Disingenuous Newt

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told “Fox News Sunday” that:

he would have disabled the long-range missile before North Korea launched it, saying too many people “do not appreciate the scale of the threat that is evolving on the planet.”

Would such an overt act be a declaration of war? No. We and South Korea are still at war with North Korea. There has been no peace treaties, no standing down of armies, just a ceasefire at the 38th parallel. The Korean war has never ended. Gingrich knows this, but most Americans have completely forgotten it. Destroying the north Korean missile would have been just another incident in this war. We still have delegations jabbering away with the North Koreans at Panmunjom trying to find "peace in our time"... over a half-century after the ceasefire.

How can he claim that a smallish and poverty-stricken country like North Korea - facing 50,000 American troops on its southern border, backed by the world's largest and most terrifying nuclear capability - as a evolving threat to the world without first acknowledging that the United States is a true manifestation of such a worldwide threat? That the rest of the world sees us as a massive nuclear power, armed with thousands of WMD's, with the missile capability to deliver them anywhere? That we have armed troops stationed across the globe enforcing our will on other nations and peoples? That American presidents can - for whatever reason - bring death and destruction to anyplace on nothing more than a whim or suspicion?

To claim that we Americans have higher ideals or goals - like wanting to spread our versions of democracy and freedom - ignores the fact that we are the most aggressive and warlike nation in the world today. We have more military in more nations across earth than Russia and China combined. And North Korea? They have troops marching around in their capital on Kim's birthday... that's about it. The fire ants in my backyard are more of a threat to the United States than North Korea is.

Gingrich pontificates further:

One morning, just like 9/11, there’s going to be a disaster. I have yet to see the United Nations do anything effective with either Iran or North Korea.

Amusing. On the other side of this coin, I have yet to see the United Nations do anything effective with either Palestine or Israel.

Of course, he's right about another disaster. So long as the United states has troops slaughtering unarmed and helpless men, women and children around the globe, we're going to be a target of deep-seated hatred. Sending wheat and bottled water to places like Ethiopia won't change that.

Americans really need to wake up to the fact that our federal government is - in actuality - one of the worst aggressors in the history of the world, fomenting hatred for us - and our children - that will last for generations.

And Obama? He's rushing - at breakneck speed - down the same track.