[ExI] The Nuclear Huns

[The Avantguardian]

Just in case people have been too distracted with the economic turmoil in the U.S. to pay attention to the international happenings that are buried on the back pages of the news, I would like to bring the following to light:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/09/24/nkorea.nuclear.plant/index.html#cnnSTCText

The key passage therein is "Last week, a South Korean news agency reported that North Korea was restoring a reactor at Yongbyon nuclear complex and no longer wanted to be removed from a U.S. list of countries that sponsor terrorism."

I myself would not have noticed it as hushed as the American media is about this, if I did not have access to the Korean news channel as part of my cable package.
 
So why am I comparing North Korea to the Huns? Well it goes back to the days of the Byzantine/Roman Empire circa 559 AD during the reign of Justinian I "the great". According to the historian Procopius, the emperor Justinian bribed the chieftains with large sacks of gold to leave the empire unmolested.  

While this measure proved temporarily effective, it quickly became a habitual tribute to the Huns:

"As soon as [Justinian] took over the rule from his uncle, his measure was to spend the public money without restraint, now that he had control of it. He gave much of it to the Huns who, from time to time, entered the state; and in consequence the Roman provinces were subject to constant incursions, for these barbarians, having once tasted Roman wealth, never forgot the road that led to it." -Procopius, 'The Secret History'

Now to bring the lessons of history into the present, remember the world-wide rice shortages back in 2007? Most people not connected with the rice industry who did not have access to Korean news media were only fed vague excuses having to do with the rising price of crude oil and the rising use of "biofuels".

While these factors certainly contributed, the real story largely supressed in the western media was that through some backdoor dealings the Bush administration by proxy of countries like South Korea, India, Thailand, and Egypt *bribed* North Korea with literally billions of tons of rice, causing an artificial shortage of rice throughout the rest of the world.

http://basmati.com/search.php?text=north%20korea&category_id=&pg=2

The link supplied above has over 30 articles on the topic.

Although mostly ignored by, or perhaps hidden from, the American public as it unfolded, the Korean-American community living in the United States was cogniscent of what was happening and was cursing the artificially high price they were having to pay here in the U.S. for their rice, knowing full well that North Korea could in no way be trusted to hold up its end of the bargain. And history has proved them right.

So with the U.S. military quamired in Iraq and Afghanistan while skirmishing with Pakistan, Russia invading Georgia, Iran proclaiming the end of American Empire, Venezuela kicking out all American ambassadors, and the U.S. tax payers being put on the hook for about $12 trillion in Repulican deficit spending, do we really want to put a moose-hunting beauty queen who neither blinks nor thinks in charge of our destinies?

I don't see how the next president could be anything other than either a disappointment or a disaster. I will leave you to decide which is which but I know I certainly wouldn't want the job. Anyone want to bet that we discover Russian nuclear missiles in Venezuela before the completion of the first term of the next U.S. president?  


Stuart LaForge

"See them clamber, these nimble apes!  They clamber over one another, and thus scuffle into the mud and the abyss."- Friedrich Nietzsche