (including Russia) in that useless anti-missiles shield and NATO which since the 1980s has already costed 100s billions $ to the US taxpayers (and other nations' TP).
Unless, we take conscience of that reality and take urgent measures (starting in July, in Moscow) we will be getting closer and closer to catastrophy. The BRIC nations missed a first opportunity to call the shots in the London G-20 and put America in front of its responsabilities. (No other country has 700 military installations, all over the World and was and still is the initiator of all WMD that mankind possess. If no positive answer is obtained, then it should be easer for the 95% of humans who are not US citizen to do what America does so well to others: a well planed boycoott. I will organise it myself if necessary and I bet you that the american citizen will quickly react and get ride of the few thousands crooks who have abused them for so long. North-Korea, Iran and those who will follow are just scapegoats, the real problems are those who have thousands of nuclear bombs on stock (this include Russia and first of all the imperialist, arrogant USA and his NATO ' s puppets). Sorry Future Generations
That is all, that I can do for you today ! Jean-Claude Meslin
01 June, 2009, 10:16
I agree fully with David Owen, Bianca and Count Cash. Peter’s column is for once very disappointing. There is no mention of the fact that North Korea has been deceived by America, they were promised aid that never arrived. There is also no mention of the fact that America has repeatedly called North Korea the ‘Axis of Evil’. There is no mention of the fact that the other country America has called the ‘Axis of Evil’ (Iraq) has been invaded and their people raped by American soldiers. Why do you want North Korea to sit around waiting for the inevitable, the American invasion? Why do you want North Korea to be completely defenceless? You have not mentioned that South Korea is crawling with heavily armed American soldiers, 28 000 of them.
Why isn’t this propaganda looking at the Pakistani situation, a country with nukes that could fall into the hands of terrorists. Why haven’t you mentioned that North Korea’s nukes are not in danger of falling into the hands of terrorists? Why doesn’t America inspect Pakistani ships and impose sanctions against Pakistan? Why do they pick on North Korea?
And those who say China must control North Korea??? Since when does China go around controlling and colonizing other people? Just because America, Britain and France see nothing wrong in colonizing and raping other people, doesn’t mean that the rest of us will do the same.
Russia and China don’t care about North Korea’s nukes because they know the government controls them. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s nukes could easily be controlled by the Taliban.
31 May, 2009, 21:59
Hi,Peter I agree with you in this matter that North Korea is going to be a nuclear state,but as you said I dont think that the world is prepared to change the regime is to dangerous,but I would said is that the Chinese have the key to make some pressure to the North Korean government because China supplies 80% of the oil they consume and everything else so if China wants to cool down the situation China is the only one who can do something about it,look North Korea is under multiple sanctions from the UN and nothing happens,everything is going in the opposite direction so the only thing left is that China needs to take some serious steps to control Pyongyang if China doesn't take the steps needed Pyongyang will continue with this kind of behavior,so in other words China has to step up to this guys or the situation really can get out of control and a lot of people is jeopardy so i hope the Chinese will get serious about this situation because the less we need is another war in the world we have enough wars already in play.
Best regards from Guatemala
Rodrigo
31 May, 2009, 18:01
Here in the wilds of Indiana, USA. I thae great comfort in the fact that my neighbors are well armed. Nations are to be well armed too.
31 May, 2009, 06:39
North Korea is universally described as a Stalinist state. While this term does not have a precise definition, it implies an oppressive system of government that maintains its authority by “purging” (ie, killing or imprisoning) opposition elements, terrorizing the civilian population through spying and extra-judicial punishment, gross propaganda which distorts all internal and external events to the bias of the leadership, and maintaining a personality cult which insists that a leader can do no wrong. Prolonged imposition of Stalinism produces a country and a people who collectively exhibit symptoms of paranoia, who grow badly out of touch with reality and who eventually end up holding perceptions of just about everything that differ fundamentally with those of the rest of the world, and puts them at odds with everyone else. There was a time not so very long ago when Russia also was a Stalinist state – in fact, it was the original model. Unlike North Korea, it has been able to painfully struggle free from the shackles of Stalinism, and from some of its legacies. But only some. Consistent with classical Stalinist propaganda, Stalin himself is still revered as a great man, not totally removed from the “dear leader” appellation of Kim Jong-il, Stalin’s colossal blunders in the conduct the war are overlooked (“the leader can do no wrong”), his brutalities against his own people are glossed over (Stalinism brooks no criticism) and Stalin’s paranoia of being surrounded by enemies is affirmed by angrily describing as “re-writing of history” any account of Stalin’s own aggression against neighbouring countries. Russia deserves respect and praise for its gains so far in struggling free of Stalinism – that path is not an easy one. And it both deserves, and is being sent, a clear message from its neighbours that this progress needs to continue until it at last emerges completely from Stalinism’s baleful legacy.
30 May, 2009, 04:17
What we have left with North Korea is the remnants of Stalinist ideology. They act in a sort of irrantional rationality because it does not have a balance of power, has a statist hereditary monarchy, and use extortion to get its way. Why Peter you get show suprised that the US actually influences world policy is obscene and tinges on anti-Americanism. North Korea is a byproduct of Soviet-Russian thought, post Soviet Afghanistan is a byproduct of exporting Stalinist ideology, while the US aided those Afghanis to fight for their own liberation in the form of the Muhajadeen, a quasi-secular group today helping the US. And in stark contrast South Korea, a country following the ideals of America, and that simply is capitalist Democracy. And you wonder why people have sentimental feelings against Stalin and the exported Communism that came from Russia.
30 May, 2009, 03:47
I must say I am disappointed in this assessment of North Korea. It falls into the narrative so conveniently created for the news consuming public. According to THE "narrative", North Korea is a strange place, with even stranger people, hungry and isolated, with a crazed desire to have nuclear weapons. And in the process, they are flouting all the norms of the international law! As we all aready know very well, using the standard narrative so neatly packaged in the West, can be very misleading. For one, one can be only modestly familiar with the history of negotiations to know for sure that every time North Korea fullfilled one or more of its conditions, the West simply refused to do its end of a bargain. So, we are back where we started. The comedy here is --- North Korea expected such outcome, and is proceeding with the nuclear development. Being named "axes of evil", it had no choice. Being invaded is not fun. Iraq became an abject lesson: if you cannot defend yourself, you will be invaded, occupied and held down for the forseable future.
Have you not noticed that China and Russia do not seem to worry about North Korean nukes? They are naturally concerned about proliferation, but not about their own safety.
Have you not noticed that in order to make Korean Penninsula nuke-free, US nuclear capabilities will have to be removed from the area. For as long as South Korea enjoys US "nuclear umbrella", Korean Penninsula is not safe for the North.
Have you not noticed that the North Korean crisis suits Chinese and Russian geopolitical interests perfectly. It is hard to US to focus on Iran's presumed "nuclear program", for as long as another country is exploding nuclear devices.
Now, there will be many attempts in US to downplay this. There will be theories that the "test failed', and that it was not really anything but the "attention getter", etc. Everything will be tried to get North Korea off the international agenda, so that the nuclear histeria can be refocused on Iran.
The problem is, North Korea withdrew from NPT, while Iran not only is the signatory, but has an enhanced inspections regime adopted unilaterally. North Korea will, however, make it very hard for US to go back to hector Iran. It will keep on reminding evreryone that it will remain a serious player in the nuclear club.
As for the "aid", and such, hopefully we will get some real information about the life in the country, not propaganda. Something about the prepackaged stories just does not pass the smell test.
29 May, 2009, 16:51
Peter,
Here is what may happen based on the past. The leader of North Korea will ratchet it up when he realize that the world is against him. He has launched missiles in every direction except to China, Russia and South Korea.
If the United Nations permits the boarding of North Korean ships in transit, that in the North Korean leaders will eye this as an act of war. The North Korean military will be placed on alert and prepared to launch over one thousand missiles into Seoul. The very worst case scenario will be launching one of those missiles that has a Nuclear payload obliterating a city such as Seoul or even sending a missile into Japan. That part of the world go go up in flames in minutes to hours. Fathom the possibilities.
It is to be hoped that China and Russia can “talk” to the leader of North Korea and advise him of the alternatives.
William Mark Clarke