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Obama Tells Military: Prepare for North Korea Aggression
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has directed the U.S. military to coordinate with South Korea to "ensure readiness" and deter future aggression from North Korea, the White House said on Monday.
US and South Korean Marines move into position during a battle drill at the US army's Rodriguez range in Pocheon, northeast of Seoul. (AFP/File/Kim Jae-Hwan)
The United States gave strong backing to plans by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak to punish North Korea for sinking one of its naval ships, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement.
The White House urged North Korea to apologize and change its behavior, he said.
"We endorse President Lee's demand that North Korea immediately apologize and punish those responsible for the attack, and, most importantly, stop its belligerent and threatening behavior," Gibbs said.
"U.S. support for South Korea's defense is unequivocal, and the president has directed his military commanders to coordinate closely with their Republic of Korea counterparts to ensure readiness and to deter future aggression," he said.
Obama and Lee have agreed to meet at the G20 summit in Canada next month, he said.
Late last week, a team of international investigators accused North Korea of torpedoing the Cheonan corvette in March, killing 46 sailors in one of the deadliest clashes between the two since the 1950-53 Korean War.
Lee said on Monday South Korea would bring the issue before the U.N., whose past sanctions have damaged the already ruined North Korean economy.
The United States still has about 28,000 troops in South Korea to provide military support.
The two Koreas, still technically at war, have more than 1 million troops near their border.
"We will build on an already strong foundation of excellent cooperation between our militaries and explore further enhancements to our joint posture on the Peninsula as part of our ongoing dialogue," Gibbs said.
Gibbs said the United States supported Lee's plans to bring the issue to the United Nations Security Council and would work with allies to "reduce the threat that North Korea poses to regional stability."
Obama had also directed U.S. agencies to evaluate existing policies toward North Korea.
"This review is aimed at ensuring that we have adequate measures in place and to identify areas where adjustments would be appropriate," he said.
(Editing by Doina Chiacu)
- Posted in
68 Comments so far
Show AllWar In Iraq. War in Afghanistan. Covert war in Pakistan. Possible war with Iran. Multiple covert operations in Central America.
Now they want to restart hostilities with N. Korea. The same Korea that has a cozy relationship with China, they same economic powerhouse that holds the vast majority of US debt. At a time when the European economy has narrowly averted complete meltdown.
The inmates have truly taken over the asylum.
[The same Korea that has a cozy relationship with China, they same economic powerhouse that holds the vast majority of US debt.]
Yep, that Korea. The good news is that if the us gov't wins a war against China, that debt can disappear and they can use the riches of China to pay off the debts racked up by the idiots who've been running the usa these last 30 odd years.
The bad news is that if China starts to lose a war, they'd launch nukes. The worse news is that if the usa starts to lose a major war, they'd launch nukes.
Meh, maybe we'll be lucky and the oil from the gulf will kill us before the idiots get a chance to launch yet another war.
Perhaps this will take Iran off the next strike list for a while, or is it a diversionary tactic? With the US in Korea, they'll be too busy to keep an eye on what the Israeli's are doing to flotillas or Iran or... _________________ (Plug in your favorite Israeli target.)
What are you saying, they are playing with our almighty military?
Load them plutonium reactors and get those ships to the other side of the earth, quick.
Let N. Korea negotiate the matter a few years, until someone else threatens us with their pea shooter.
An analogy would be the dog running back and forth as two people throw a Frisbee back and forth.
The White House actually has the temerity to urge North Korea "to apologize and change its behavior." This would be hilarious it it were not so tragic. When has the United States ever apologized? It certainly has never apologized for slaughtering two to three million Vietnamese. As Geoffrey Hodgson points out in his book The Myth of American Exceptionalism, the United States always believes that it is right while never believing that it could ever learn anything positive from any other country.
You want to dig up some "old bones" of contention, something worth acknowledging or apologising for? Well how about this:
http://www.japanfocus.org/-Kobayashi-Akira/3351
I wonder how many "proud" Americans actually know why North Korea is so full of disdain. I wonder how many Americans know or care just how mad their military and political "heroes" were and probably still are.
http://www.b-29s-over-korea.com/NorthKorea-A-Bomb/US-Planned-To-A-Bomb-N-Korea-In-1950-War_02.html
Quite frankly, America has been a disaster waiting to happen, and I expect as the empire is taken away from the elite behind the curtain some renegade elements will try anything to use, what they see as their "strength", namely their military mass killing power, before they go down, so to speak.
Since 9-11, I would not be at all shocked to learn that the North Korean torpedo that sunk the South Korean vessel was fired by an American sub. Nothing surprises me any more, and listening to Mdm. Sec. Clinton or Pres. Obama one can almost see the strings that make their feet dance and their lips move. It's uncanny!
Right to the heart of the problem....fascist amerika needs a total attitude transplant/ change. A nation with little to no compassion, and no sense of regret of decades of slaughtering anyone who appears, to their self righteous attitude,to stand in their way ! Now amerikas burden of bloody Karma will bring the fall of the empire !
Apologize?
Are you f*kng kidding me?
Perhaps Hallmark makes a card for such an occasion?
Oh, boy, here we go. More propaganda.
Now we're back to threatening North Korea.
Or maybe a desparate distraction from the catastrophe he's chosen to ignore
in the Gulf of Mexico.
I gotta' say this, the greedy warmongers are a tenacious lot.
So, where's the proof, eh? Show me before you start killing them
and robbing us again.
The endless barrage of provoking reports written by paid Pentgon shills is ridiculous. Especially when it begins with, "U.S. officials claim..." and nothing to substantiate it. So, Obama wants to send more US troops to a far away land for another battle. Hey, that's just another day at the office for our elites.
It still doesn't prove North Korea did anything, nor why we're gunning for
acts of aggression against another country. I have no choice except to assume
it's more BS on the march to Empire.
Looks like we're gonna' have to build another military base in the region.
Panmunjon is so yesterday.
"Being at war" has a real aspect of people trying to kill or disarm one another and a legal aspect. Legally our country is no longer at war in Iraq from the day when President Bush signed SOFA-Iraq. In the real sense we are not at war in Iraq either with our troops withdrawn from cities onto the humongous U.S. military bases in the country. Occasionally the Iraq government asks for help to "maintain order", allowed under SOFA-Iraq, as in the case of the recent elections which was more like a police action.
Have you ever heard of a war in which both sides agree on a specific date, in this case 31 December 2011, when that war ends and the aggressor pulls all of his troops out?
I do not defend the real war that my country waged in Iraq. I point out that the notion that "we" are at war in Iraq is false. "We" were not even able to rig the current elections in the country the outcome of which is a huge problem for Mr. Obama and the Pentagon with Mr. El Sadr the new kingpin there. And as far as "occupation" of Iraq is concerned, occupations never allow elections to happen in the occupied land because the outcome can never be predicted.
Barry's rhetoric during the election (even as vague as it was at times) could never be construed to be supportive of Bush/Cheney's doctrine of preemptive war. Yet, he seems to have adopted their tyranny of warrantless spying, torture and indefinite detentions of "terrorist" suspects and added such garnishes as murder edicts of Amerikkkan citizens. One must wonder if there is some sort of shadow government who gives even the president of Amerikkka its orders of priorities. Perhaps Barry is only a puppet just as W. Bush, Bill (Slick Willy) Clinton, Poppy Bush, Ronnie Raygun, et al were.
Remember, just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean that they're not out to get us.
Dear Oakie namesake, TJ, you said: "Remember, just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean that they're not out to get us."
"You're not paranoid, and they are out to get us." ; - )
/cm
I think it's more accurate to say that the same system that gave rise to Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, Carter, and the Bushes also gave rise to Obama.
The US officials acknowledged that the Torpedo used was of GERMAN manufacture, one that is not used by the North Korean Navy.
They then claimed the North Koreans used this as a means of hiding who was responsible.
Now think about that. How utterly ridiculous. A South Korean Vessel is sunk by a torpedo in disupted waters . If North Korea did this how the heck did they think no one would blame them if a German torpedo used?
Imagine all the rationale used that would see North Korea attacking a South Korean Vessel.
1>This is in North Korean waters. The South Korean Vessel had no business in waters we claim as our own so we sunk the vessel.
If they did that WHY try and cover it up using A German Torpedo? They had to of gone out of there way to get a German torpedo meaning they would have PLANNED to do this long before the event occurred.
2>OK we are going to sink a South Korean Vessel as a warning that we are not to be pushed around. We want to be sure we are not blamed but that the South gets the message so we will use a German Torpedo.
The USA in particular has been pushing for ever greater sanctions on The North. They are still ticked that the North Koreans defy them. They are looking for any provocation that can lead to them forcing China and other nations to cut all ties and to go on a war footing. The North sinking a South Korean vesssel using a German Torpedo makes absolutely no sense. North Korea would gain NOTHING but the chance of being attacked.
Given where the attack to place and the history of disputes in the region there is no way in H the North could ever of thought someone other then they would be blamed for this.
Given the fact this as a German torpedo not used by the North, this can not be attributed to a Hot headed Captain who just happened to have such a torpedo on his submarine.
There is far more then meets the eyes here.
A few days after the attack the PM Of Japan announced the US bases on Okinawa would remain. He indicated he had NO CHOICE and pointed to this incident as a sign of North Korean aggression suggesting US forces must remain in Japanese territory to ensure Japanese security.
Everyone has to ask themself. What woudl North Korea gain by staging such an attack. Who WOULD gain if such an attack blamed on the North?
Remember the Gulf Of Tonkin.
Remember the Maine, to Hell with Spain! (Spanish War) Under false flag!
Never, ever, trust the fascist amerikan government ...they will do anything to keep the war/ imperialist machine going !
So who would fire a German made torpedo at a South Korean ship? Germans of course. It's a U-Boat attack.Right out of Police Gazette from the fifties.
Wonderful! Our tax dollars at work--an other opportunity for the military industrial complex to form a new profit center. I wonder how much Barry and his war-mongering pals in Congress have taken in bribes, er, I mean campaign contributions to make this windfall happen.
Erroll, Cygnus & freepmyass -
What is left completely unmentioned in Jeff Mason's article in Reuters (surprizingly, given the background developments over the last several weeks) is that the government of North Korea has repeatedly, categorically, and very publicly denied any and all involvement in the sinking of the South Korean ship. This is the context in which today's rhetorical broadside from Robert Gibbs and President Obama should be evaluated.
Does anybody seriously expect Pyongyang to do an abrupt about face, 'fess up, and apologize? What purpose is achieved by such sabre rattling posturing, particularly given North Korea's prior announcement that it would treat any UN sanction effort as tantamount to an act of war?
I did a thirteen month tour of duty up along the Korean DMZ in the US Army infantry in 1969-1970. Time has stood still there on a lot of things, stuck in the hostilities of the early 1950's. In many ways, the government of North Korea is a real handful to deal with. They are paranoid. They do behave irrationally, bizarre, and unpredictably. Three generations of Koreans have been schooled and propagandized by now in absolute hatred of all things American, and distrust of many things stamped with a United Nations' seal of approval.
Whether Pyongyang is lying (probably they are lying) about complete noninvolvement in the incident and the loss of life is not the point. The point is, what on earth is to be gained by waving a red flag in front of an angry bull with an historical pedigree like this?
Nothing for anyone to gain. Much potentially many to lose.
And never forget, the crazy guy just north of the 38th parallel has got a nuke or two now.
Obama is on record opposing dumb wars.
This is dumb diplomacy.
Bill from Saginaw
obummer Will go down as one the biggest liars/deceivers in World history. Deadliest too, as his lies cause the slaughter/ terrorist acts of the amerikan military; and the hundreds of thousands..? millions of lost and shattered lives from amerikan corporate environmental destruction that obummer does NOTHING to stop !
Right, Bill.
I read about the denials from N. Korea. ERegardless, I'd really like to see some kind of proof.
Besides, it doesn't make any sense for them to attack the South.
The friendly folks at the Pentagon are so off the charts, for all we know the US did it as an excuse to go into S. Korea to continue surrounding China.
I mean lets face it. We're in deep shit with the people in charge here.
They're hopelessly power mad, greedy, and evil.
Other than the rest of the world joining up to stop them, there's nobody else.
Right on the money Bill. And if you pulled a tour there, tell me what you think would happen to our twenty thousand troops there if North Korea pulled the trigger?
After seeing the positions there in early 72, the lowly staff consensus was that these guys had better keep their insurance up to date. The North Koreans would roll over them like a Zamboni machine on ice.
And Mr. Obama is obviously no diplomat, certainly knows nothing about the military and is apparently a fool on top of that.
Your analysis of Pyongyang is spot on in my opinion.
Fireman With the Chopped Liver -
I was in the 2nd Infrantry Division for my tour in the DMZ, the same US army unit that was massacred and driven out of the Chosun reservoir when the Chinese volunteers first entered the fray - a massive intervention from Manchuria which the CIA totally failed to detect, and which the military intelligence reports from the field to General MacArthur's staff (then in Tokyo) discounted and disbelieved until it was too late.
The universal consensus among American troops on the ground immediately south of the 38th parallel when I was there was that those 20,000 to 30,000 US troops were a tripwire. If "Joe jumped" (the slang term for an anticipated mass artillery and armored ground infantry invasion of South Korea by the North), it was estimated at least two thirds of the American soldiers stationed in or near the DMZ would be killed, wounded, or captured within the first 48 hours of fighting. It was also pretty much assumed that the South Korean capital of Seoul would be incinerated and/or overrun within two weeks.
The function of the tripwire was a political insurance policy for the benefit of the South Korean government. With 20,000 US casualties and POWs sustained in a nefarious sneak attack by the Commie evil doers in the first few days, no American president would dare do anything but retaliate in full - probably with a strategically placed nuke or two or three, much like the Pentagon and MacArthur had seriously game planned when the Korean War was going very badly. By the mid-60's and 70's, American ground forces were stationed alongside South Korean units in the Demilitarized Zone (how's that for an Orwellian turn of phrase?) in order to die bravely with our boots on, insuring that the US-ROK security treaty would hold.
The US military presence in West Berlin from the 1950's through the end of the Cold War served much the same function. Those soldiers too were largely a tripwire - hopelessly outnumbered and completely surrounded by East German and Russian forces if hostilities ever did break out. By dying, they would insure Uncle Sam would retaliate in spades.
Why any American president would want to goad North Korea like Little George did when he put Pyongyang on the Axis of Evil alongside Iraq and Iran defies all logic. Bush and the neocon Vulcans had their ideological agenda for doing this, back in those heady post-9/11 days when the smart guys knew regime change in Baghdad was gonna be a cakewalk. For the life of me, I can't figure out what Barack Obama's agenda in northern Asia today could possibly be.
South Korea should of course protest and appeal to the UN vociferously if they genuinely believe 46 of their sailors were torpedoed by agents of North Korea in violation of the armistice. But why the White House feels it is in our current national interest to knee jerk ratchet up tensions at this moment in time in this looney tunes region of the world is dumb, arrogant, and reckless beyond belief.
Bill from Saginaw
"For the life of me, I can't figure out what Barack Obama's agenda in northern Asia today could possibly be."
–(Bill from Saginaw)
Speculative conjectures as to 'agendas' turn to chaff in the wind. It is not meant to be "figured out" as its locus resides in an entirely different level of understanding.
The "agenda" is subliminal, the war is liminal: Together they are constitutive of the immanence of war.
The agenda itself is unconscious, a regression– or at best pre-conscious and is a repression of convenience since it is not necessary that it ever de divulged. It is inchoate. An 'imaginarium' bereft of rationality, a product of instinct or conditioned response. The war precedes, the agenda follows.
Translation:
War is its own agenda, in and of itself alone. 'Reasons' for war fall by the wayside. There is no need to 'explain' it. Nor is it meant to be explained, only that it must happen.
Just as certain rarefied moves in top level chess transcend the strategic plan in the rational matrix of the game (the struggle for spatial hegemony), the American war modality has its provenance elsewhere.
"The war machine is exterior to the State apparatus...This exteriority is first attested to in mythology, epic, drama and games."
–Giles Deleuze / Félix Guattari,
("Nomadology: The War Machine," Semiotext(e))
"For the life of me, I can't figure out what Barack Obama's agenda in northern Asia today could possibly be." - Bill
I don't think you can discount the whole proxy element to this story Bill. China and the US have vested interests in this arena. China's economy is levelling off and they have every interest in seeing a non-unified peninsula.
Korea would turn into a middleweight economic and regional power overnight if unification ever happpened (regime change or populist revolution, death of dear leader) and thats not good for China. It is possible that there is a proxy element to this in an effort to discourage or reinvigorate discord.
Geopolitically the only interest here is hegemony I believe and that is China versus USA. Maybe the US does have more hegemonic interest at stake if it can overthrow Kim's NKorea and unify the peninsula?? They come off looking like they deposed a tin pot dictator and hedge China's influence. It would come at geat cost of course, but spending money militarily doesnt seem to be a problem.
Just sayin.
Just another day in the Empire, who do we bomb next?
How many wars will be enough? How much military occupation will satisfy the corpo-fascists?
How is it our government/military is ready, willing and able to invade and occupy foreign countries, inflict death and destruction on sovereign nations, accept the death and destruction of our own young men and women all as part of doing business in the name of democracy? How totally absurd and disgusting. It's just another day to them. And yet ... here, within our own country, our government twiddles their thumbs while the Gulf of Mexico dies. They're letting BP get away with murder and no sign of force here. No U.S. military readiness to deal with the BP Gulf of Mexico coup d'etat! WTF! Oh, yeah, our government only inflicts harm to those who can't defend themselves, only uses force against those who are too poor to defend themselves.
Mr. Obama has no diplomatic skills, knows little of economics, can't give a speech unless it has I, me, mine or myself in it every other sentence and seems uninterested in getting the economy back in form and producing jobs.
So his faux pas in telling our military to prepare for North Korean agression fits right in with his pattern.
Zen riddle: How can you have a stuffed shirt inside an empty suit?
Joe
What North Korean aggression??
With the history or America precipitating world conflicts through
false flag attacks it is little wonder how the more informed public
ridicules Secretary of State Clinton in her assertions that North
Korea “sank: a South Korean warship.
Sure, just remember the Maine, the Lusatania, the Gulf of Tonkin,
and 9/11, and many more. The CFR through the Pentagon or other instruments of
war are at it again. This time they might not be so lucky to escape notice.
Too bad Obama didn't tell the military to get ready for BP aggression in the Gulf ....
Indeed,Aquifer!
"The United States gave strong backing to plans by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak to punish North Korea for sinking one of its naval ships"
How about that? Punish an entire country just because someone from North Korea sank a naval ship that shouldn't have been there in the first place? We are long overdue for withdrawing from North Korea. Whoever is left worshiping Obama should read this article and then tell us what they now think of this administration.
""This review is aimed at ensuring that we have adequate measures in place and to identify areas where adjustments would be appropriate," he said."
How about adjustments, no make that overhauls, here at home?
I haven't heard of the location of the South Korean ship when it was sank. Was it in North Korean waters?
Only three entities know the answer to that question: 1. The South Koreans, 2. the North Koreans, and 3. US intelligence.
None of them are talking to us.
I think Kim Jung Il has punished N. Korea far more than anyone else ever could and if the people would rise up and overthrow him then maybe they wouldn't get punished for their military sinking a Naval vessel.
Kim Jung Il gets "rewarded" by the US for doing to North Korea the same way Saddam Hussein got "rewarded" by the US for screwing his own people. The people would find it easier overthrow Kim Jung Il and his regime only if the US would pull out. They have enough problems to take care of over there as it is.
This is extreme corruption for the military industrial complex. The bastards have to have some enemies, so they create them with lies. They were fabricated by the CIA. Who would support a trillion annual military budget without boogey men for the warmongers to point at?
Interesting article shows the lies
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/LE05Dg01.html
This was discussed here a few days ago
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/05/20-7
----------------------------------------------------
¨The time for war has past...
Man must change or die.
There is no other course.¨
Maitreya the World Teacher
Pure crazy speculation, but the thought occured to me...
what if I was some, like Pakistan maybe, who was being ot about to be attacked by the US? Wouldn't it be nice to have US forces diverted somewhere else by an attack which would be assumed to be NK? If I was a 'terrorist' I would want to see the US engaged in a dozen more wars -- until it ran out of steam completely and fell apart.
There can be all sorts of false flag operations.
Opps...Obama actually ment to say Venezuela. Sorry.
The invasion of Venezuela is not scheduled until after completion of the seven huge new American bases in Colombia. Watch for a "Venezuelan terrorist attack" (aka "Gulf of Tonkin Incident") reported from within Colombia. This will require a massive US military response. Shock and awe, baby, shock and awe.
The sinking of that ship was just another false flag operation by the US. In addition, South Korean propaganda about the North is endlessly repeated as fact in the US. The DPRK (North Korea) does not want a war with the US or the South Korean puppet regime. Washington wants to take over the DPRK's valuable territory, because it borders both China and Russia (which Washington wants to further encircle). That is what this is really all about: US imperialism's drive for global domination.
Spot on!
Yep. Now Prime Minister Hatoyama has caved to the US dictated Okinawa Futenma Base deal. This is a great two birds with a single stone deal: the Pentagon keeps its precious footprint in Okinawa, and at the very least the US brought that upstart Hatoyama heel. Or they may even be able to reinstall their old yakuza LDP cronies to run the show once again in the floating world.
And you know this without any facts or evidence since Howard Zinn said everything America does is evil and therefore the communist are actually good.
Right, how about looking at the famines in N.Korea caused by idiotic isolationist policies, plus the great confiscation took what little money and food N.Koreans had away from them. Any nation with guards who shot at all trying to leave is an authoritarian shit hole, despite how much you liberal retards want to blame America for everything this is not our fault.
N. Korea is looking for attention since they need some aid to feed there people. Now at the same time the Sunshine policy doesn't make much sense if we can't send our own aid workers in make sure food gets to people who need it.
Is that what we do? Make sure that food gets to people who need it?
Joe
Where is the diplomacy? Have we no real diplomats? Why is our foreign policy based on saber-rattling and killing? Does it have to do with fulfilling the wishes of the sociopathic multi-national corporations? Will there ever be an end to this bi-partisan foreign policy?
"The two Koreas, still technically at war..."
Must be the longest war in history...no thanks to the USA.
Ummm, the Brits and French fought over who was the rightful king of France/England on and off for about 5 hundred years... Including one stretch known as the Hundred Years War. (which actually lasted 116 years)
But the yanks didn't exist then, so I suppose it doesn't count.(grin)
Per the BBC on the day it happened...
"The patrol vessel, with 104 people aboard, sank after an unexplained explosion tore through its hull.
Several sailors also died, officials are quoted saying as divers prepared to return to the scene after daybreak.
South Korean officials played down earlier reports that it may have been the result of an attack by North Korea.
There was no sign of the North's military in the area where the ship sank."
Yep...spin spin spin...don't believe a word of it. USA sabre rattling again. Thanks Obama! Change we can BELIEVE IN! Right...