The Real Korean War

The Korean War (1950-1953) was a bloody conflict. It left Korea, North and South, with several million dead and the UN forces (led by the US) involved in the fighting with over 100,000 casualties. But despite fighting as intense and as violent as any other conflict since World War Two, Korea has always been history's 'Forgotten War'.

The US to this day refuses to sign a peace treaty with North Korea - thus the war legally continues.  On July 27, 1953 the US signed an Armistice (ceasefire) with North Korea but that is it.  Thus the continuous US-South Korean war games right along the North Korean border must make Pyongyang wonder - is this the real thing?  Did the Pentagon decide to invade us for real this time?

North Korea has seen the US since 1953 invade and destroy Vietnam, Dominican Republic, Iraq, Granada, Panama, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Haiti, Yemen and others that don't immediately come to mind.

The Koreans called it the 'American War'.  The US bombed virtually every standing building in North Korea forcing the people to live in caves.  They came out at night to tend their gardens so they would not starve.

North Korea is not crazy.  They've faced down the unforgiving military boot of the US and are determined not to surrender.  Their constant bluster is really a strategy to get global attention to help intervene on their behalf to restrain Washington.

In a new report, published by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, missile experts (including Ted Postol from MIT) write that North Korea does not have the rocket capability that Washington and the corporate media are claiming.  They state, "The Hwasong-14 does not currently constitute a nuclear threat to the lower 48 states of the United States. The flight tests on July 4 and 28 were a carefully choreographed deception by North Korea to create a false impression that the Hwasong-14 is a near-ICBM that poses a nuclear threat to the continental US. The Hwasong-14 tested on July 4 and 28 may not even be able to deliver a North Korean atomic bomb to Anchorage, Alaska."

War on the Korean peninsula would go global.  China has announced that if the US attacks North Korea it will defend Pyongyang.

The people of the world must speak out now loud and clear.  No war on the Korean peninsula.  Stop US war games and close the US military bases.  End the US military colonization of South Korea.

Do something today to help stop this madness please....

Bruce

Waters: Interfering with the General Narrative

Exclusive interview with BDS activist Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) discussing fake news, US-Russia relations, war and Palestine.

Bluster and Blunder from Washington

I was interviewed on RT today.  Here is the video.

The US is preparing the American people for something - who knows what?

First-strike attack on North Korea?  Maybe a false flag operation to justify the US attack - that is historically our Modus Operandi.

Speak out now while we still can.  The crazies are pushing this hard.

Some years ago I heard of an organization called the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF).  They've been investigating the growing dominance of the US military by Christian fundamentalists who see the Battle of Armageddon as a good thing that would bring on the 'final days' and the return of Jesus Christ.

Newsweek reports:

    Trump Effect Inspires Radical Christians in Military

According to the report, the election of Donald Trump “has led to such a steep rise in fundamentalist Christian evangelizing and religious bigotry in the U.S. armed forces that the matter is reaching the level of a ‘national security threat.’”

More from the report on the dangerous Christian extremists currently serving in the U.S. military:

    Fundamentalist views are decidedly in the minority in the general population, but they have adherents in some of the U.S. military’s most powerful positions, especially in and around Washington, D.C., and in Colorado Springs, home of the U.S. Air Force Academy and the nation’s nuclear command center.

    The U.S. military has long been seeded with radical Christian fundamentalists—sometimes called Christian Dominionists or Christian Reconstructionists—who believe a “Warrior Jesus” has their backs while they fight against Islam. They believe they are establishing a “Kingdom of God” on earth, starting with the United States, and are predictably anti-LGBT and unfriendly to females among their ranks.

Call them Christian extremists, call them Christian fundamentalists, call them Christian Dominionists, or call them Christian Reconstructionists, the result is the same: a dangerous faction of religious extremists that act as a cancer within the U.S. military by placing their religious superstition above their duty to the nation, and their duty to the U.S. Constitution.

Bottom line: In the age of Trump, Christian extremists in the U.S. military now constitute a “national security threat.”

See more here

Hyping the Threat

North Korea is sitting on a stockpile of minerals worth trillions

Embedded deep beneath the country's mountainous zones are some 200 varieties of minerals, including gold, iron, copper, zinc, magnesite, limestone, tungsten, and graphite, Quartz reports.

Some of these stockpiles are among the largest in the world, and North Korea, a tiny and cash-strapped nation, frequently uses them to bring in additional revenue — no matter the laws against doing so.

The total value of these minerals lies somewhere between $6 trillion and $10 trillion.

But the country is too poor to create the infrastructure needed to export the minerals — at least in large enough quantities to make a dent in its overall wealth. Still reliant on China, South Korea, and Russia for its financial and energy needs, North Korea has only made small deals with neighboring countries.

See the rest of the story here

The U.S. Has Destroyed Korea Before.....

We can't let this happen again....

Remembering - Resisting Nuclear War

By Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Saying the possession, upgrading and potential use of nuclear weapons was sinful, peacemakers gathered outside the White House on the feast of the Transfiguration and implored the U.S. government to empty its arsenals and embrace a world of peace.

“Nuclear weapons are immoral, illegal, anti-God, anti-life, anti-creation and have no right to exist,” Art Laffin of Washington’s Dorothy Day Catholic Worker community told the gathering Aug. 6, marking the 72nd anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan.

He said the feast of the Transfiguration invites the world to “say yes to the God of life, who commands us to love and not to kill, and no the forces of evil, death and destruction.”

Laffin urged the group to recall that the anniversary was a time of “remembering the horror, repenting the sin and reclaiming a future without nuclear weapons” during the one-hour vigil just after sunrise.

The group included members of Catholic movements working to end nuclear weapons. They had gathered to “apologize” for the Hiroshima bombing, and for the bombing three days later of the Japanese city of Nagasaki Aug 9, 1945, both of which culminated in the death and maiming of hundreds of thousands of people, the peacemakers said.

As they gathered, representatives of organizations such as the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, Pax Christi USA and the Columban Center for Advocacy and Outreach placed photos of the destruction and the Japanese victims of the bombing on the street in front of the presidential mansion, calling it “shrine of remembrance.”

Participants were invited to recommit their lives to “disarming and dismantling the machinery of mass destruction” and offered an apology to bombing survivors, known as Hibakusha.

Red and white roses were distributed to participants during the event. The red roses were said to symbolize the sacredness of life and the grief and suffered caused by war and the atomic bombing.

The white roses were said to symbolize hope and the commitment to work for a nonviolent world.
Laffin criticized the U.S. commitment to spend $1 trillion during the next three decades to modernize its nuclear arsenal. He said such spending is “a direct theft from the poor.”

“If the U.S. is to ever truly lead the way to real disarmament, it must first repent for the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Then and only then can the U.S. legitimately ask other nuclear nations to disarm,” he said.

Since the end of World War II, U.S. and political leaders have maintained that nuclear weapons are necessary and serve as a deterrent to potential attacks from other countries.

The peacemakers planned a second vigil Aug. 9 at the Pentagon to recall the anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki.

Air Show Protest in Brunswick

Korea Trip Report

By Will Griffin from Veterans For Peace and also newest board member of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.

Well done Will - great report!

Left Out News

• Donbass News Agency reports that the US has begun constructing a maritime operations center at the Ochakiv Naval Base (just south of Mykolayiv Oblast) in southern Ukraine. Ochakiv is located close to Crimean peninsula and Ukrainian 73rd Naval Center of Special Operations is situated there. US Seabees held a groundbreaking ceremony for a maritime operations center on July 25. Beginning construction in Ukraine is "a significant accomplishment," said Lt. j.g. [junior grade] Jason McGee, officer in charge of Detachment Ukraine.  "Our ability to maximize European reassurance initiatives in Ukraine holds strategic importance, and will ultimately improve host nation defense capacity and infrastructure, strengthen relations and increase bilateral training capabilities." In addition to building the operations center, the Seabees will also build a boat maintenance facility and entry control points with perimeter fencing at Ochakov.
•  The New York Times reports: After 147 years, Friedrich Engels is back in the city that made him famous. His resurrection is in Manchester, England where he conducted research. Since most Soviet-era statues were removed from their pedestals and destroyed after 1989 finding the statue was not easy. Artist Phil Collins traveled for about a year across Eastern Europe before finally finding his prize in an agricultural compound in a district that he said was once named after Engels in the Poltava region of eastern Ukraine. The statue, 12 feet tall, had been cut in half and dumped. But on May 15, the halves were hauled onto a truck and sent on their way to Manchester. In Manchester, Engels is still revered. Alexandra Prodan, a 27-year-old medical secretary from Romania who has been living in Manchester for eight years, said the problem with communism was not with Marxist theory per se. “In practice,” Ms. Prodan said, communist regimes “became totalitarian and oppressive.”  Ms. Prodan added: “Even in the countries where people were oppressed, people were looking out for each other in a way. There was still a feeling of togetherness against the regime. This is basically what Engels wrote about. You know, it’s about the people coming together.” 
• On June 30, a federal appeals court upheld a lower court ruling that severs the Penobscot Indian Nation in Maine from the waters of the Penobscot River, a ruling that Penobscot Indian Nation Chief Kirk Francis says is reminiscent of federal termination policy—or worse. “The river and our relationship to it and the 200 islands [that form the reservation] are the core of our cultural identity. If our ability to protect the river is taken away, we lose a big part of who we are,” Francis told ICMN. For decades, the tribe has been monitoring the quality of the water in the river and working with state and federal agencies, power companies and conservation groups to stop the industrial and municipal pollution that has led to unacceptably high levels of mercury, dioxin, PCPs and other toxins in the river.
• New York City Catholic Worker activist Felton Davis sent word this morning from Washington DC where he is holding a one-man protest vigil at NASA HQ: 
  On Monday I began keeping vigil and passing out leaflets at NASA headquarters.  Employees and passersby were friendly, but after a half hour the security guards came out and told me I could not stand under the canopy because the whole area there is NASA property.  So I was chased out from under the canopy and had to stand in the rain, and the security told me that since I was demonstrating I could not even stand on the adjacent sidewalk without a permit.  At 10 am the DC police arrived and pulled up with lights flashing, and the officer went inside to consult with security.  Then they left and came back at about 11 am, and the security people came out to talk with them.  Still no arrest.  In New York City a person can pass out leaflets almost anywhere without a permit, but I don't know if that is true in DC.  I believe that NASA -- unlike the White House -- has enjoyed the illusion of being above all controversy, and finds it hard to tolerate even one person who objects to anything they do. Today is the second day of this vigil, and anyone who joins me should know that they are risking arrest.  Of course the real crime is that NASA was allowed first to launch space probes with plutonium, and now to crash one of them into the planet Saturn in September, and on top of that they want the Department of Energy to resume production of PU-238 for future space probes. See the most recent newsletter of "Keep Space for Peace," with Karl Grossman's article about Cassini.

Goal: Total Economic Control of the World

Former FBI counter-terrorism expert: "The CIA created ISIS"

“We created ISIS. I mean ISIS is no less than the people up in Islamburg, no less then than Gülen. It is a CIA-creation. John McCain, for heavens sake, was over there with the ISIS officials.

We created them. They came from Al-Nusra Front, the Syrian Liberation Front. These two organizations combined and they morphed into ISIS. It’s our creation!

We created them and we still direct them! When ISIS warriors are injured in battle, where are they transported? They’re transported, for heavens sake, to Israel! They’re treated by Israelis in Israeli hospitals and brought back to battle!”

Sanctions: The Tools of Mr. Big

The US
banksters
are at war
with the world
grabbing all they can
making big $$$....

the supreme
religion
of America

All vassals
must hand over
total control
to the empire

their land,
people,
all resources
into
Mr. Big's pocket

If
any peasant
nation
dares to refuse
the demands from
the higher lords

Sanctions
will be slapped
on them
Those
wishing to
maintain
local control
(democracy)
to the benefit
of the people....
are told
not acceptable!

Those that take
bold steps
to defy
the corporate empire
will be
punished or perished.

So goes our past
our present

Feudalism has
returned
this time
offering
a car
a TV
credit card
and a harder
heart

angry
that the peasants
thought
they could slip
away
into a middle class
life

Mr. Big always
seeks vengeance.

Bruce

Maine Peace Walk in Bath

 Art by Russell Wray (Hancock, Maine)

The sixth Maine Peace Walk for Conversion, Community and Climate will be from October 13-21.  This year the walk will largely be centered in Bath and concentrate on the serious need to convert Bath Iron Works (BIW) to peaceful and sustainable production.

As the planet heats up, the oceans warm and acidify, and Arctic ice melts we witness the release of methane that only accelerates the global warming problem.  The response of the government has been to unleash geoengineering of the sky which further exacerbates the problem.  In addition the US military has the largest carbon footprint of any organization on our Mother Earth.  Waging endless war consumes massive amounts of fossil fuels and lays waste to significant environmentally sensitive places on the planet – particularly the oceans.

If we have any hopes to secure a future for the coming generations then we must immediately begin the conversion of the military industrial complex to environmentally appropriate renewable energy systems.  What could be more important at this moment?

Studies at UMASS-Amherst Economics Department have long shown that producing commuter rails systems, offshore wind turbines, solar and tidal power would in fact create more jobs at facilities like BIW than we currently get building warships.  Spending on education, health care, and other social programs also creates more jobs than does military production.

But if the environmental and peace movements don’t make the demand for conversion it will never happen and our children will be left with the devastating consequences.

While in Bath during October 13-21 we will hold morning and afternoon vigils at BIW to bring the conversion message directly to General Dynamics (owner of BIW) executives and shipyard workers.  During each day we will go door-to-door across Bath to drop flyers at every house and business in the community.  During the evenings a public program, film and music will be featured.

We will have a special guest during the peace walk from Jeju Island, South Korea where a Navy base has been built in a 500-year old fishing and farming village that worships their relationship to nature.  Gangjeong village was torn apart to construct the Navy base but for the past 10 years daily non-violent protests have been held and they continue to this day.  The warships built in Bath are already porting at this new Navy base.

We welcome everyone to join our peace walk for an hour, a day, or more and to help in any way you can.  Accepting our present condition of endless war for fossil fuels is a dead end street that if not reversed will lead to our collective demise. We must have a conversion that begins with our hearts and extends to the timely task of totally reorienting our national production system.

Maine Peace Walk is sponsored by:  Citizens Opposing Active Sonar Threats (COAST); Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space; Maine Natural Guard; Maine Veterans For Peace; Maine War Tax Resistance Resource Center; Peace Action Maine; PeaceWorks; Veterans For Peace, Smedley Butler Chapter (Boston area); Waging Peace Maine

(Groups are invited to co-sponsor and asked to make a donation toward the walk)

Contact: globalnet@mindspring.com    207-443-9502

* See this video song by Jeju Island activist Joyakgol. It’s a new song about all the trash coming from US warships porting at the Jeju naval base, THAAD, overdevelopment, nukes and etc.

Sunday Song