Too much is just circular thought with no productive end. With the caveat out of the way, let me present two, possibly related, stories along with an excellent analysis from Chalmers Johnson. One is about US plans for quickly 'taking out' the government of N. Korea, the other is about US troop redeployments further south - further away from N. Korean ordinance.
The Chalmers Johnson essay places the US' activities on the Korean peninsula in a larger context.
Reasonable post cold war change? Coincidence? Preparation for war? My wife, who's S. Korean, says from time to time that "those guys in Washington are going to kill us all." She's not joking and fears for her family's, her people's, long term well-being in the age of Ameri-Anglo megalomania.]
US makes new plans for war on Pyongyang
By Shane Green, Herald Correspondent in Tokyo June 4 2003
The United States is said to be developing new plans for a war in North Korean that would bypass the demilitarised zone dividing the two Koreas and target the leadership in Pyongyang.
The plan is based on the success of US-led forces in Iraq in quickly reaching the capital, Baghdad.
US officials quoted by Reuters said the plan would involve the consolidation of the US and South Korean forces in two areas away from the demilitarised zone.
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more at
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/06/03/1054406190833.html
Fallout of shuffling US forces in Korea
Plans clarified this week leave Seoul edgy at a time when the North's actions are so mysterious. By Ann Scott Tyson | Special correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
WASHINGTON – Under the shadow of an unresolved North Korean nuclear crisis, the Pentagon pressed ahead this week with controversial plans both to reconfigure and upgrade American forces committed to the 50-year-old defense alliance with the South.
Major changes include a plan unveiled Thursday to reduce the US troop presence and bases along the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), in addition to a buildup of missile defenses and other capabilities intended to counter a North Korean attack.
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more at
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0606/p02s01-woap.html
Korea, South and North, at Risk
by Chalmers Johnson
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Over the last two years, South Korean public opinion has shifted radically on the issue of North Korea. The prosperous and well-informed people of the South know that their fellow Koreans, hungry, desperate, oppressed but exceedingly well armed, are trapped by the ironies of the end of the Cold War and by the harshness of the Kim Jong-il regime, but are also being pushed into an exceedingly dangerous corner by the pride and arrogance of the Americans in their newly proclaimed role as the reigning global military colossus. The South no longer much fears the North -- at least a North not pushed to extreme acts by Washington. They fear instead the enthusiasm for war emanating from Washington and the constant problems generated by American troops based in South Korea over the past fifty years.
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full at http://www.nationinstitute.org/tomdispatch/index.mhtml?pid=586
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