Monday, April 8, 2013

THE HIROSHIMA SYNDROME Leave NOKOR alone, for Heaven’s Sake!!

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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