Thursday, May 27, 2010

The People's Liberation Army speaks back to Hillary Clinton on punishing North Korea

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton did not expect a critical 'lecture' by a senior officer of China's PLA [People's Liberation Army] during the recent two day meeting of the US and Chinese high officials.
Mrs. Clinton was pushing hard on her campaign to 'punish' the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea aka North Korea], among a list of problem areas. She is trying to enlist China's voice in yet other mesures of boycott against North Korea in the sinking of the ROK [Republic of Korea aka South Korea] corvette 'Cheonan'.
Whilst China's civilian authorities were preaching 'calm and patience', the PLA's was loud and clear in assessing US motives.
According to a 27 May 2010 article appearing in the 'New York Times', Mark Landler filing a story from Seoul, bruited the PLA's harsh criticism of US policy up and down the line.
The PLA 'blameed Washington for everything that has gone wrong between the two countries and credited Beijing for everything that has gone right'.
Injecting this standpoint into the current US ROK warlike offensive against the DPRK, it should make Mrs. Clinton and South Korea's president Lee Myung bek pause for reflexion. But it won't.
US diplomacy has forgotten the pivotal role of the Chinese People's Volunteers in pushing back the UN forces, led and commanded by the US from the Yalu to the 38 parallel during the Korean war.
That essential fact, it seems, has played no calculation in the US going on the warpath against North Korea
Had not anyone in Foggy Bottom reread Robert Whiting's Rand study on 'China crosses the Yalu', commissioned by the CIA connected Rand Corporation and published in 1960?
Apparently not.
The PLA has its say in China's policy towards the DPRK. And it is not open to question that it prefers a 'strong' North Korea as a buffer on the Yalu.
Mr. Lee and Mrs. Clinton as represent the Barack Obama [BHO] administration, have within less than 60 days rolled back history and ramped up tensions on the divided Korean peninsula to a point that recalls the days leading up to war in Korea 60 years ago.
The situation between the DPRK and the ROK and the US is such that a mishap during joint US ROK military operations on the Yellow Sea and on land, might spark a shooting incident, thereby sending shock waves through markets and upping the ante for war.
As GuamDiary has remarked elsewhere, Euripdes words have a special meaning for the US ROK tack against the DPRK: 'whom the gods wish to destroy, they first drive mad'.
And China's PLA has thrown up a stern warning that it will not brook any new war by the US and the ROK on the very tense Korean peninsula.

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