Tuesday, May 22, 2018

I don't think the Secretary of State is making in roads.

I know Trump wants to appear to be a tough guy, but, his methods are really not working. Iran is finished with negotiations. They aren't really interested in promoting more talks. So, the unilateral sanctions is simply putting the USA outside the sphere of influence.

The same seems true in regard to North Korea. Granted Russia and China came to the UN Security Council to join a singular voice to Kim Jung Un. That was an accomplishment and provided greater potential to promote peace in the Korean region.

President Moon Jae-in realized North Korea was making a new assessment of it's future considering the UN Security Council was united in demanding peace. In that was the real opportunity to end the old tensions and invited the North Korean athletes to participate in the Olympics as South Korean guests. That genuine expression of collective interest was welcome and a really great movement toward peace was taken seriously by the North.

I think it was wrong for the Trump administration to classify the talks with North Korea as a model to the initiative with Libya. Libya is not a good model. Libya ended in tragedy and not a success. It is the past policies of The West that produce concern by Kim Jung Un. He does not want a Libya like outcome for his people.

The initiative to peace for the Korean Peninsula and the region should not be squandered. I believe the UN Security Council did the right thing. The UN Security Council can ask President Moon Jae-in to speak and provide insight to the best direction for continued movement toward peace for the Korean people. He obviously has the trust of Kim Jung Un.

Achieving the peace in the two Koreas can include a safe path for the North Korean people as well as their current leader. Mistreating Kim Jong Un will not win the hearts of the North Korean people.

I believe the path forward for North and South Korea lies in the hands of their leaders and the common ground they stand on. This effort to end decades of very hostile tensions must not fail. The people of the Koreas have a right to their dream to end hatred and nurture improvements to potentially uniting families.

I believe the Koreas' peace will last. As trust builds and both Koreas find economic health by engaging each other, the potential to removing any nuclear threat from the region has great promise. I do believe North Korea will disarm, but, it won't happen through threats, but, trust.

I also believe the USA's nuclear capacity in the region is a real threat that will cause hesitation to any peace movement. The USA is an ally to South Korea, but, with real peace there won't be a need to bring nuclear weapons into the region. That is not a position of a whim, it is a position of peace with confidence in the future.

Libya never was never so stable as the Korean potential post nuclear weapon removal. One looks to Ukraine and it's peril after relinquishing of nuclear weapons. This is the reality the leaders of North Korea, Pakistan and Iran have as examples of very poor policy that destroyed countries and not stabilized them through peace.

I think the removal of any nuclear potential in the region where North Korea and South Korea seek peace and reunification is a reasonable demand. That would mean as North Korea is denuclearized, China, Russia and the USA have to provide assurances there will be no nuclear potential into the Korean peninsula.

That paradigm will be new to all countries involved, but, it would be a chance to test the strength of the hope for the peace process. In the case of South Korea, there has to be a corresponding participation of Japan. The USA cannot just park it's nuclear missiles offshore of Japan or other Pacific islands. It is unreasonable to ask a country to denuclearize while the five permanent members of the UN are static in the region. That paradigm encourages destabilization of governments.

I do not anticipate easy progress to these talks, but, they have to be conducted and resolves met to the satisfaction of all. It is hideous to think peace in this world is nothing more than ideology. I sincerely believe most if not all leaders in the world want a denuclearized world for their children. North Korea is the test.

There is a way forward and I trust President Moon Jae-in to make it so.

May 22, 2018

General Ismail Kowsari, (click here) Deputy Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Tharallah base, seen on Al-Alam TV on September 27, 2017. 


Iran has responded to US warnings of tighter sanctions by threatening to “punch Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the mouth."

Mr Pompeo (click here) said Washington would impose new penalties if Tehran did not agree to make sweeping changes, including dropping its nuclear programme and pulling out of the Syrian civil war.
The threat comes two weeks after Donald Trump pulled out of an international nuclear deal with Iran despite appeals from other signatories including Britain, France and Germany.
The White House has warned it is ready to impose "the strongest sanctions in history", setting Washington and Tehran further on a course of confrontation.

But Ismail Kowsari, the deputy commander of the Sarollah Revolutionary Guards base in Tehran, has poured scorn on the latest sanctions threat.
He said: ”The people of Iran should stand united in the face of this and they will deliver a strong punch to the mouth of the American Secretary of State and anyone who backs them.
"Who are you and America to tell us to limit the range of ballistic missiles?
"History has shown that with the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, America is the top criminal with regard to missiles.”...