Make Peace with North Korea by Giving them Hostages

Background:  America went on a murderous rampage of Regime Changes.  Reeling like a drunken imbecile after having won the Cold War, when the Soviet Union could no longer stand in its way, America was eager to sweep aside every last vestige of resistance to American Ideology and Political Dominance across the Globe.  To prep the American Public for War or Military Interventions or even just those O Dark Thirty Seal Team Six Assassinations, we hear over and over again that each Leader that gets in America’s way is “irrational, insane and not to be trusted” with the implication that such Leaders are begging to be assassinated.  It is often argued that by assassinating a Country’s Leader the People of that Country are being Liberated and so are actually deriving a huge benefit for which they should be grateful.  But then their Countries are relentlessly bombed – destroying power, water and food distribution infrastructures as well as perhaps unleashing the genie of old latent but still simmering impulses for Sectarian Civil War.  So often to ostensibly just remove the Leader, often hundreds of thousands of the Country’s People end up dead too.   If any other country besides America were in engaged in such atrocities it would be termed Mass Genocide.  But America has great Public Relations People.   Oh, by the way it seems like some kind of an ironic punishment from the Gods that Trump became the American President.  That will teach the Americans to call other people’s Leaders irrational, insane and not to be trusted.

 

Well, in regards to America’s Manifest Destiny for Regime Changes, now it seem to be North Korea’s turn in the crosshairs.    

 

To give ourselves some context here, the Americans insist that it is impossible to negotiate with the North Korean Leader Kim Jong-Un.   But, anyone who scratches their head and cares to remember will recall that America had already had a deal with North Korea, forged by the Clinton Administration but it fell apart when Republicans under the incoming Bush administration cut off agreed upon supplies of fuel oil to North Korea, claiming, again ironically, that “the North Koreans could not be trusted to hold up their end of the Deal”.  The North Koreans waited patiently for 3 years for the Bush Administration to come around to honoring the Clinton treaty, but finally gave up and revamped their Nuclear Program that they really had in fact completely shut down.   That is why we still hear that we can’t negotiate with North Korea because they don’t honor their agreements.   Even the Press says that, and they should know better.  Before the Press believes what any Politian tells them, wouldn’t it be easy enough to simply go back and check their AP files.  It was America that scuttled that Deal!   Now I am not complaining about “Fake” News…  just stupid, gullible, incomplete and intellectually lazy News.   Yes, I know that Reporters are not supposed to Comment, that they are just supposed to Report.  But no one is tying their hands regarding Who they Ask and What, are they?   For instance, if One Politician lies to you from one side of the Aisle, and then you get a Politician from the other side of the Aisle to comment and he also lies to you.   So what do you think your job is?  To just present Both Lies to the American People and leave it for them to sort out?  But it is often not that simple.  Often the Truth does not exist Between the Two Lies.  The Actual Truth may be off in a completely different direction altogether.  So perhaps your best choice would be to call up some brilliant and impartial University Professor, who has Tenure so nothing they say can get them Fired, and tell him or her what the Politicians told you and then ask whether he or she thinks it was all a complete pile of crap?  Now, THAT would be your Story – The Intelligent Contextualization of what the Scheming Corrupt Politicians are trying to pass off as the Truth.  The Press is the 4^th Estate.  Democracy depends on its 4^th Estate for the Truth.  And it is not doing its job if it just acts the Messenger Boy for the Political Class of Professional Liars.  But it seems that the Press gets a quote from the Rascal and a quote from the Scoundrel and goes to Print happy that it presents Both Sides.

 

Well, back to Korea.    The situation now with North Korea is different from all the rest of those prior Regime Change Scenarios.  You see, there is a problem with running the same Game Plan over and over again because eventually the other Teams learn your moves and compensates and adapts.  Eventually the Regimes sitting in line for annihilation would survey the Broad Map of Geo-Political Reality and discern an important fact, and that is that America refrains from bullying other Nuclear Powers.   Members of the Club can do whatever they want and the worse that happens to them is that they are hit with sanctions which in many cases do as much to hurt the Global Economy as to hurt the Sanctioned Country and so they often don’t last very long, being lifted for the convenience of everybody involved.   But while Sanctions might really pinch in the meanwhile, they fall far short of having your country bombed back into the Stone Age and being hunted down and assassinated.  So, yes, The Obvious Plan for any Country that sees itself in the Path of the Great American Steam Roller is to do their homework and figure out how to build what the Americans were able to build back in 1944, more than seventy years ago, especially when you can learn all of the basic principles just by watching YouTube tutorials (it wouldn’t surprise me if some California kid were to show up at his 8^th grade Science Fair with an A-Bomb).   Really, how hard can it be to be a Nuclear Power, especially if you are Korea, where even if the infrastructure for most other things is kind of shaky, the foundation and structure of their Centralized System of Education is monolithically flawless.   America might let 90% of its Intellectual Talent go to waste and fall through the cracks with its underfunded schools and complete absence of National Talent Scouting and Targeted Scholarships to put the Best and the Brightest where they can do the most public good, but you know that ain’t North Korea, where every kid in every classroom in every school is given close scrutiny to see if he or she has the kind of Potential that the Regime could cultivate and utilize. Considering all that, North Korea could probably pack a Stadium with Engineering Geniuses.   So of course North Korea could get the Bomb almost as soon as they thought they needed it, once the necessary materials could be procured.  Rockets too.  If America really did land a Man on the Moon in 1969 then we really can’t expect that anybody making a Rocket 50 years later would have much of a problem landing a Warhead in Minniapolis, could we?  And targeting could be a thousand times easier.  Back in the Sixties every populated inch on Earth was not pulsing and throbbing with Cell Phone and Wi-Fi signals (which create a well-defined Electro-Static Spectral Cloud over regions) , but now it is.  You don’t even need GPS when you can program your missile to just home in on a specific Electro Glow. 

 

So, what do we have so far?  America has been out on a continuous Rampage of Regime Changing ever since the Soviet Union collapsed and could no longer offer small non-Western nations its Protection.  But America is known to stop short when it comes to dealing with Nuclear Powers.  So North Korea became a Nuclear Power.  So America and North Korea are in a Mexican Standoff.

 

So, yes, North Korea being a Nuclear Power is a fait accompli – that’s French for a Fact that we have to learn to live with.    But now the problem is with hoping the Koreans never hit the launch button on a Loaded Round.  We all need to realize that it is not Crazy for the North Korean Regime to be understandably jumpy.  You see twice a year every year America conducts highly provocative Military Exercises which are indistinguishable to any outside observer from an actual Invasion Mobilization.  America cries that North Korean missile launches are provocative, but even while North Korea may have its Finger on the Nuclear Trigger, America still goes forward with its Invasion Mobilization Simulations that, again, look exactly like the Real Thing.  And the Americans call the North Korean Regime irrational and insane!  I don’t know why the American Press does not look deeper into this issue.  It seems almost certain that the American Press must be tightly muzzled… that America’s 4^th Estate has been neutered and marginalized.   The only other explanation is that the American Press are all dumb as stumps… hired because they were Journalism Majors!  Well, what is THAT anyway?  Maybe they should hire people who have Real Degrees.  You see, knowing about what you report on would give a unique perspective that one does not often find in the News.  And nobody is stopping the 4^th Estate from ringing up Harvard University’s Political Sciences Department Head and asking for his opinion.  If you know that you don’t know, and that Spokespeople could just be using you for ‘Pin the Tail On the Donkey’, then call somebody you trust to find out whether you are just being played or not.  And to me the Press is either being played in regards to the Korean Crisis, or they are complicit regarding the universally agreed upon line of Propaganda that is to fed the American Public.  Hey, I guess everyone has to make a living… selling out somehow somewhere, right?        

 

Anyway, the Americans and the South Koreans could have plenty of Military Exercises without provoking World War Three.  They could just stage them in America.  I would suggest Fort Drum New York for any exercise running from Spring through Fall.  The scenery is beautiful.  And the hills look almost exactly like the hills in North Korea. The Fort is outside a pretty town called Watertown.   A Big Exercise would be great for their Economy.  I think the South Korean visitors would love the place.  The North Korean spies would probably enjoy their stay also.  Oh, the Military would complain that they couldn’t bring over all 50,000 Troops that are ordinarily involved in these Mammoth Exercises, but I myself was in the Military and I have been through Exercises.  The Exercises are NOT for the Men, that is anybody from the Company Grade Officers down through the thousands of enlisted men.  To them it is just doing the same thing they have done a thousand times already in their scheduled Training.   Nothing changes just because it is a Big Exercise.  The Ones who benefit from Exercises are the General and Field Grade Officers from each country’s Organizations.   They get to Schmooze.  During the Exercise itself everyone gets to see each other’s Leadership styles, and during the Post Exercise Wind-Down and Out-Briefings Stages, the Days are Short and the Nights are long and the Officers from their different Countries get to party together and build camaraderie and a forge trusting  personal relationships.   So that if a War DOES happen, everyone REALLY knows who they are fighting with – that they recognize the Voice on the Radio that is asking for Reinforcements on their Left Flank.  So, anyway, for an Effective Exercise, you wouldn’t need more than a couple thousand people.  I suspect that the Big Exercises are for the Benefit of Private Contractors who somehow figured out a way of turning them into a Big Cash Cows.  Really, the Military should have a rule against fraternizing with those Predatory Military Contractors, because otherwise they Buddy Up (maybe the word is Suck Up)  to the Generals who then give those Money Grubbers anything they ask for just because they paid for a round of drinks (I’m serious!).           

 

So, we were discussing the possibility that something or anything could spook the Korean’s into Launching.  So America really needs to think of a way to reassure North Koreans that they are indeed not intent upon Regime Change.         

 

So I thought and thought and thought.  And then I remembered about Louis the IVX, the Sun King of France.   Louis had a problem with his Nobility.  They all had Castles and so they could start their own private wars or disrupt commerce, and then run and hide in their Castles where they were relatively safe and untouchable unless Louis would wish to go to some great expense to mount an expedition to go and batter down their walls.  Also, a great deal of the time Louis was committed to fighting real Wars outside of France and was uncomfortable with deploying his Armies away from home, if the local Barons were going to take advantage of the local Power Vacuum by committing all kinds of acts of local mayhem, murder, rape and pillage.  So Louis got to thinking.  It was no longer the Dark Ages.  He now had gun powder and siege guns – huge cannons that could knock down castle walls.  So Louis drew up a plan for sending a combined Engineering Artillery Regiment with adequate Cavalry and Heavy Infantry support from one end of France to the other and knock down all those troublesome castles one by one.  Yes, it would be moderately expensive, but once taken care of he would never have to worry about it again.  However, even Louis knew that in some cases, for instance when the English would invade, that these same Castles could come in handy when he could expect to make strong Wartime Alliances with most of his French Nobility.  So Louis was not totally committed to this Program of Decastlefication, when several of the Nobles involved, having caught wind of Louis’s Plan (yes, Leakers even back then!) , rode through the Palace Gates of Versailles, WITH their families in tow.  Ostensively they were there to Negotiate for the retention of their Castles and they would stay there as long as it took to make a Deal.  But Louis and his Chief Minister of State instantly knew the substance of what was transpiring – that these Nobles were implicitly offering their Families as Hostages in exchange for the security of their Castles.   So of course Louis pretended to go along with the Cover Story of an indefinite series of Negotiations, and when other Nobles across France caught onto the scheme they also packed up their Families and off to Versailles they went.  Of course, Versailles treated all of these “hostages” as honored guests, free to come and go as they pleased, and of course there were numerous grand parties and balls provided for their amusement.  Versailles became the Talk of Europe and the Nobility from Everywhere and Anywhere were tripping over themselves to get an invitation to Versailles so that they could have as much fun as the Hostages.

 

When you look up Hostages on let’s say Wikipedia, there is a lot of discussion on Hostage Taking, but very little about Hostage Giving.  But going back to Ancient Times it was a tried and true measure for proving your sincerity in regards to a Peace Treaty or the intention to remain at Peace.  Often the word “hostage” would not be mentioned but the idea of it would be couched in offers such as “We have heard so much about the Great Learning in your Temples and Schools.  We would be honored if you could sponsor my Son in his Studies so that he could learn much of the Knowledge and Wisdom that your great country has to offer”.   That would make his Son a Hostage to Peace with that particular King.  Then there is the ploy of a King offering his favorite daughter to be married to a Prince of a rival Kingdom.  His Daughter would become a Hostage to Peace.

 

So what America needs to do is to insist upon Long Term and Open Ended Negotiations that will last as long as it takes and that they should be conducted right there in the North Korean Capital, or maybe right within the Kim Jong-un’s Palace Grounds.  The Hostages we would have to offer could not simply be throw-away people from America’s Middle and Working Classes, as we know how expendable the Government feels they must be. The Hostage Giving Plan would require some very high ranking diplomats (if you really wanted to Negotiate, but that really isn’t the point) from some of America’s finest families, and they would need to be accompanied by their families.  Also, America could use the Ploy of having a Student Exchange Program, where the Sons and Daughters of prominent American Families could go to study in North Korea (I hear they have a splendid Nuclear Physics Department).  Maybe an exchange of Faculty Members where some of America’s prominent Professors could do a stint in North Korea. You would think some Asian Studies, Sociology, Economics, Poli Sci or Agricultural Science Professors would jump at the chance.  

 

There is one objection we could anticipate from the North Koreans.  They would object to any secret confidential Diplomatic Pouches that Diplomats are traditionally entitled to and which are supposed to be inviolable to search and seizure.  Well, we can imagine how sensitive Kim Jong-un is to possible attempts by the CIA to assassinate him.  Everybody knows how the CIA tried to assassinate Fidel Castro with poison stored in a teeny weeny little pinky ring.  So it would be important to allow North Korea to do a complete search of anything that goes through the Palace Gates, or even that comes into their Country.  After all, the purpose of this whole Thing is to reassure them, and in doing so we should acknowledge that this may involve many cumbersome details.  This could also include North Korea vetting our People.  I would wonder how they could so this.  Could their Intelligence Agencies in America be so efficient as to be able to draw up comprehensive dossiers of individual America Citizens, so thorough as to stymie any CIA attempt to sneak in a ‘Ringer’?  Maybe.  But if North Korea has doubts, I could imagine that one would be assigned a ‘Best Friend’ for a while until observation and analysis could clear one as profiling like an ordinary guy, and not the type of person who would ever dream of walking up to the plastic smiles at the CIA Table at a Job Fair (gives me the creeps just thinking about it.  Doesn’t anybody watch the Bourne Identity movies?)  

 

Another one of the sticking points I would anticipate to implementing this Give Hostages for Peace Program is in finding any Important Americans willing to put up with what they would probably expect to be a boring and uncomfortable stay, considering all the Propaganda that describes North Korea as uniformly dismal (even when accompanied by photos showing happy attractive well-dressed young men and women scurrying about what looks like a Modern City).   Of course, these Hostages for Peace would be changed out periodically, but if the individual American Hostages for Peace really wanted to make the most of it personally, I would recommend staying at least a year or maybe two.  That would be time enough to learn some of the language and get to know Korean Culture.   You know, I do not suspect it would be that awfully bad.  I am sure Kim Jong-un would be a gracious host, for, after all, he would not wish to be too outdone by Louis the IVX, would he?  I can personally vouch for Korean Food – a lot of it is very good.  And the Korean People, even when they are not being coerced by a Dictator, are very friendly and their manners are impeccable.  Indeed, it would have to be the Americans I believe who would have to brush up on their table manners.  

 

But, yes, if we could find Americans who would willingly give a year or two of their Lives for Peace, we could have Peace with North Korea.  You see, America asks its Servicemen in the Military to give their Lives… their Complete Forever Lives… not just a year or two… for their Country.  I feel that their sacrifices are mostly taken for granted.  Every generation is asked for more Human Sacrifices to placate America’s Militaristic bloodlust Monster, and nothing ever changes.  The Economic Classes that provide the Troops get poorer and poorer while the cozy and protected Rich keep on getting richer.   When are the Rich and Powerful in America going to acknowledge the debt they owe for all those Lives snuffed out in the bloom of their youth to support the Freedom of Capitalistic Americans to play at Domestic Exploitation at Home and Global Domination Abroad?  You know, if there are any advantages to be had by living in a Free Nation, certainly it is the rich and the powerful who are the primary benefactors.   The rest of the people are Free to be poor, free to be miserable, free to go without Health Care.   So is it really asking too much to expect that some of America’s Leading Families finally make some token little sacrifice themselves and offer just a ‘year or two’ of their Lives for their Country, so that San Francisco doesn’t get Nuked, by taking an extended ‘vacation’ in North Korea, which poor people would jump if given the chance, if they realized the extent of Korean hospitality.  The Food’s great and the women are beautiful.  What’s not to like?