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OpEdNews Op Eds    H3'ed 11/16/16

Why Trump's Victory Wasn't a Surprise

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President Barack Obama uncomfortably accepting the Nobel Peace Prize from Committee Chairman Thorbjorn Jagland in Oslo, Norway, Dec. 10, 2009.
President Barack Obama uncomfortably accepting the Nobel Peace Prize from Committee Chairman Thorbjorn Jagland in Oslo, Norway, Dec. 10, 2009.
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DB: John, you've got a new film that's just coming out now, about to come out. Among other things, it's sort of a document that calls attention to the fact that the United States, under Barack Obama, has been engaged in a massive, and very dangerous nuclear buildup. This is in the context of Hillary Clinton being Secretary of State. So would you tell us a little bit about what you've learned about Obama and about the film?

JP: Yeah, not only... well, it's about China as a target. At present... and, Dennis, this is truly shocking, in the northern hemisphere, there is the biggest buildup of U.S. led NATO forces since World War II, confronting Russia. In the Asia-Pacific, there is the biggest buildup of U.S. Naval forces confronting China. This was not an issue. This was not an issue. It is truly something in the election campaign that we just had. And the... you know, we're faced with so much provocation [that] has gone on, and that's what my film is about. It has to do with the Asia-Pacific. But the nuclear issue has returned.

Under Obama, nuclear warhead construction and spending increased massively. It increased in spite of Obama's pledge in 2009 to help get rid of nuclear weapons. The opposite happened. There's something like a trillion dollars has been earmarked to be spent on nuclear weapons development in the coming years. Nuclear... the whole nuclear issue is so urgent, it's so urgent because of this, these provocations against Russia, against China, both of them nuclear armed powers. China has reportedly changed its nuclear weapons policies to first strike, as a direct consequence of this pressure from the United States. Now what will happen to that? That's such an important question, because war and peace really should be at the top. If a kind of apocalyptic war broke out then all other issues are irrelevant.

DB: We see this in the so-called U.S. Pacific Pivot, how dangerous this is getting. Again, because of idiotic U.S. press, all attention is on this so-called maniac in North Korea that we have to do something about. But I think the point here is that we've got another... when it comes to nuclear proliferation, and weapons, we've got a maniac in the White House.

JP: Well, yeah, that's it. And there's always been a maniac in the White House, I'm afraid. And that's why I said recently I am always grateful that I'm still here, that I haven't found myself witnessing my own demise in some nuclear apocalypse, that was the result of U.S. foreign policy. Our understanding of who's the maniac... I don't think North Korea is a threat, really, to anybody, frankly.

What North Korea wants is a peace. They want a peace treaty with the South. They want a peace treaty with the United States. They almost had it a while ago. That's what they want. And I don't think they're a threat. But they're exploited. With their recent test of, I think a nuclear missile, the U.S. has employed, or is about to employ these THAAD missile defense system. These are very aggressive. They got the word defense in there but they're very aggressive.

DB: And they're aimed, they're meant to be aimed, at China.

JP: They're aimed at China. They're not aimed at North Korea, well maybe in the end, North Korea. But North Korea is regarded, really, contemptuously, as an oppositions of power. They're aimed at China. And China is being told now -- this is from Clinton's speeches, that WikiLeaks released -- according to Clinton, you know, the threat against China is that you control North Korea or we'll let you have some of their missiles, but they're all aimed at China. And when I was in Okinawa recently, there's no question, 400-500 miles from China, that in the 132 U.S. bases on the island, they were all aimed at China. Now that is a massive, provocative situation. Will Trump dismantle it? Or will he appease it? Or will he use it? These are the questions.

DB: These are big questions. And this may seem a little bit silly but I think it makes a lot of sense. In the midst of everybody talking about the crazy person in the north, we learn that Park, the current president, the daughter of the late and bitter dictator of South Korea has been... one of her key advisers has been a seer. That she's been taking advice from somebody who has been essentially sort of a phony, if you will, a crystal ball reader who has the attention of the president. And so we find out that policy coming out of our allies in the south, with this huge massive military operation happening in Jeju and other places. She's taking orders... people made fun of Nancy Reagan.

JP: Yeah, well I'm not surprised. I mean, South Korea is a colony. It's not an ally. It's an American colony. But it's a colony that, as a lot of colonies, can cause you a lot of trouble. The French found that with Algeria. And it's got potential for trouble. It could, you know, it could" it has some very extreme people there, and they could start a war. But it is a colony. It has thirty odd thousand U.S. troops, bases all over it. And as you mentioned, it has this" the South Koreans have built this new naval base on Jeju Island, with facilities for nuclear submarines, and Aegis missile destroyers and all the rest of it.

So... these places are flashpoints. They're flashpoints in... almost in a war waiting to happen, or in a war that is being beckoned. During the old Cold War -- and I think we're in the second Cold War now -- during the old Cold War, there were red lines, at least, [that] you didn't cross, there were spheres of influence. And you might probe but you didn't really cross the red lines marked down by the Soviet Union, and...which were mostly in Europe, to protect itself, of course. And the Soviets, although they supported liberation movements in the developing world, did not confront the Americans there. So there were these red lines. There are no red lines now. That's the difference. It's much more dangerous, now, in my opinion.

DB: Well, and, you know, it's interesting I'm on my way out to North Dakota, at Standing Rock, and where we see the Indigenous communities of North America trying to once again warn the genocidists of the United States government, how dangerous it is to be destroying the Earth, the water flow, not to mention destroying sacred burial grounds. We see, we've got Bull Connor coming back, in the sense that we've got dogs, an incredible, heavily armed force, brutally going after people who are resisting with their bodies, with their buffalo, with their beliefs. And the lines are drawn again. And no major candidate mentioned Standing Rock, I don't think.

JP: Yeah.

DB: Trump is invested, by the way. He's invested there.

JP: None of these pressing issues were mentioned. That's why it's a very strange time. What is going to happen now? But, again I repeat, I think it's time for people to organize. There has to be an independent, an extra-parliamentary, if you like, opposition. An opposition, a movement of the streets, a movement among people having been shamed into silence almost, during the Obama years. People have got to come back now.

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Dennis J Bernstein is the host and executive producer of Flashpoints, a daily news magazine broadcast on Pacifica Radio. He is an award-winning investigative reporter, essayist and poet. His articles and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Nation, and (more...)
 

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