eastwind journals
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THE HIROSHIMA SYNDROME
Leave NOKOR alone, for Heaven’s Sake!!
By Bernie Lopez
When a small dog is cornered by a bigger
dog, it will fight back to the death, no matter what the odds are. If you leave
it alone, it becomes docile. The U.S. is the big black Doberman, and North
Korea is the tiny French poodle. For decades, the U.S. has been applying the
principle of intimidation to force North Korea to its knees. It is not working.
All the bases and nukes and subs and carriers they have fielded around North
Korea have ironically made it more adamant, forcing it to resort to nukes. The
big dog is simply making the underdog more vicious.
There is a simple magic formula. If the
U.S. withdraws presence from the Korean Peninsula, the poodle will surely withdraw
its fangs, and unilaterally unbuckle its nukes. The nukes are for the US forces
around. It will be so easy for North-South Korea Synergy without the U.S.
around. The Americans cannot see this simple but ingenious geopolitical
principle because of a mental disease called the Hiroshima Syndrome.
The U.S. acquired this mental disorder at
the end of World War II. When they nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki, their intense
euphoria for finally ending World War II by bringing the fanatic Japanese
warrior to its knees, imbued them with this debilitating mental disease. The
Hiroshima Syndrome, ironically working on the logic of saving lives, really
does not care for lives. A U.S. drone will kill 5 terrorists and 100 civilians
to save 15 American lives. They call it collateral damage. They do not care
about proportions as long as less Americans are killed. The euphoria of
Hiroshima has blinded them all these years into adopting this principle of
superiority, intimidation, and fear to force peace.
This syndrome was the same psychosis of
great American generals like Patton, MacArthur, Westmoreland, and Petraeus.
Patton did not care if he lost 90% of his men, as long as he won in the end,
the same logic as in Hiroshima. MacArthur was worse. He wanted to nuke Shanghai
and Beijing to end the Korean War, the same logic as in Hiroshima. He was
serious. It was not a joke. He was simply deranged. His plan was kept secret
for a long time to save the face of a charismatic hero and of the U.S.
Westmoreland said he could end the
Vietnam war in two months if he was permitted to commit genocide. His request
was turned down. Petraeus mutilated Iraqi society through protracted occupation
that led to a virtual civil war, and for that, his equally-deranged fan Robert Gates
called him “the nation’s greatest battle captain”. He was a hero because he fooled
the White House into believing casualties were decreasing, when in truth they
increased first to unprecedented levels. Field records for the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan during his command are missing for unknown reasons, according to
Wikipedia.
Yet the Hiroshima Syndrome did not work
in Vietnam. The superpower was beaten by a Third World medieval agricultural
country because, like Westmoreland, they could not commit genocide with the
world looking on. They tried it in Laos and failed. Nixon and Kissinger had the
CIA conduct the greatest and most secret saturation bombing of history. They
dropped more bombs in Laos than in the entire World War II without the world
knowing it, killing 140,000. When they left, the communists regrouped, and ironically
became stronger because of what the Americans did.
The Hiroshima Syndrome is now an
epidemic in the U.S. It has weakened the anti-war movement. The peace-loving
American is dying. The syndrome has catalyzed the neo-totalitarianism of Wall
Street, which believes in wars as the catalyst for economic growth. (View the
film ‘Inside Job’, which triggered ‘Occupy Wall Street, the beginnings of a new
US civil war. The film is banned in the U.S., but available in the Internet).
When will America wake up. When will it
learn to replace diplomacy of threat with diplomacy of partnership, superiority
with equality, arrogance with humility, force with persuasion? There is a
Filipino saying in answer, “When the raven turns white.” eastwindreplyctr@gmail.com
(e-newspapers and regular newspapers have
the automatic permission to reprint this, just give author’s byline and email
address, inform him that your are reprinting, and if possible, email the link
to the article as reprinted.)
(The author is a former senior columnist
for Business World for 7 years, presently columnist for Opinyon Magazine, occasional
editorial contributor to Philippine Daily Inquirer and Philippine Star for the
last 20 years, former anchor at Radio Veritas, occasional talk-show guest at
Global News Network – GNN, freelance TV documentary producer, and blogsite
administrator for a healing ministry at www.sisterraquel.com. Reactions, positive or negative, are welcome. amdg)
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