A LITTLE knowledge, as they say, is a very dangerous thing.
The ‘little knowledge’ currently being spread about the admittedly precarious international relations between the United States and North Korea is leading us all down a misleading path.
We like to believe the conflict is being driven by a ‘mad’ upstart called Kim Yong Un, the North Korea’s Supreme Leader, currently doing all he can to seriously upset the delicate balance of power by building up and demonstrating nuclear weapons.
The Americans, in the shape of highly unpredictable President Donald Trump, are then viewed as replying to these war-like postures by threatening its own version of Armageddon as an act of retaliation.
Barely a mention of the historical context. Certainly no attempt to explain the role of the United States in the region as a whole.
As I understand it, North Korea was basically decimated by American bombs in 1950. That’s not something they are likely to either forget or dare to repeat.
Since then, there has always been a ‘state of war’ between the two countries in the sense that relations have never been formally normalised.
Arguments obviously abound on both sides over why that remains the case – but suffice to say that it takes two to continue a conflict over 60-odd years.
This is not a case of North Korea suddenly finding its military feet in the last few years and threatening unitarily to blow up the most powerful and arguably dangerous country in the world.
That’s about as likely as Iraq firing weapons of mass destruction at the United Kingdom in the next 45 minutes.
But by accepting a very simplified version of events – the only one presented by our abject mainstream media – we are in danger of believing the impossible.
Instead there have been many twists and turns over the years with North Korea making open promises to scrap its nuclear programme in return for a proper relationship with the United States.
America, in turn, went close to offering a solid olive branch to Korea during the Bill Clinton administration but turned its back very firmly on such thoughts when officially naming the country as part of the fictitious ‘axis of evil’ come George W Bush.
Since then, North Korea has been strengthening its hand – a policy that makes perfect sense when viewing what has happened to other dictators in the region.
Messrs Hussein and Gaddafi both went through periods of being groomed by the US and the wider United Nations only to hand in their weapons and pay the ultimate price. Both assassinated and their countries have never recovered.
Knowing that to be the case, Kim Yong Un must appear to be stronger than he actually is – as he has been at pains to demonstrate with missile tests, culminating in the firing of a nuclear weapon over Japan, itself a country who occupied Korea for many years.
Any sign of weakness and he would have no future negotiating position at all with the United States which, I believe, is what the current ‘crisis’ is all about.
The good news for the world right now is that military options for both the US and North Korea are beyond crazy – in a different league to the madness displayed by both their leaders.
A first strike by Trump could not only bring big players onto North Korea’s side but, more likely still, see weapons turned immediately on the heavily American populated South Korea just 28 miles away.
Meanwhile it would take a madman and a half to even countenance a repeat of the damage caused to North Korea by the Americans all those years ago.
So here we have a long-running conflict – not something that has just reared its head.
We have two sides rearing their ugly heads, not just one.
This isn’t just about North Korea and its nuclear programme. Again, the issue has been running for decades.
Let’s be grateful for the fact that Korea does have weapons and some military credibility as such defiance stands between the Americans and its intended domination in the region.
Instead we should all ask why we never get two sides of a world story in the United Kingdom.
Our media is becoming virtually a PR machine for a Government and establishment hell-bent on stoking the flames of war because that’s how we make our money and maintain our inflated influence in the world.
As long as we ‘buy’ the myth that the Americans are the ‘policeman’ and not the ‘terrorists’ of the world, we will always view such events through blinkers.
Perhaps if we had American troops and weapons continually posturing within range of our shores, we would begin to see the wider picture.