• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • About Us
    • FAQ
    • Meet the Team
  • Contact us
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
NEWSLETTER
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Trump Watch: What can the rest of the world do to stop the madness?

As we move into what by rights should be a relaxing summer weekend – the Premier League is back, the trees are still green, books to read and lawnchairs to sit on – unless we choose to completely ignore the news our nerves are as frayed as a university student heading into a final exam […]

Hubert O'Hearn by Hubert O'Hearn
2017-08-13 13:59
in News, Politics
FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmailWhatsapp

As we move into what by rights should be a relaxing summer weekend – the Premier League is back, the trees are still green, books to read and lawnchairs to sit on – unless we choose to completely ignore the news our nerves are as frayed as a university student heading into a final exam with a hangover. The party’s over, now what the hell do we do?

The first headline I saw this Friday morning was on The Guardian: US and South Korea to stage huge military exercise despite North Korea crisis. I am quite sure that I am not the only person to have read that to have in turn considered whether this exercise is a thin, transparent cover for direct military action against Pyongyang. The timing of August 21-31 coincides with the self-declared North Korean window when it will be prepared to launch four ICBM missiles aimed at the waters off the US military base on Guam. Somehow the question of where Virgil Van Dijk plays his football this season seems a whole lot less important.

If – and this is a very large ‘if’ – any form of action could remove North Korea’s nuclear capacity with a minimal loss of life and without a nuclear exchange, that might actually be an option well worth the immediate risk. However, we must remember that Donald Trump at his first National Security briefing three times asked the various intelligence and military advisors, ‘If we have nuclear weapons why don’t we use them?’, no doubt scaring the ghosts out of everyone in the room not named Donald Trump. And as for Kim Jong-un and the Workers’ Party of Korea, to quote an old Chinese proverb, why should a barefoot man feel fear of one who threatens to steal his shoes?

For the rest of the world, what can we do to walk back this situation for indeed it threatens us all? As we saw with Chernobyl, the nearest equivalent in recent history to a nuclear weapon, the environmental damage alone will poison a massive area. That is not just the Korean peninsula or adjacent Russian or Chinese areas; rather we must realize that fall-out will scatter into the Pacific and its adjacent seas. We are still dealing with the fall-out from the Fukushima disaster in Japan as it spreads and contaminates an area reaching the US Pacific Coast, and that was an accident that was relatively ‘contained’ within one plant.

There is the hope that the Six-Party Talks might be revived. They began when North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003. Whether or not those talks were at all successful is actually a hypothetical question as we do not know what advancement, if any, beyond its current nuclear capacity North Korea might have had without the talks and their concurrent squeezing and partially lifting of various sanctions.

A certain pessimism also clouds a revival of the original Six Parties when we look at who those nations were: the US, the two Koreas, Russia, China and Japan. Save for Japan, which gets along with everyone except very recently North Korea, each of these players is in one way or another in an antagonistic position against one or more of the others. Finding a common and persuasive ground among any five of the six is about as likely as shifting mountains into a mosaic.

RelatedPosts

Emotionless Maxwell says meeting Epstein was ‘greatest regret’ of her life

Ghislaine Maxwell sentenced to 20 years in prison

Rudy Giuliani confronted over ‘assault’ claims

Andrea Leadsom dubbed a ‘dishonest authoritarian’ over Steve Bray comments

Realistically, and no matter how much I loathe writing these words, Donald Trump is right about one thing: the only nation that can weigh in with effective, non-military diplomacy is China. China is the only major trade partner North Korea has. As the former does not release defined trade statistics, we have to deal with estimates, however those estimates place the value of annual trade at $2.6b and rising. Imports in 2017 from North Korea to China are down over 10% from previous years while exports (the majority is likely food) are up. Therefore, we can assume that China is actually exerting pressure.

The problem again is with Trump and his bullying attitude. This is not to excuse Kim Jong-un and his saber rattling, however it is best to ignore him. Yes, ignore him. That is beyond Trump’s psychological capacity. His child-like bellicosity will not allow him to do anything but escalate, escalate, escalate.

What can the rest of the world do? Well, if what I have read is true, the intelligence agencies of the Five Eyes Nations (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and US) all have hard evidence that will prove the collusion/conspiracy case of the Trump campaign with foreign interference in the 2016 election. This evidence, we can safely assume, has been shared with the FBI and Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The investigation, Grand Jury and eventual indictments against Trump and his cohorts has been expected to take a year or more. That process must be accelerated and at a high velocity. The world’s security and the planet’s safety literally depends on it.

Be seeing you.

RELATED 

https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/trump-watch-vampires-yusopov-zeitgeist/07/08/

Since you are here

Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.

Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.

Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.

If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.

To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.

The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.

The shop can be found here.

You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending on TLE

  • All
  • trending
Abdollah

‘Rescue us’: Afghan teacher begs UK to help him escape Taliban

CHOMSKY: “If Corbyn had been elected, Britain would be pursuing a much more sane course”

What If We Got Rid Of Prisons?

More from TLE

Moment a Brit saved as a baby in Vietnam met birth mum for first time

Elevenses: Rehabilitation Consternation

Untamable: An Interview with Self-Help Author Dr. Nahla Khaddage Bou-Diab

Theatre Review: See Me Now, The Young Vic

Border Force threaten strike over Patel’s Channel ‘pushback’ plans

Just 17% of Brits think Brexit is going well

Watch – “You talk sh**e, hen,” Mhairi Black lays into Tory Minister

The Weekly Cocktail Recipe: Appleton Estate Rum Old Fashioned     

PM channels Raducanu’s resilience as he backs Patel over ANOTHER code breach allegation

Baby died in fall through ninth floor window with faulty handle his mum had urged council to fix, it’s claimed

JOBS

FIND MORE JOBS

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Travel
  • JOBS
  • More…
    • Elevenses
    • Opinion
    • Property
    • Tech & Auto
  • About Us
    • Meet the Team
    • Privacy policy
  • Contact us

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.