June 5th, 2018
Allow me to conclude “Profile in courage” and “ethical norms” have never applied to Donald J Trump, since the senile old man sails on an “immoral” and “unethical” compass.
Nevertheless, having entered the 21st century it’s appalling to see the United States Government was willing to negotiate with the North Korean regime, let alone admire this regime. A regime which has been involved in “crimes against humanity” which bear similarities with those in “Nazi Germany,” while at the same time taking Human Rights off the agenda.
The outcome from this “Trump PR exercise in futilities” was as expected, but most disgraceful to normalize this murderous regime as a result of this completely empty “letter of intent.”
Donald Trump has shown the world what American “exceptionalism” looks like. Still it’s remarkable to see the American President shake hands with a murderous tyrant, normalizing Kim Jong Un and invite him to the White House, someone who should be in front of the judges of the International Criminal Court in The Hague and prosecuted for crimes against humanity.
Credits to Kim Jung Un who played Donald J Trump like Paganini played his Stradivari and received great face in the region, equal status with the United States and normalization of North Korea by signing a “Fake Agreement.“
Seriously, has American naivety no limits, since this is the story of the donkey who repeatedly hits the same hard stone since 1985.
There is an lack strategy and refinement in the US approach to major issues, which can be found in that ancient game of Go the Chinese play so well which must be seen as an analogy of geo-politics whereby Chinese are thinking in dynasties, planning for generational effects of their decisions. Trump on the other hand plays a simple dice games, like they did in his bankrupted Casino’s.
Already before the summit began it was game set and match for the North Koreans by having Kim Yong-Choi visiting the White House to meet with Trump they reached two important objectives brilliantly:
a. Taking Trumps measure up close by Kim Yong-Choi; b. Legitimizing their murderous regime.
It obvious Kim Jung Un was taught well by his father Kim Jong II who produced the same movie before ( Chronology of U.S.-North Korean Nuclear and Missile Diplomacy).
There is a long history of deceit by North Korea since 1985 which started in earnest in 1994, when North Korea announced its intent to withdraw from the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The period 2000-2002 was notable, when the reclusive Kim Jung II also had summits in Beijing, Seoul, & Moscow and met the US secretary of State Margaret Albright. In 2001 while visiting Guangdong he suggested he was interested in reforms and opening North Korea up. He visited Putin in Moscow and hosted the Japanese PM Junichiro Koizumi.
In 2002 the NPT collapsed when North Korea claimed that it had withdrawn from the NPT in January 2003 and once again began operating its nuclear facilities.
In 2003 the Six-Party Talks were initiated involving China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea, and the United States. In 2005 North Korea pledged to abandon “all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs” and return to the NPT. This brought North Korea peace dividends but did not change the criminal nature of the regime,
In 2007, the 2005 agreement was implemented but in 2009 following disagreements over verification and an internationally condemned North Korea rocket launch. Until the recent empty commitment to denuclearization North Korea has always stated not to be bound by previous agreements.
From the same book of fairy tales Kim Jung Un is reading from came the announcement that North Korea was going to dismantle its Nuclear Test Site before the Summit meeting of June 12th, which was similar to Kim Jong II actions when they demolished the Yongbyon reactor in 2008.
As the U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper stated in 2016 “the notion of getting the North Koreans to denuclearize is probably a lost cause” and that nuclear weapons are North Korea’s “ticket to survival.”
If the recent history is any guidance, this time the recently started diplomatic efforts will be no different than under Presidents Carter, Reagan, Clinton, Bush or Obama, the same promises will be made, demands for economic compensation and lifting of the sanctions will be made and verification issues will lead to the same situation, only some of the names have changed while American naïveté is again on display.
The reality for all to see Denuclearization is an immense security risk for North Korea and the Kim Dynasty, it’s suicidal as Libya / Gadhafi and other countries showed. The only successful denuclearization happened in Nelson Mandela’s South Africa given the lack of strategic reason to have nuclearweapons and its obvious this will not happen in North Korea.
The meeting between Trump and Kim Jung Un has only produced positive results for Kim and surprises for the Allies. Like with the Allies in Europe the distrustful senile old man threw South Korea and Japan under the Bus with the scrapping of the year-old military exercises and other concessions and who knows what was said about a phased withdrawal of American forces from South Korea.
Taiwan should be concerned while Beijing & Moscow are delighted with the results of this meeting and with the last 500+ days of the Trump administration. This has already caused a rebalancing and weakened the Liberal order which has brought us peace and prosperity during 70 years after WWII
The performance of Trump, the day to day assaults on the Presidency, democracy, institutions, international relationships and human decency are deeply concerning. Sadly we have all seen this before in history, the populist starts with a minority which is uneducated and easy to influence and the autocrat uses this cancer of hate, racism, bigotry and turns this into fascism.
The autocrat Trump is like a malignant cancer destroying the US Society from within, whereby he is seeks to control the institutions which limit him while at the same time he seeks a new strategic direction for the country more in line with authoritarian regimes like China and Russia he so admires. Trump is well of his way to complete his MAGA strategy establishing the “Axis of Authoritarians.”
In the process Trump has from the beginning been insulting America’s Allies, started trade wars with Canada, China and Europe leading to the well-executed destruction of the G7 with most likely NATO next on the Agenda.
With cancelation of the Paris accords, TPP, Iran and renegotiation NAFTA Trump is making the US a pariah and has placed the US outside the G7 making this G6 + 1. Trump shows to have great disagreements with the truth, shows agreements with the US have limited value and are prone to cancellation or re-negotiation which makes the US unreliable. Obviously the Atlantic relationship has been placed on life support and is very much like American Society eaten from within by the actions of Donald J Trump.
As the French Present Macron rightly stated “The American President may not mind being isolated, but neither do we mind signing a 6 country agreement if need be. Because these 6 countries represent values, they represent an economic market which has the weight of history behind it and which is now a true international force.”
Trump by not able to relate to others only to himself is cutting himself off from the allies, similar to a pariah stripped of any support the senile Emperor does not realize “Winter is coming and he has no clothes.”
It seems our world is returning to pre-WW2 levels with Democracy and freedom entering the darkness’s of fascism unless the institutions hold up. We saw during that time Japanese interned, Jews refused entry, Hiroshima and McCarthy rise and sadly Trump embodies the same immorality of the past with children taken away from their mother and putting them in concentration camps.
Europe, as the German Foreign Minister stated is face with the question “how to hold its own in a world radicalised by nationalism, populism and chauvinism?” “These questions are based of a. Donald Trump egoistic policy of “America First;” b. Russia’s attacks on international law and state’s sovereignty; c. the expansion of the giant that is China.”
Also concluding “The world order that we once knew and had accustomed to no longer exists. Old pillars of reliability are crumbling under the weight of new crises. Alliances dating back decades are being challenged in the time it takes to write a tweet.”
“The US was long the leading power among the free nations. For 70 years, it was committed to freedom, prosperity and security in Europe. Today we must respond to the decisions made by the US with appropriate counter measures. The fact that a German Foreign Minister has to say this is something that, to ne honest, I wouldn’t have thought possible for the longest time.”
“However, the Atlantic has become wider under President Trump. His policies of isolationism has left a giant vacuum in the world.”
I see a world emerge which we thought we had left behind. With his newest North Korea and G7 debacle Trump has been able to worsen the US geopolitical position even further.
In Europe and this is unprecedented, as the German Foreign Minister already noted, there is the realization that the US starts to become a bigger problem for Europe than Russia. And this is not just about Trump and Putin, or any personalities. It’s also about values, goals and competition.
More than twice as many Germans think that Putin’s Russia is a more reliable partner than they think Trump’s America is. For China, it’s more than 3x. Germany is (was) a longstanding ally and the world’s 4th largest economy.
We can ask ourselves “with friends like Trump ‘s US who need enemies.”
William J J Houtzager
In what kind of world do we wish to live 