https://socialistaction.org/2017/09/03/are-north-koreas-leaders-crazy/
Are North Korea’s leaders crazy?
/ 2 days ago
Sept. 2017 Korea nuke
Days after the U.S. and South Korea threatened North Korea with “war
games,” Kim Jong Un inspected what North Korea called its first hydrogen
bomb. On Sept. 2, the powerful bomb was exploded in a test in the China
Sea. The resulting 6.3 earthquake was 100 times the size of the quake
caused by the country’s first nuclear test, 11 years ago.
By MARK BRUNT
Much has been made—and quite astutely—of connections between the current
lead-up to a potential war with North Korea and the events before the
Iraq War: the collusion of mainstream media with a president that
earlier they had largely disliked; massive fear-mongering about their
weapons; and a narrative about the brutality of the regime. Yet the
image of Kim Jong Un, and his administration that is crafted by American
propaganda is also reminiscent of the image created of Japan during
World War II. It is an Orientalist depiction of a supposedly irrational
people—a racist conception that the U.S. is now using to justify yet
another potential war.
The dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were, and
continue to be, justified by the claim that Japan would have never
surrendered otherwise. Indeed, there is a principle in the code of
Bushido, a major element of Japanese culture, that precludes surrender.
And yet, was this actually a principle the Japanese government would
have followed?
Winston Churchill explicitly said, “We shall never surrender!” But his
statement was treated as a rhetorical rallying cry. Surely, as a
rational actor, Churchill did have a breaking point. The Nazis never
reached that point, but we perceive Churchill—a white European—as
essentially acting in the best interest of his country, calling for
resistance even in the face of long odds against a powerful enemy, not
as a madman from a warrior culture, incapable of seeing the reality of
his situation beyond a code of honor from the Middle Ages. The Japanese,
however, were portrayed as bound by this code and unable to reason past it.
The same racist attitude is now being applied to the administration in
North Korea. A careful look at history can demonstrate North Korea as a
rational actor. And, to be clear, we do not mean “rational” in the sense
that it is respectable or to be admired; the current ruling regime of
North Korea is hardly admirable. To be “rational” means to be capable of
political calculations in pursuit of a goal, the first of which is
self-preservation.
The country suffered a brutal occupation by Japan, which it freed itself
from, only to suffer a bombing campaign from the U.S. that killed well
over a million people. This, of course, was the same U.S. involved in a
list of regime changes so long it might have made the British Empire blush.
We can only assume that North Korea is rationally afraid of the United
States. It is, therefore, a rational act to obtain weapons of
deterrence, the most powerful being nuclear weapons. We oppose nuclear
proliferation, but if the U.S. has an arsenal that could annihilate the
world in the blink of an eye, and a history of aggression, it is not
hard to see why other countries—especially those on America’s bad
side—would seek to arm themselves.
If we treat North Korea as a rational actor, it is hard to imagine Kim
Jong Un striking first, knowing how deeply outgunned he is. But,
remember, Kim Jong Un is not portrayed as rational but “crazy,” like the
Japanese in World War II. He isn’t driven by self-preservation, but a
fire-eyed hatred to destroy. After all, don’t all North Korean school
children grow up being taught to hate the United States?
In order to promote fear of North Korea, the U.S. propaganda machine
must make a first strike by North Korea seem plausible, and to do so,
they must present Kim as irrational. Isn’t it convenient that the old
narratives of irrational Asians are so prevalent? (Other American
enemies do not get depicted as such. Putin, for instance, is depicted as
conniving, deceptive, and frightening—but rational.)
Socialist Action is in opposition to all imperialist war, including any
potential strike on North Korea. No such act is necessary for the
well-being of the American (or any country’s) working class.
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September 3, 2017 in Anti-War, East Asia.
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