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Correa survived, perhaps chastened enough to shift increasingly right, sacrificing more popular interests to keep power. If not, Washington's long knives remain sharp and ready to try again to oust him. Obama has proved as ruthless as Bush.
Provoking North Korea
Last March, Pyongyang was falsely blamed for sinking a South Korean ship. At the time, evidence suggested a false flag, manufactured to stoke regional tensions. The incident occurred near Baengnyeong Island opposite North Korea. US Navy Seals and four US ships were conducting joint exercises in the area. The torpedo used was German, not North Korean as claimed. Germany sells none to Pyongyang. Yet it was blamed for what it didn't do, a clear case of Pentagon-manufactured mischief.
On November 23, another incident heightened tensions after North Korea shelled a South Korean island, AP reporting:
"The skirmish began when Pyongyang warned the South to halt (provocative) military drills in the area, according to South Korean officials. When Seoul refused and began firing artillery into disputed waters, albeit away from the North Korean shore, the North retaliated by bombarding the small island of Yeonpyeong, which houses South Korean military installations."
Despite repeated warnings, the South provoked the North, likely wanting a hostile response at the behest of Washington. The pattern follows how the 1950 Korean War began, getting Monthly Review co-founders Leo Huberman and Paul Sweezy, in 1952, to cite I F Stone's belief that it was the greatest swindle in military history, blaming the North for what the South initiated in cahoots with the Truman administration wanting war.
Stone called it international aggression. So did Huberman and Sweezy 14 months into the conflict saying:
"....we have come to the conclusion that (South Korean president) Syngman Rhee (a US puppet) deliberately provoked the North Koreans in the hope that they would retaliate by crossing the parallel in force. The northerners (who wanted a unified Korea, not war) fell neatly into the trap," giving Truman the war he wanted.
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