Our Lack of Foreign Policy

     For the past eight years, we have sort of drifted in a vacuum when it comes to foreign policy.  Like in a movie where the astronauts are cast adrift in space, that is how our so-called foreign policy has been.  We have not had a foreign policy per se, what we have had for the last eight years is a "reactive" policy,  a foreign policy (for lack of better name) that was purely reactive.  We did not institute new policies or practiced new ways of dealing with other countries, we simply either abandoned old policies as we did with Cuba and Iran (and now Israel!), and called it a new beginning, or just react to whatever the other country does.  Witness what is taking place with the so called Russian "hacking," the cyber war.
     Overall, we've had a miserable track record for the last decade or so when it comes to foreign policy.  We are in the process of losing Syria completely to Assad, owing to our complete mismanagement and lack of action.  Our relations with Russia has gone from bad to worse, mainly due to our total lack of policy when dealing with Putin.  We have simply reacted by implementing sanctions and verbally condemning his actions.  This has gotten us nowhere except to further alienate us.  Now with this latest "cyber war," we are doing exactly the same thing.  Our congress and president are making statements condemning Russia and announcing that we will do "something" in retaliation.  It is a same old story that is only going to make matters worst!  Naturally, Putin announced that Russia would not just standby waiting for our retaliation.  So, it's going to be Russia's reaction to our reaction, and so forth!
     Our relations with Israel are probably at its lowest point ever.  Obama and Netanyahu never got along right from the start.  They are not only complete opposites in personalities but apparently in their views on the Middle East and especially Arab-Israeli relations.  The most recent U.S. move in the UN was indeed a betrayal.  A US veto would not have changed the outcome, but it would have shown US support for Israel.  By abstaining from voting, the US has essentially taken the Palestinian side.  Kerry's long explanation of US decision to act (or not act) as it did, really did not make much sense.  In particular, his statement that US was seeking the peaceful coexistence of two states, Israel and Palestine, but that a Jewish state and a democracy was not possible.  What exactly did he mean by that?  Was he saying that Israel is not a democracy and that Jews cannot be a part of democratic system?  It just made no sense and further infuriated Netanyahu!
     We have not had a policy of any kind when it comes to dealing with North Korea.  The last time there was any attempt to deal with North Korea took place during Clinton administration and it was very badly handled.  In fact, you can blame the current situation to the mishandling of that "deal" that Clinton had struck with North Korea.  The way we have been "handling" the North Korean situation is by beefing up defenses around South Korea and Japan and encouraging Japan to increase its defensive capabilities.  This, of course, simply causes North Korea to increase its nuclear development and belligerent behavior.  How else are they going to react since there are no means for them to deal with us?
     Our "experts" have been saying that China was the key to the whole problem with North Korea.  It was China that supported North Korea economically throughout the sanctions and it was China that could control North Korea.  Well, China did help North Korea and continues to do so, but now we discovered that China really has no control over North Korea.  China is eager to sell goods to them, but really cannot tell them what to do!  So now, after all this time, we are finally aware that North Korea is truly a rogue and will do what it decides to do, not what China or Russia tells it to do!
     The problem with North Korea that we have is much more severe than what our government is telling us or what the news media is reporting!  A slightest error, miscalculation or misunderstanding could lead to another war in Korea, this time much worst than before!  A mechanical or an electronic glitch on one of their missile or nuclear tests could send a nuclear warhead to South Korea or Japan, starting an exchange in missile attacks and counter attacks.  But even if a hot war does not erupt, we cannot continue to force North Korea to live under those very brutal sanctions.  If China stops selling goods to North Korea, you can bet that they will find a market for their nuclear weapons to raise hard cash!  Do we want ISIS or other such terrorist organization to have nuclear weapons in their possession?  North Korea will not hesitate to sell its nukes, after all, they won't just sit there and starve.  To survive, they will sell to whoever offers to buy!
     If I painted a gloomy picture of today's landscape, well.....that is because it is gloomy!  This is what the new administration will be facing. So, rather than constantly criticizing and finding fault with every little thing to do with Trump, saying things like "he is not my president!"  I think we need to come together as a nation and hope for the best.  It really annoys me to see politicians still grandstanding and making inflammatory statements about their political opposites, but then, they are politicians!
     Every election half of the population will be unhappy because their candidate, their party did not win.  That is the nature of our system.  You would think people of America have learned to live with that after all these years!  Let's hope that the new administration will not continue with this "reactive" policy and does develop a "foreign policy!"  We cannot afford to start another cold war with Russia, nor can we risk having another war in Korea or have North Korea sell its nuclear weapons to the terrorists.  Israel is our only true ally in the Middle East, why are we alienating Israel?  Does our government really think we are better off dumping Israel and becoming friendlier with other Arab nations?  The new administration is going to have to take a stand, make some hard decisions in the direction that we are heading, and create a new foreign policy!

Our Future Relations with Russia and a Refresher in World History

     There is no doubt that our relationship with Russia will change with the new administration.  The change may be very slight, or it could be major, creating a new world order that may not please everyone.  Europe in particular is extremely nervous about any gains that may be made by Russia.  Since the end of World War Two, Europe, for the most part, has had a dysfunctional relationship with Russia.  Part of Eastern Europe was under the influence and rule of the old Soviet Union, while the Western Europe lived in fear of imminent attack by the so-called Warsaw Pact, a Soviet led military alliance of Eastern Bloc.  With the demise of the Soviet Union, despite the disappearance of the threat of Warsaw Pact, many European nations still feel very mistrustful and fearful of Russia. 
     Ironically, there are those in Europe who see Putin in a more favorable light than we do.  They see Putin as someone that is rough around the edges, a bit too blunt perhaps, but nevertheless someone who puts his country's welfare above all.  They may not see him as the cold blooded former KGB officer who is a ruthless modern day Stalin.  Some Europeans see their own leaders as being too weak and too steeped in political maneuvering to be of any good for their country.  So, in a sort of a grudging way, they see Putin in a more favorable light than some of their own leaders.
     Europe's outcry over Russia's behavior in Ukraine is strictly based on the fact that they fear for the loss of their own territory!  It may seem far fetched to us, sitting an ocean's width away, but for many European countries, Russia's aggression in Ukraine translates to possible aggression against their own country in the near future.  Yet, as everyone knows, despite the outcry and condemnations, no European country has done anything to stop Russia.  Why is that?  I think it is possible that most European countries are well aware of the history behind Ukraine and Russia, history that binds the two countries making them more similar than dissimilar!  Yes, there were Ukrainians that welcomed the German army and some even volunteered to serve in the special SS unit that Nazis established.  But those were anti-Soviet Ukrainians, not anti-Russian.  Stalin and the Soviets were hated in many parts of Russia and the former Soviet Union.  At the same time, Ukraine and Ukrainians had the largest partisan forces, partisans that everyone agrees played a key role in defeating the Nazis.
     Historically Ukraine has been part of Russia going way back even as far as the 10th and 11th Centuries.  At that time the land of Rus (today's Russia) was settled by Vikings and split into principalities, each ruled by a knyaz or a prince.  Such was the case with Moscow and other Russian settlements like Minsk, that later became cities.  Kiev (in Ukraine) was the largest and the most powerful principality at the time.  Prince Vladimir of Kiev was the first to be baptized and thereby started the spread of Orthodox faith throughout Russia.  All of the people living in the various principalities in the land of Rus spoke the language that became known as Russian, and vast majority became of Orthodox faith. 
     Yes, there were regional dialectical differences, but everyone could communicate in the common language which became Russian.  On and off, throughout history, some of these former principalities would try to break away and create an independent state, but invariably they returned to the fold.  Ukraine gained some degree of independence as a Cossack state run by Zaparozhian Cossacks in the 17th and 18th Centuries.  But they all succumbed eventually to the Russian Tsar in Moscow.  So, Ukraine has been part of Russia for at least three centuries, but in fact, has been tied to Russia going back to pre history of that region.
     Between 1853 and 1856, Russia fought the combined forces of England, France, Sardinia, and the Turkish Ottoman Empire in what was called the Crimean War.  No one at the time even gave a thought that perhaps Crimea was not part of Russia.  It was simply thought of as the part of Russia that was on the outer fringes of the Russian Empire.  Ukrainians were considered Russian, although some today, as well as in the past, insisted on separating the two.  The former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushev was a Ukrainian, as was Leonid Brezhnev!  Stalin was a Georgian, and most Russians never really considered him to be Russian.  Stalin spoke Russian with a thick Georgian accent and many of his mannerisms and choice of speech were not Russian.  Not so with Khrushev and Brezhnev, no one ever called them Ukrainian....they were Russian.  As Putin said in a press conference once, before all the mess began in Ukraine, "We are the same people!"
     The situation and the relationship that exists between Russia and Ukraine is not simple and clear cut.  Ukraine and Ukrainians have been part of Russia for many, many years.  Of course there are Ukrainians that are fiercely independent and want to stay separate from Russia.  But, their ties and connection to Russia are much stronger and deeper than most outsiders are aware.  Puerto Rico in the Caribbean and Guam in the Pacific became our possessions in 1898 after the Spanish-American War.  Puerto Ricans and Guamanians are U.S. citizens.  Any problems in those territories would be considered our own internal problems and we would certainly not welcome any foreign intervention.  Earlier, after the Mexican-American War of 1846 to 1848, we gained a huge chunk of territory in our Southwest, mainly Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of Texas! Some in Mexico still consider those areas as Mexican territory!  Are those states not part of the United States?  Can you imagine if foreign powers intervened if we had some internal troubles?  It may seem unrealistic to us, but that is how most Russians and most certainly Putin, view the situation in Ukraine.  It is an internal problem even though Ukraine gained independence in 1990.
     This long preamble about Ukraine and Russia's and our own historical past was meant to show that not everyone sees things the same way.  If Trump's administration makes concessions in trying to establish a better relationship with Russia, I have no doubt that part of it will be our easing of sanctions connected with their actions in Ukraine.  No doubt this would cause great uproar not only here domestically but with some European nations.  But, keep in mind that despite verbal condemnations, the European countries really haven't done much in a way of sanctions.  They are too dependent on Russia for natural gas supply as well as petroleum, among other things!  When it comes to sanctions against Russia, ours are the biggest and most damaging to Russia.
     Diplomatic negotiations are nothing but good horse-trading.  There is no magic, no hocus-pocus involved.  There is no special training that helps to develop skills for diplomatic negotiations.  It is simply good negotiating skills, ability to recognize what the other side wants and how to get what you want without giving up everything!  Compromise is huge part of  negotiations.  If you are not willing to compromise, you won't be able to reach an agreement.  So, it is give and take.  We will no doubt have to give up some things to gain others.  Let's hope we have better negotiators representing our interests and we won't end up as we did in the Iran Nuclear Deal!

US-Russia Relations, Past, Present, and Future

     Right now there is quite a bit of noise and protestations surrounding Trump's win in the elections.  Bill Clinton blamed the Director of FBI and "angry white men" as he put it (yes, that's what he said!), as the two main causes for Hillary's loss in the election.  Others are blaming Russians, saying that no doubt the Russians hacked into our computer systems (mainly those of the Democratic Party Headquarters) and caused the elections to be swayed in favor of Trump.  There has been a "cyber war" going on for over a decade between countries.  We hack into many countries' computer systems and they in turn do the same to us.  The biggest offenders in this regard are Chinese, also our biggest trading partners.  So this whole business of hacking is no big news! All of those folks who swore to leave for Canada if Trump won the election are still around and haven't shown any indication of moving anywhere, much less to Canada, perhaps they are awaiting for the final results of the electoral count!  Whatever the case may be, the plain simple fact is that, good or bad, the elections are over so let's get over it!
     Along with protestations about Trump's election, some are also voicing alarm over what they perceive to be Trump's favoring of Russia.  His choice for Secretary of State is someone who has had a long, friendly relationship with Russia and Putin in particular.  Trump himself has periodically expressed desire to develop better relations with Russia, so perhaps this is the beginning of a new US-Russia relationship?  I've already blogged earlier and mentioned that Trump appears to want to establish a different relationship with China and re-establish ties with Taiwan.  As I said in that blog, in doing so, he no doubt wants to change the geopolitics in Asia, particularly in the Northeast Asia, what used to be called the Far East.
     Our relations with Russia have never been good, not even during World War Two when we were supposedly allies and were fighting common enemies.  However, even during that period, when we were "friendly" and sent tons of Spam (no, we weren't hacking their computers, I meant the kind that you eat and is a great favorite in Hawaii!) as well as lend-lease aircrafts and other goodies, the relations between the two countries was not that great.  Stalin and many of his politburo members mistrusted the U.S., they remembered that only some 25 years earlier we had sent troops to both Siberia (Vladivostok) and European Russia (Archangel) to fight Bolshevik troops!  In Archangel we were allied with British Expeditionary Force, in Vladivostok with the Japanese!  However, our attempt to affect the outcome of Russian Civil War failed. 
     Twenty five years later we were allied with Russia because we were fighting Nazi Germany and, let's face it, we needed them!  Of course, they needed us too, but Spam and lend-lease equipment notwithstanding, Russia basically fought Nazi Germany all alone in Europe for a number of years, for a three year period!  Stalin kept pressuring Roosevelt and Churchill to open a second front, to relieve the pressure on the Russian army.  Churchill wanted to delay opening a second front as long as possible.  He wanted to sap the strength of the Russians and in fact, thought of continuing advancing eastward after Germany was defeated!  Roosevelt was against it.  He thought not only that it was a bad plan, but he did not want to double cross our ally, the Russians.  Stalin was well aware of all that was going on.  That is one reason why he was so demanding during the division of real estate after the war!
     To find the period when we indeed had "good" relations with Russia you would have to go back to the 19th Century and the Tsarist time!  But even during that period, our relationship tended to go hot and cold and Teddy Roosevelt didn't endear himself to Russia when he, as the arbiter during the San Francisco Peace Treaty, so generously awarded Japan with all of the territory in the Far East, including Manchuria and Korea, at the end of Russo-Japanese War in 1905.  Teddy and the U.S. did this because we did not want Russia to expand its territory in the Far East.  Japan, of course, promptly colonized Manchuria and Korea.  Of course, we had our colony in Philippines and other interests, like trading concessions in China.
     The end of World War Two saw the start of the "Cold War" which lasted until the fall of the Soviet Union.  During the 80 odd year period of the existence of the Soviet Union, we were never able to become "friends" with Russia.  The closest we came was toward the tail end of  the Soviet Union when Gorbachev instituted glastnost and perestroika, trying to normalize relations with other countries.  When Soviet Union collapsed we had an opportunity to improve our relationship with Russia, but the country was in such chaos that we kept our hands off, so to speak.  During Boris Yeltsin's eight year tenure as the President of the Russian Federation, we could have made some gains, but except for very small advances, nothing much was achieved.  Bill Clinton, it appeared, was not very interested in improving relations with Russia, or he simply did not know how to approach Yeltsin.  When GW Bush took over, Putin had stepped into the presidency for his first go around.  At first Bush and Putin seemed to get along, but like all presidents, Bush was very strongly influenced by his cabinet advisors who for the most part disliked and at that point, had little respect for Russia.  This was reflected in Bush's dealings with Russia.  At one point Putin extended a friendly hand offering petroleum and other resources when we first went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Unfortunately, Bush turned a cold shoulder at the advice of his cabinet.  This started the downturn of our relations with Russia and Putin.
     Russia in general and Putin in particular, both have a complex when it comes to the U.S.  Russians feel that the U.S. thinks of Russia as being inferior to U.S. in all respects.  It may very well be that we are superior to Russia in military power, economic wealth, and high technology.  But nobody likes to be thought of as second class, and most certainly does not want to be reminded.  It seems that some of our leaders are prone to make statements and act in such a way that it does send that signal to Russia.  A recent statement by one of our prominent leaders that, "Russia is not our friend," is enough not just to ruin any possibility of friendly dialogue but more than likely made some anti U.S. Russians!  We have to keep in mind that some countries or cultures are highly sensitive to language or behavior that they perceive to be offensive or downgrading their status.  Our politicians, as a rule, just don't seem to give a damn.  Russians are not the only ones that we seem to be constantly offending.
     Obama administration has not been very successful at improving relations with Russia.  If anything, it has gotten much worse.  I won't go into details, but suffice it to say that perhaps only Netanyahu of Israel has had worst experience dealing with Obama administration than Putin.  So, if by some chance there will be the much needed mending of relations between U.S. and Russia with Trump's approach, it can't be any worst than it is now!  We have become the biggest trading partners of our enemy of the 1950s and 60s....PRC.  The sky hasn't fallen and we seem to get along despite the fact that they are a communist nation!  We have made peace with Vietnam where we fought a bloody war and have left some very bad memories.  Recently we made peace with Cuba, another communist country that was our sworn enemy.  Surely it wouldn't hurt to try to better our relations with Russia, the only country with a nuclear arsenal that is bigger than ours!
     I have no doubt that concessions will be made in the political arena if we are to improve our relations with Russia, "normalize" them!  Trump will no doubt be accused of committing treason, or at the very least an egregious act, when trade-offs take place with Russia to improve relations.  But unfortunately that is the nature of politics.  We dumped Taiwan to improve our relations with PRC and we betrayed our own Cuban-American community in Little Havana when we made up with Castro.  There is no free lunch, unfortunately.  I just hope whatever deals we strike are not going to be the ones that take us to the cleaners, as it seems to have taken place in the recent past.  Whatever the case may be, unless we want to start another "cold war," we need to do something about improving our relations with Russia.

Presidents and Their Advisors

     I have harped on this subject in previous blogs, that Presidents sometimes are blamed for things that really were not their doing.....sort of.  The President, like all good CEOs, Generals, and Head Football Coaches, have to rely heavily on their advisors for them to make proper decisions.  The football coaches have assistant coaches and coordinators that give them advice, the generals have colonels and majors to give them advice, or information that allow them to make the right decisions.  The CEO of a large corporation is no different, that is why a good football coach has to be like a CEO and vice versa!
     Dwight D. Eisenhower was perhaps less appreciated President that we have had in the modern era.  He was, in the opinion some historians, a lot better than the news media generally gave him credit.  Some of his detractors portrayed him as a "do-nothing" sort of a President who spent most of his time on the golf course and let his cabinet and staff run the country.  Well.....he did, sort of.  That is because he was an excellent leader, a CEO who knew how to lead by allowing his able staff to do the work!  Ike's talent to manage a difficult group of people, people with different agendas and giant egos, was recognized early on in the war and that is why he was appointed as the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.  He was successful, perhaps more so than he is given credit, in keeping all of those generals and admirals from squabbling and concentrate on winning the war. 
     Ike carried over this skill to civilian life and as President when he was elected in 1953.  He ended the war in Korea, without giving up the store!  No, he was not able to attain complete victory.  But he recognized immediately that there was no possibility to accomplish that goal without risking a Third World War, and he knew that was not an option.  So he ended the war the best way that he could, without betraying our ally, South Korea.  He also refused to involve us in Indochina (Vietnam) when the French were fighting there.  He agreed to provide air transport for supplies and French paratroops, but refused to send bombers as French requested.  After the French lost and the country was divided, Ike allowed "advisors" to be sent to South Vietnam, but only a very small contingent.  Other than a very small commitment of Army Special Forces, which he knew he could pull out any time without problems, there was no U.S. commitment.  At that time, most in America did not even know that we had troops in Indochina!
     Despite dire warnings from some about the so-called "domino theory" of communist take-over of the world, Ike refused to commit U.S. troops in Vietnam.  He firmly believed that a ground war with U.S. commitment such as the one that took place in Korea would end badly.  As long as he was the President, there would be no U.S. commitment of large scale troops in any war in Asia.  Ike was adamant about his belief in staying out of a war in Asia.  On several occasions, going back as far as his time as Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during World War Two, Ike was heard to say that what he feared most was the influence and control of government by the military industrial complex, the large business interests that profit from making war material.  During his time as President he was heard again to repeat this sentiment, and of course, he was constantly approached and badgered by the military industrial complex to make political decisions that would favor their cause, i.e., involve U.S. in wars! 
     Being a politician that he was (a good General or an Admiral has to be a politician as well!) since his days as a General, Ike had to have some in his administration who were from the military industrial complex.  But, they did not carry quite the clout that they would have liked and he did not allow them to sway his decision making.  Ike had experience dealing with them since his time as a General.  Guess what happened after Ike left the office?  The much revered ("lionized" by some) JFK surrounded himself with military industrial complex interest individuals.  I know JFK is considered almost a holy figure in some quarters, but, he was a human being with human failings as everyone knows, and unfortunately he listened to some of the whisperings of the military industrial complex interest groups.  Our involvement in Southeast Asia escalated rapidly and would have ended up where it did even if JFK had not been assassinated in 1963.  JFK had approved a coupe against the South Vietnamese President and it was carried out in the same month that JFK died!  The reason?  So that we could have more control over how the war was carried out!  Everyone knows about the disastrous "Bay of Pigs Invasion" and subsequent several attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro, all approved by JFK!  So, JFK was not above ordering assassinations and overthrowing of governments that he didn't like!
     LBJ basically carried on what was handed to him.  He was surrounded by "bean counters" and efficiency experts from the military industrial complex who thought they could run the war like they ran a large corporation.  Crucial decisions involving the execution of the war were carried out by these "experts," some of whom had never been in a war or set foot in a battle field!  It was the beginning of what was then called a "push button war," an outdated term that was considered "modern" in the 1960s!  Technology is wonderful and can be a great advantage.  But technology alone cannot win wars as those "experts" in the 1960s and 70s believed.  So then Nixon came to power, became our next President rising from the ashes, like a bad phoenix!  Remember, how poorly Nixon compared to JFK and how badly he lost!  To top that off, he lost his bid for the gubernatorial seat in California.  Nixon couldn't even become a governor in his home state, yet, he was able to win the Presidency of the United States!  Go figure.
     Nixon tried to take a page out of Ike's playbook.  He immediately launched his plan to end the war in Vietnam and make peace with China.  He did accomplish both goals, but unlike Ike who ended the war in Korea honorably, maintaining steadfast support of South Korea.  Nixon's Vietnamization called for essentially abandonment of our allies, the South Vietnam, which we did shamefully!  But that wasn't all, in order to make peace with China, he betrayed the Republic of China in Taiwan!  So yes, he ended the war in Vietnam and made peace with China, but at what cost?  Nixon may have very well considered those two acts as his greatest accomplishments, but others would argue that perhaps those two acts were some of the more shameful acts committed by our government!  Be that as it may, that is now history, having taken place some 40 years ago!  But that legacy still lingers on, and Nixon's departure from his office was inglorious and predictably appropriate!  It was like a K-drama, where karma plays a very important role and all bad things come to a bad end!
     We are now facing a new administration that will soon take office.  Already, some of the cabinet appointments have not only raised eyebrows but some howls from the liberal section.  It never ceases to amaze me how we don't seem to learn from the past.  The military industrial complex appears to be alive and well, perhaps even having made substantial gains.  The problem with the previous administration, according to its critics, is that it just didn't do much.  There were very few changes if any, and when it came to our foreign policy, we seemed to have crawled into a rabbit hole and stayed put for eight years, only occasionally peeking out to see if the sky hadn't fallen yet.  Are we finally going to be out of that rabbit hole?  Or are we going to be out of the hole just in time to see the sky come crashing down, as some predict?  Some of those cabinet post choices are indeed curious, to say the least.  But then, they still have to be confirmed by congress, and there seems to be opposition brewing across party lines to some selections.  Whatever the case may be, it certainly will be interesting to see how things develop after inauguration.

The North Korean Threat

     Yesterday, in somewhat surprising announcement, Pentagon officials said that North Korea has developed the capability to launch a nuclear strike against the U.S. interests and the U.S. West Coast!  This means that North Korea not only has the capability to strike our bases in East Asia (Japan, South Korea, as well as Guam), but it can strike Hawaii and the West Coast (Washington, Oregon, and California).  This is truly a disturbing, and frightening, development.   It is all the more surprising because as recently as one month ago, all of U.S. official announcements stated that North Korea lacked the capability to carry out a strike against U.S., they lacked the ability to deliver the nuclear payload, although they had the nuclear weapons!  Our experts predicted that it would be at least 2020 before North Korea would have the capability.  But now it seems, having conducted over 30 missile tests during 2016, they have the capability to reach our West Coast, four years ahead of our timetable!  Oops, our "experts" were wrong again.
     Concurrently with Pentagon's statement about North Korea's capability, Japan's Minister of Defense Shigeru Ishiba, uncharacteristically, stated that Japan would consider carrying out a pre-emptive strikes should their intelligence indicate that a North Korean attack was eminent.  This was a very uncharacteristic remark in a sense because Japan has never made mention before of taking any sort of aggressive action, an offensive role (for self-defense, of course).  An offensive military strike is absolutely forbidden according to the Japanese constitution.  However, Prime Minister Abe has been working on trying to change some of the language of the Japanese constitution, for which he has been soundly criticized and labeled as a "hawk," even a "fascist" by the liberals not only in Japan, but abroad as well. 
     Abe has been trying to strengthen Japanese military and has increased the military spending considerably.  This was done at our urging, I might add.  Japan, however, does not have the capability to carry out a pre-emptive strike against North Korea.  They do not have the missiles to do the job.  Perhaps there is something in the pipeline coming from the U.S.?  Japan has voiced concern over the "shield" that we are providing.  They are not very confident that the THAAD system that we are putting in place is adequate to do the job.  North Korea has stated that they have the ability to defeat the THAAD system using electronic, i.e., computer technology.  It may be just hot air, but then, we also said that it was hot air when Kim Jong Un announced he could strike our interests and territory!
     It will be very interesting to see how the new administration will handle this situation.  North Korea has to be taken seriously.  They are not "the mouse that roared" anymore.  Actually they never were mice, they were more like vicious rats before. But now they are much larger and more dangerous because despite all of the "pooh-pooh-ing" that was done in the past about their capabilities, it is obvious that they do indeed have nuclear weapons and are capable of reaching our shores! What a scary thought!
     Unfortunately, the past administrations of both parties have done nothing to ease this situation.  It should have been nipped at the bud when the North Koreans first started their nuclear program.  But I guess we were too busy with other things and North Korea was just never high on the priority list.  I hope that this past negligence isn't going to come to roost, so to speak, and become a catastrophe.  The joke or the cartoon of a madman with access to nuclear weapons is no longer a joke.  Kim Jong Un has the weapons of mass destruction and he will use them because, he is crazy!
     Let's see what happens in the Trump administration.  Is it going to be business as usual as it has been for several decades regardless of campaign promises and political party lines.  Is Trump going to mismanage this North Korean situation and cause a disaster?  His predecessors really can't be accused of mismanaging, because they didn't manage the situation, period!  Let's see what he does.  Is he going to just sit back and let North Korea dictate our moves, is he going to blow the whole thing up, or is he by some miracle going to manage to resolve the issue once and for all?  There is no magic bullet, no easy solution.  I guess we will just have to wait.

Trump's Conversations with World Leaders

     Yesterday, the news media was abuzz with accounts of President-elect Donald Trump's alleged conversations with Taiwan's President Tsai Ing Wen and Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.  According to news articles, the implication was that Trump didn't know what he was doing and was bumbling ahead in international affairs, creating diplomatic chaos.  The conversation with the Taiwanese President seems to have created a bigger controversy than the one with the Pakistani PM,  mainly because India had not filed a protest while China immediately filed a protest claiming that Trump had broken some sort of a sacred agreement in talking to the Taiwanese President.  China, incidentally, files an official protest if our ships sail too close to their shores without "official" permission!  I don't put much stock into their "protests," official or not!  I hate to say this, but it seems to be in China's DNA to file a protest at the slightest "provocation" as they see it, whether justified or not.
     For those who may be a bit fuzzy on the history of our relationship with Taiwan, let me refresh it.  When Chang Kai Sheik fled to Taiwan in 1949 and established the Republic of China government there, we recognized it immediately as the legitimate government of China while we ignored mainland China which became the communist state of People's Republic of China.  We, essentially ignored the existence of a country that was the size of the United States with billions in population.  However, in 1972 Richard Nixon paid a surprise visit to Beijing and made "peace" with PRC, who until that point had been our deadly enemy.  We had fought a bloody war against the Chinese Communists in Korea for three years and fought for a decade in Vietnam where our enemy the North Vietnamese, were supported by the Chinese.
     After Nixon's historic visit to China, we developed a sort of a two China policy.  Neither the mainland China nor Taiwan were happy about it.  Both insisted that we should have a one China policy.  Then in 1979 we abruptly broke our diplomatic ties with Republic of China in Taiwan and established formal diplomatic ties with mainland China.  Prior to this, we had promised Taiwan (Republic of China) that we would stand by their side to the bitter end, never abandon them.  Of course we made the same promise to the Republic of South Vietnam that we abandoned without ceremony in 1975.  So the fact that we dumped Republic of China in 1979, our long-time ally (dating back to pre-World War Two) that we supported for almost a half a century, didn't really surprise some.  But there were others that were very much disturbed by this, in fact ashamed of our government's lack of loyalty.
     Since 1979, Taiwan has been a non-entity as far as our government was concerned.  Never mind that our trade with that island nation amounted to billions and helped to grow our own economy.  They were a step child, no, an illegitimate child when it came to official recognition and relations.  We don't have an embassy or any kind of a diplomatic mission in Taiwan.  Instead, we have the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) which functions like an embassy but staffed with "unofficial" personnel with no official status!  Taiwan in turn has no embassy or consulate in the U.S., instead it has a commercial or trade office.  Yet, Taiwan was able to build itself into an economic powerhouse in Asia and is one of the Asian "tigers" in the region for their economic wealth and power.  Taiwan has also built itself into a military power in the region.  It may not have an army as large as mainland China's millions, but it is modern and well equipped.  This they managed to do despite the fact that we cut off all military ties with Taiwan after 1979.  It is an extremely important country in that region
both economically and politically in keeping China in check.
     Not surprisingly, Taiwan's closest ally in the region is South Korea.  The two countries share commercial as well as military exchange of all sorts and travel between the two countries is very free.  Japan is still building its military defensive capability.  It will take a while since Japan has refrained from building its military for so many years.  So, South Korea and Taiwan are the only two deterrents in Northeast Asia against China's ambitions in the region.  China would never risk a war against Russia, but they have been known to make incursions into smaller neighbors by proxy or directly as they have in Tibet in the late 1950s and in Vietnam in 1979-80.
     If truth be known, neither South Korea nor Taiwan is capable of stopping China on its own.  However, the two combined, with support from the U.S., could really pose a major problem for China, and China knows it.  Interestingly, currently the biggest trading partner for both South Korea and Taiwan is China!
     Since 1979, whenever a new U.S. president was elected, the president of Taiwan placed a congratulatory call.  Apparently the normal practice of the newly elected U.S. president was to not take the call and have the secretary or whoever, thank the caller politely and hang up.  It seems that Trump decided to take the call and chatted with President Tsai of Taiwan.  Incidentally, President Tsai Ing Wen, the first woman president of Taiwan, is a graduate of Cornell University and holds a doctorate of law from Cornell Law School.  So, she is U.S. educated, and frankly, no reason why Trump should not have chatted with her.  Trump detractors have jumped on this claiming that he has started a diplomatic maelstrom, that he did this because of his personal business interests, etc., etc.  I don't believe Trump talked to Tsai for the benefit of his business interests, nor did he do it out of ignorance and lack of understanding of international relations, as some claim.  I think he simply wants to take our foreign policy in a different direction, and it doesn't mean that he wants to break with China, it simply means that he wants to change our way of doing business in the region.
     Trump also talked at length with the Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif.  Pakistan is a country that is vitally important to us in our fight against Islamic Terror groups like Al Qaeda.  Neither George W. Bush nor Barak Obama have had much success dealing with Pakistan.  Frankly, our relationship with that country has been dismal.  I think Trump's attempt to patch things with Pakistan is a good thing, considering that most think that Trump is anti Muslim.
     No doubt Trump's detractors (haters) will continue to harp on how he has started to destroy our relations with China and India (India being Pakistan's enemy!) so on and so forth.  I am neither a Trump hater nor supporter, but I really think that folks are overreacting.  Besides, I think what he did so far was long over due.  We have treated Taiwan very badly in the past, and if his telephone conversation with President Tsai is going to salve some of the old wounds, then that's good.  If it miffed the Communist Party members in Beijing, so be it.  I'll guarantee you that China will not break relations with us over this or cause any other problems, we are just too important to them, financially!  As for his conversation with Sharif of Pakistan, well, if India gets angry, like China, so be it.  India needs us much more than we need them.  Of course we need their cheap labor, telephone answering services, etc., although I find it very frustrating talking to someone in Bombay over my problems with a phone line or TV reception!
     Yes, Trump's actions have stirred up some controversy.  But it isn't as if he declared war on someone, at least not yet!

The Death of Fidel Castro

     Fidel Castro's death has elicited some very diverse responses from people around the world.  Generally speaking, depending on political leanings, the responses were either favorable or negative.  The favorable ranged from complimentary commentary to downright grieving. The flip side ranged from neutral to celebratory, especially from those of the Cuban Exile community in Florida who have hated him for years!  More than likely, vast majority of Americans had a neutral response, although some of the older generation probably sided more with the Cuban Exile community!
     I believe the younger generation is not only unaware, but doesn't really care what Fidel stood for, what he did not only in Cuba, but in other places in Latin America where he tried to spread his brand of "revolution."  To most of the younger generation, Fidel Castro and his politics are ancient history, something as distant and irrelevant to them as the Vietnam War.  So, his death and the passing of his era really doesn't mean much.  But to many others, Fidel Castro was the evil incarnate, the devil himself.  Perhaps their feelings were a bit too strong, but because so many had suffered under his rule for so long, suffered unspeakable hardships, to them his passing was not soon enough.
     Like many in America, I believe that normalization of relations with Cuba was long overdue.  After all, how can you ignore a country that is less than a hundred miles from Key West!  We could not continue to ignore Cuba's existence as we have been doing for over a half a century. So, normalization of relations with Cuba was bound to happen, and it is good for both countries.  There are so many Cuban-Americans today, whose families were split, that this "normalization" allows things to be put back in the right place, make life more or less "normal" for everyone concerned.
     But, that doesn't mean that Fidel should be "rehabilitated" and treated as a respected, admired, and honored world leader!  He may have been respected and admired by those who supported communist revolutions throughout Latin America and other parts of the world.  He may have been respected and admired about as much as Yassar Arafat of the PLO, and for the same reasons!  Yes, Fidel has had a great impact on the world politics in Latin America especially.  But his influence and impact has not been positive.  Look at Venezuela, a country that has had two successive leaders that were Castro influenced.  They have driven that country to the brink of economic disaster!  Look at all the other "leftist" leaders in Latin America, those that "admired" Fidel Castro.  Their leadership has led to economic chaos and political instability.....every last one of them!  So, Fidel a great world leader?  Hardly!
     It bothered me to hear prominent U.S. politicians singing the praises of Fidel, making him out to be some sort of a great leader who saved Latin America, perhaps a second coming of Simon Bolivar!  Granted, these U.S. politicians were all known to lean left, but still, have they forgotten what Fidel had done in the past?  Have they forgotten about the thousands upon thousands of Cubans that Fidel incarcerated and executed in his "cleansing" operations?  Have they forgotten that it was Fidel who gave those orders to his brother Raul who carried out the "purges."
     I don't fault the younger generation for not knowing about Fidel's past.  Having spent many years in our educational system both as a student and a teacher, I know only full well that our system is less than great when it comes to teaching world history to our kids, even at college level!  But the older generation has no excuse for not remembering or knowing about Fidel's past, his Stalin-like policies and rule before he handed over the reigns to his brother Raul.  Has everyone forgotten when he released all of the criminals from prisons and sent them packing to our shores - the marielitos?  That was just one of the more publicized events that took place.  But Fidel Castro has done much more during his long and cruel reign in Cuba.
     I wonder what words will come out of the mouths of our left-leaning politicians when Kim Jong Un kicks the bucket!  Surely they will heap praises upon him if we manage to somehow normalize our relationship with that country, which thankfully is unlikely anytime in the near future!
     There are those who say that Americans are very forgiving people, that we let bygones be bygones and don't hold a grudge.  That is good, it shows that we have a big heart and are not petty.  But in the same token, that doesn't mean that we should overlook everything and call a mass murderer a great man, which is what some did in case of Fidel Castro.
     The death of Fidel Castro was not soon enough for some.  For others, it was an opportunity to mouth words of praise and call him a great man.  Unfortunately there is no in-between in case of Fidel.  You either see him as a murderer that he was or, if you believe in the great communist revolution as some, then you see him as a great man.  Perhaps he was a great man who was a sociopath, or a murderer who was a good politician?

Women's Rights in North Korea

     The Republic of Korea (South Korea) has a woman president.  South Korea is a very modern, technologically advanced country that in many ways is even more "techno-savy" than the U.S.  North Korea on the other hand, is struggling to keep pace with the modern world and appears to spend all of its money on building weapons of war, especially its nuclear program, and feeding its standing army, one of the largest in the world.  Yet, when it comes to women's rights, in many ways North Korea is far ahead of its wealthier, more modern neighbor/enemy in the south!
     Immediately after the end of World War Two, shortly after Korea was partitioned, even before the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was established, a law was passed, one of the very first laws of North Korea.  It was called the Law of Sex Equality and it was passed on 30 July 1946.  This landmark law completely wiped out all previous accepted practices in Korea, practices which heavily favored men and essentially gave women a second class citizenship.  The new law declared that women were equal to men in all areas, all regards, and to discriminate against women would be punishable by law.  It was common practice in Korea prior to World War Two for men to have chubs (mistress or concubine) and this practice continued during the Japanese occupation and after the end of World War Two, in the South.  But in the North it was punishable by law to have a chub, and the communists meant business.  Also, under various laws, women never had equal rights with men when it came to marriage, divorce, education, or anything to do with finances.  Only men were allowed to maintain the all important family register which essentially made the person "legal."  Without being listed in the family register, you were a nobody, could not get an ID card or a passport, register in school, etc.  North Korea abolished the male favoring family register, they established a simply registry that could be used by both men and women!
     Along with the passage of the new law, there was constant encouragement from the government for women to get out of the house, so to speak, and be more involved.  The traditional women's role of staying home and being a mother and wife was not discouraged, but neither was it discouraged for women to seek out careers and work outside.  Education was heavily encouraged, even military service!  North Korean women are subject to compulsory military service just like the men.  Although some of the politically influential and powerful men still may have mistresses or participate in the kippumjo (sexual enslavement of young girls, chosen at a young age for the role), a system established for the powerful by Kim Jong Un's father Kim Jong Il, the vast majority of the male population can only read about such activity!  If there was one thing that the founder of North Korea and the grandfather of current leader did that was good, it was the passing of the Law of Sex Equality.  Kim Il Song's son may have perverted the law by establishing the kippumjo system for himself and the powerful party members, but at least for the vast majority of the male population the kippumjo is not available and women in general have equal rights with men.
     In contrast, despite the political freedom ejoyed by women in South Korea, they lag behind their North Korean counterparts in many areas when it comes to equality with men.  Rich chaebol families still practice the chub system and rich men often have "unofficial wives."  Sexual harassment in work place was a big problem and until recently nothing was done.  It was the woman president that passed new laws making sexual harassment punishable by law, a fairly recent thing in the South.  In the North it was punishable by law since 1946!  South Korea still uses the male controlled all important family registry as a key document for establishing identity, something North Korea abandoned long ago.  Recently President Park of South Korea tried to abolish the system and was met with so much resistance that she had to use a different approach....agreed to have certain aspects of the registry modified.  In short, she had to compromise!
     So, it is indeed odd, almost contradictory that a country such as North Korea would allow more freedom and rights to women than a "free" modern country such as South Korea!  But South Korea is still struggling with some of its archaic and strict family traditions and practices, traditions and practices that date back to the days of the "Hermit Kingdom," the Chosun Era!  South Korean women are constantly battling the old traditions and ways that hamper their ability to work and advance in the modern society.  President Park, the woman president has done much to help women of South Korea, but even she admits that it is not enough and there is still a long way to go....to even catch up with the communist North, when it comes to women's equality!  Go figure!

Korean Peninsula, Waiting for a Disaster!

     With  all the attention that was heaped on the U.S. presidential elections, many of the critical world situations were shunted aside during the last couple of months by the news media.  The news media, which seemed to want so badly for Clinton's to move back into the White House, almost had the American public convinced that Trump had no chance what so ever.  It seems that the "King Makers" do not have the kind of juice that they thought they had and badly misjudged the elections.  Be that as it may, in their attempt to put their choice in the White House, which they were able to do for the last eight years, they failed to report on some of the more critical issues that have taken place around the world during the last couple of months.  To be sure, there were reports on activities in the Middle East, in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.  After all, with U.S. troops present in those locations and battle casualties taking place, the media could hardly ignore them.  But overall, other world events were very lightly, if at all, covered by our news media, except for the "Brangelina" divorce!
     There have been some critical and extremely dangerous events taking place on the Korean Peninsula in the past couple of months.  Actually, there have been some extremely important events that took place in the past year.  To begin with, South Korea has had a policy of "glass-half-full" approach with North Korea for the past several decades.  In an attempt to resolve the reunification issue as peacefully as possible, South Korea had been using the "Sunshine Policy" approach, i.e., the "gentle" approach when dealing with North Korea.  Whenever Kim Jong Un and his cronies became belligerent and unreasonable, South Korea would simply back off and at the same time continued to work on joint projects such as the Kaesong joint venture factories.  When harsh economic sanctions were imposed by U.S. and other countries, South Korea was allowed to continue to provide economic assistance to North Korea under the Korean Reunification Program.  However, it seems that about a year ago all of the "nice guy" approaches have been stopped.  The joint venture program at Kaesong was closed down and all of South Korea's economic assistance to the north ceased.  The meetings between North and South on the reunification issue ceased as well.  South Korea's meetings with Japan on mutual security agreement which was suspended five years ago in part due to North Korea's protest has been resumed again. There were a number of reasons for this shift in policy, suffice it to say that South Korea decided that there was no hope in dealing with Kim Jong Un's regime.
     With the cessation of South Korea's economic assistance, the North is now totally dependent on China.  China, on the other hand, doesn't particularly like the idea of being the sole supporter of a regime that they do not trust!  China's assistance has abated considerably and China has beefed-up its border security along the Manchurian border supposedly to stop the flow of escapees from North Korea.  There has been a considerable shift of China's military units to the border in the last couple of months.  The North, predictably, reacted to this new situation by becoming even more belligerent and unreasonable.  Both U.S. and South Korean intelligence believe that it is not unlikely for North Korea to launch a strike against the South under current circumstances, as a reaction to rapidly deteriorating situation in the North.  In other words, it would be in character for the North to lash out in anger and frustration, blaming everything on U.S. and South Korea, of course.
     South Korea is undergoing some political turmoil of its own.  As of late, their President is embroiled in controversy over an "unofficial advisor" that she had in the form of a close personal friend.  This person, who the press colorfully refers to as "Korean Rasputin" is reputed to have wielded an awful lot of power despite her unofficial position and was involved in multi-million dollar graft.  Although President Park herself cannot be connected to the graft, the fact that her close personal friend and advisor has been arrested and is being interrogated, makes things very dicey for the president.  There have been protests and calls for her resignation, but so far she has been able to hold on.  The North misinterpreted the situation in the South and obviously misunderstands the democratic system of government.  They launched a massive propaganda attack via their own radio and television as well as cyber attack, hoping to topple the South Korean regime and thereby create instability.  They put their military on full alert, ready to strike. They have not let up, and this has angered the South Koreans to no end, even those who are opposed to President Park. 
     South Korea has gone into "war" mode, their military went on full alert.  The North Korean leaders live on their own planet, it is hard to figure them.  They in turn have a hard time truly understanding how other countries think and work, even their closest neighbor like South Korea!  With a new administration coming into power in the U.S., who knows what Kim Jong Un and his "advisors" think we will do?  For that matter, even we don't know what the new administration will be like!
     The U.S. and South Korea just concluded a series of military exercises.  These exercises have been held regularly for as long as U.S. military has been present on the peninsula.  They have always been "general" military exercises with some assault stages and some defensive maneuvers.  This time, however, the exercises were very different.  The military maneuvers were basically "invasion" exercises with no attempt to disguise the target!  The U.S. and South Korean forces practiced invading and occupying North Korea!  Additionally, U.S. Forces in South Korea even held evacuation exercises for their dependents and family members in the event of outbreak of war!  So, there is no mistake about it, U.S. and South Korea are preparing for war.  North Korea, on the other hand, has mobilized its substantial Special Operations Force (the largest in the world!) preparing not for attacking the South but for repelling the invasion.  It may all be nothing but hot air on both sides, but it only takes one mistake, one nut to push the button or pull the trigger to start a catastrophic war on that small peninsula!
     The whole situation is compounded by China's presence and position.  There's no denying that China has supported North Korea through the years.  North Korea's nuclear program was developed thanks to China's support.  Historically, China has always had a surrogate in Korea.  It was China's alliance with Silla that allowed the fall of Paekche and the great Koguryo Empire.  Throughout history China has always supported an element in Korea that would be their surrogates.  So, North Korea has been more or less like Silla of ancient times.  However, China was also known to take chunks of Korea's territory when opportunity presented itself.  That is how China was able to gain foothold in Manchuria in ancient times, and it was also close to "occupying" North Korea during Korean War.  It was only because of Stalin and the Soviet Union that Mao refrained from taking over North Korea.  Besides, China was in no position to take over a devastated North Korea when China itself was still struggling.  So, the next best thing for China took place, North Korea became China's surrogate! 
     If Kim Jong Un's regime collapses and the country plunges into chaos, China could very well send its vast army across the Yalu once again as it did in 1950 and numerous other times in the historical past.  South Korea does not want that to happen, so China must be kept out of the Korean peninsula.  South Korean government has openly stated that they would not tolerate China's occupation of North Korea, that Korean problem should be solved by the Koreans.  South Korea hopes that it will have international backing on this issue.  The United States has gone on record that it agrees with South Korea.  But, who knows what we will do?  Remember?  We promised never to abandon Taiwan, which we did, and how about South Vietnam?  So, the situation in Korea is not just volatile, but could create a whole new geopolitical scene and a new power bloc in Northeast Asia.

"Thanks, Iran Nuclear Deal!"

     Thanks to the Iran Nuclear Deal that was going to make the world "much safer," according to the words of our Secretary of State John Kerry and the Obama Administration, Iran has become a much more dangerous country than it was before!  The infusion of much needed cash, huge sums of money, and lifting of sanctions allowed Iran immediately to not only purchase more arms from Russia, but also speed up their weapons development.  We have been hearing regularly about illegal missile testing that Iran has been conducting, but that is not all.  They have been developing weapons at all stages, and no doubt are engaged in nuclear development as well, albeit in total secrecy!
     The latest announcement by Iran's Revolutionary Guard, that of the development of a "suicide drone" is truly a disturbing piece of news.  It isn't so much that they have the scientific and technological know-how to make drones that is disturbing, it is what this development actually signifies!  The drone itself,  called Radd 85 and nick-named Saegheh  (which means Thunderbolt in Farsi) is no big deal.  It is not anywhere as sophisticated or technologically advanced as our drones that we employ in warfare.  The Radd 85 is only a few stages ahead of the German V-1 unmanned rocket of World War Two or the Japanese MXY-7 Ohka (Baka bomb) Kamikaze manned rockets.  Those were truly primitive by today's standards, sort of like a flintlock rifle versus today's M-4 or similar combat rifle.  The Iranian Radd 85 would fall in the category of say, an M-1 rifle when compared with the more sophisticated drones of today.  However, just as the M-1 rifle is technologically inferior to the M-4, it is still effective and it will kill!
     The Radd 85 Saegheh travels at the speed of around 160 miles per hour.  It flies at an altitude of around 3000 feet and has a range of about 600 miles.  That is plenty to do damage to ships or land targets!  The problem with the German World War Two V-1 was that it was "unguided."  It had to be fired like an artillery round and hoped for the best.  The Japanese manned MXY-7, of course, could be more accurate because a pilot could guide it to the target, before it was shot down!  The Iranian's suicide drone Radd 85 can be guided remotely, plus, it has stealth capability, having been built with materials that can deflect radar detection.  So, despite lagging our drones in technology and sophistication, they are still far superior to anything that was available before to Iranians, and most of all, to those terror groups that they support and supply arms!
     The most dangerous part of this whole new scenario is if the Radd 85 will fall into the hands of terrorists, which will happen!  Iran is the world's biggest sponsor of Islamic terror groups.  In short, Iran is a terrorist state itself! It is a given that once the production of Radd 85 gets going, it will be delivered to the various terror groups that Iran sponsors, and will be sold to other groups that perhaps Iran is not sponsoring but willing to sell.  So, despite the fact that Iran is supposedly involved in fighting ISIS in Syria and Iraq does not preclude the likelihood that ISIS will end up buying some of these suicide drones through third party.  ISIS, and other terror groups in fact never buy arms directly from the seller, they use third, some times multiple parties and fronts to purchase arms.  That is why, for the most part, arms sellers can never be sure who will be the end user.  Despite complicated measures that are in place to prevent misuse of end user documents, weapons legally sold constantly end up in the wrong hands!  That is how North Korea has been able to sell its missiles and other weapons.  Iran is no exception, in fact, in this regard, Iran and North Korea are like peas in a pod!  We, on the otherhand, quite often give weapons to "friendly" forces who sell them to the enemy!
     Earlier there was talk about the fact that North Korea had developed drone technology which although primitive by South Korean standards, still was effective enough to penetrate into South Korea for intelligence gathering purposes.  This was discovered when one of the North Korean drones had malfunctioned and crashed in South Korea.  What was not released in the news was that the South Koreans were surprised to discover that the drone was made of material that would escape radar detection, in other words, it was a stealth drone.  Obviously the stealth technology is not exclusive to us anymore.  So, the fact that both North Korea and Iran have stealth technology is not a surprise anymore. 
     What is disturbing is the fact that no doubt these "suicide drones" will shortly appear in the hands of terrorists.  The fact that North Korea has these drones is not something that we could have prevented.  After all, North Korea has nuclear weapons and it developed its weapons technology on its own.  What bothers me is that in case of Iran, we helped them to develop this newest drone technology and perhaps much more, by actually financing them!  We financed Iran through that disastrous nuclear deal that our administration still insists is the best thing to happen since the dark ages!  There is no doubt that Iran would have eventually come up with the drone technology and other weapons developments in time, but it would have not been so quick, because R&D costs money!  We provided that money!  Now we have to sit and nervously watch and see how soon these new weapons of war will find their way into the hands of other terrorists.  They are already in the hands of two terrorists states, North Korea and Iran, but they haven't yet been distributed to the "other" guys!

Our Flawed Political System - It Is What It Is!

     We are now two weeks away from finding out who will be our next president for the next four years with a possibility of extension into eight years!  We will find out either early or late in the evening of November 8.  This election year has been unusual in some respects, especially in view of the overwhelming support given by the news media to one candidate.  The news media has always leaned to one side or another in the past, and television has played a key role in swaying public opinion and deciding the winner of elections since the 1960s.  In short, whoever became the "media candidate" ended up winning the election.  That has been the case since JFK.
     Normally, a four-year-old could determine who would win the election based on television coverage.  Today's TV coverage and support is so one-sided that it is embarrassing.  There is a constant barrage of positive ads for one candidate and negative ads directed at the opposition.  It is as if we are in a one political party system!  A visiting foreigner commented on this phenomena on our television and said that he thought we had laws prohibiting such one-sided presentation, that equal representation was required.  Yes, we do have something like that somewhere in our system, but apparently this election year all bets are off!  The news media is embarrassingly biased and is showing its true colors as the "king makers."  However, despite news media's overwhelming support of one candidate, nothing is for certain and there are no guarantees!  Anything can happen in this crazy election year!
     We are a nation of almost 300 Million souls with arguably some of the better informed population on this planet.  Yet, we are unable to come up with two better presidential candidates?  I am stumped!  Surely we can come up with candidates with more integrity, honesty, and less negative baggage!  But here we are, literally forced to make a choice between two candidates that are strongly lacking in many areas to be president!  Personally, I wouldn't trust or consider either one of the candidates for any political office!
     Now it isn't so much a choice between the lesser of the two evils as I have blogged before, it is simply no choice at all!  How did we reach this point?  It seems that our political system is truly flawed and only the very rich and corrupt seem to be able to survive running the political gauntlet to become the party nominee for president.  The American people have to change the system, for despite all the talk about having the best political system in the world, it is obviously broken and not working like it is supposed to!  Just because we have the best system doesn't mean it can't be made better.  In fact, because we really haven't done much to tweak the system through the years, it has reach the point that it is in today.  No system is completely perfect, not as long as it is run by humans.  But that doesn't mean that it can't be made better, and right now we desperately need to make our system better.
     When it comes to electing leaders, the people who vote are their own worst enemies.  Many vote with their "hearts" rather than their head, and others vote simply because they have always voted the party line.  Very few sit down and rationally determine who would make the best candidate!  If that were the case, today neither one of the candidates would have been on the ballot, on the verge of taking the highest seat in the country. 
     In this election there will be those who will or have already voted for the candidate simply because they are of the same gender.  Minorities are known to vote for minority candidates because they are minority members, and others will vote for a candidate because they are of that party, qualifications and background notwithstanding.  In short, vast majority of votes will be cast based on the party line or the "heart."  In the last two elections, minorities predominantly voted for Obama because he is a member of the minority!  Unfortunately, that is not the way to elect the best candidate for the job, but that is how presidents have been elected, not only in America, but in other countries as well.  How else do you think that someone as foul mouthed and vile as the current Filipino president Rodrigo Duterte could have been elected? Vladimir Putin, although hated by many, still has enough supporters to keep him in office.  There may have been accusations of fraud in his election, but obviously he did receive many votes from his supporters!  That's how it goes. 
     Yes, our system is flawed, it has become very much apparent in this election year.  But, it is what it is.  We the people have to fix it.  The corrupt individuals in office will not fix it, why should they remove themselves from positions of power and influence?  We have to vote-in the right kind of people, people who will change the system, not just mouth the words and once in office, continue as before.  The American voters have to become more discriminating, selective.  Note that I said American voters, not people.  That is because, sadly, less than half of our voting age population actually is registered to vote or casts votes!  People complain and grumble, but many never vote, it is sad, but it is true.  Perhaps if more people voted, our political scene will change, who knows?

Chinen Gun Club

     Without a doubt, the least known, and one of the shortest lived clubs or organizations on Okinawa was the Chinen Gun Club which existed for about a three month period during the summer of 1957.  It had one of the smallest memberships, most of the time only four, plus the club manager!  It was unusual in more ways than one.  Its four "permanent" members were teenagers, only the so-called manager, the man who supervised the activities, was a bona fide adult.  The guns that were used in that gun club were all military, the standard U.S. military arms plus some exotic foreign arms thrown in.  I don't believe there was another gun club on the island that was like that!  Usually, a gun club will involve target shooting and competition using various "civilian" shotguns, rifles, and pistols.  In cases where the club was made up of teenagers, .22 rifle competition along with shotgunning (trap and skeet) were the popular activities.  But at the Chinen Gun Club, there was not a .22 to be seen nor were there any trap and skeet shotguns.  There were shotguns, but they were all combat shotguns!
     At this point I will skip forward a half a dozen years or so, from Camp Chinen, Okinawa to Fort Bragg, North Carolina.  In the summer of 1963 I was undergoing training with the Special Forces Training Group on Smoke Bomb Hill in Fort Bragg.  I was going through Special Forces Weapons Course at the time.  The course was designed to train and familiarize Special Forces personnel with all infantry weapons, including the more common foreign weaponry from Soviet Union, PRC, UK, Germany, etc.  In case of U.S. infantry weapons, they were the weapons of the day, the M-1 Garand rifle, M-1/M-2 Carbine, the M-3 submachinegun (greasegun), the BAR, on down to the .45 auto pistol and the .38 revolver.  We were also trained and familiarized with some of the older weapons like the 1903 Springfield, and the 1928A1 Thompson submachinegun (tommygun).  We trained with the British Sten, the Soviet PPSH, the Danish Madsen, the Finnish Soumi, and the German MP38 and 40 submachineguns.  In otherwords, we were familiarized with all of the infantry weapons in use around the world at the time.
     For most trainees, except for those who came into Special Forces from other units, all of the weapons except for the M-1 Garand which they were exposed to in Basic Training, were unfamiliar.  Those who were veterans and came from other units naturally were familiar with all of the U.S. weaponry.  But for the younger crop of soldiers, except for the M-1, all the other stuff was new and strange.  However, in my case, because of my experience at Camp Chinen Gun Club, I was not only quite familiar with the U.S. weapons but had familiarity with some of the more exotic foreign weaponry.  This caused a bit of a problem with my Training NCO.  He asked me where, what unit I had served with before and I told him that I was not "prior service."  He didn't believe me and couldn't understand why I was denying that I had prior service!  He was certain that I was a "ringer" and trying to pull "something."  People can be very suspicious!  I explained to him that I had been exposed to all those weapons as a teenager at a gun club and he refused to believe me, saying that no gun club had such weaponry!  I insisted that the club I belonged to on Okinawa, Chinen Gun Club, did indeed have all these weapons.  Fortunately for me, another Training NCO stepped in and said that he was familiar with Camp Chinen on Okinawa since he had just been with the 1st Special Forces Group on the island.  He said that Chinen did indeed have all sorts of exotic weapons that he and his team members had received both language and weapons training at Camp Chinen!  So, I was saved!
     Now, back in the summer of 1957, it was decided that a gun club would be organized to keep teenagers occupied and out of trouble during the summer months.  I had arrived in Chinen in the Spring of 1957 and had completed the 8th grade at the old Kubasaki (the old Quonset huts!).  There was no teen club to speak of in Camp Chinen, so there was precious little for teenagers to do except to go to Club Hotei and play ping pong or pool, if the pool tables were not being used by adults.  There was the swimming pool and the tennis courts, and the gym, but that was about it. The golf course had not yet been built. The teenage population was not very large in Chinen that summer, less than a dozen. 
     A volunteer was sought to organize and supervise the gun club and a young man, that I will call "Bill" offered his services.  Bill was married to a very pretty woman that some of the teenagers had a secret crush on.  Bill was in his mid 30s and he and his wife were childless.  So, a notice went out for teenagers interested in joining the gun club to show up at the shooting range in the morning.  The range was located at the bottom of the hill as you came down the road from the upper base housing area.  As you reached the bottom of the road, the motor pool was on the left and the paved road turned left to go past the motor pool and on to the tennis courts and Club Hotei and other places in the lower base.  However, if you turned right, rather than following the paved road, you would find yourself on a small dirt road that led through a thick stand of elephant grass to the shooting range.  The range was about a hundred yards from the road completely hidden by tall elephant grass.  The range itself was very basic.  There were no buildings or any sort of cover that you could use if it rained.  It was about a hundred yard range set up against the backdrop of a hill.
     Bill had knack for "relating" with teenagers.  Unlike some of the other adults, he didn't seem to be bothered at all by the strange quirks and "cultural" differences that teenagers tend to exhibit.  We in turn, liked Bill very much, thought he was very "cool" not only because of his attitude and his personal experience and knowledge of weapons, but because he was married to a very pretty woman as well!  Sometimes during breaks between shooting sessions he would tell us about his experiences during World War Two.  Bill was a young, 18 year old paratrooper with the 503rd Airborne Regimental Combat Team in New Guinea.  He saw some tough combat duty and even made a combat jump before he changed units.  He had volunteered for a new, "hush-hush" unit that was seeking volunteers from all branches of service in the Pacific Theater.  After some very intense and hard training at another place in New Guinea, he was assigned to his new unit, the Alamo Scouts.  The Alamo Scouts were the predecessors of the Vietnam era MACV-SOG units.  They conducted clandestine scouting missions deep into Japanese held territories.
     We fired all sorts of weapons, and Bill seemed to enjoy dragging out exotic weapons from the warehouses for us to fire.  Our "club" did not participate in any competition.  As I said earlier, it was mostly just four teenagers and Bill.  So we just shot for fun, all sorts of weapons.  Bill was an excellent instructor.  At one time he noticed that I was having some difficulty holding the .45 auto steady for a period of time.  The pistol weighs almost 3 pounds fully loaded (39 ounces empty), and for a skinny 8th grader, it was a bit of a chore to hold it steady for a long time.  In those days we fired handguns one handed, it wasn't until I was in the Special Forces in the 1960s that I was taught to shoot two handed!  Anyway, seeing my difficulty with the heavy gun, Bill suggested that I take an empty liter bottle of Coke (in those days they were made of glass, therefore, very heavy!) and hold it up like a pistol for as long as I could.  He said to practice doing that every evening and that would strengthen my arm to hold the gun.  He was right, after a couple of weeks of holding up the large Coke bottle, I didn't have nearly as much problem with the heavy .45 as I did before!
     All in all, the summer of 1957 was a very interesting summer before I started my 9th grade year at Kubasaki at the "new" campus in Naha Wheel Area!  The Camp Chinen Gun Club (actually, we never had any "official" name!) lasted from mid June through mid August of 1957.  When the school started, the club was no more.  I have never forgotten that experience and it still brings back some very fond memories of those early days in Camp Chinen.

"Henrose"

     Those who lived on Okinawa, prior to reversion to Japan in 1972, were more than likely aware of the existence of a U.S. government installation that was located on the southern tip of the island called Camp Chinen.  Some may have visited the place as guests of school friends who lived in that camp.  It was an isolated place, on a small plateau, named after the area which was on a small peninsula called Chinen (pronounce "shee-nen").  It was a completely "self-sustaining" installation with all of the amenities one would expect from a larger government installation.  It had its own small movie theater that showed all the latest movies that were shown at larger bases like Kadena or Sukiran.  It had a small PX that carried most necessities, a nice club (Hotei) that served the needs of its residents, a large community swimming pool, golf course, tennis courts, fully equipped gymnasium, four lane bowling alley, and a dispensary to take care of its residents.  In short, it was just a smaller version of one of the larger camps/bases located on the island.
     It was a very nice place in may respects, but somewhat isolated and, therefore, a bit of a bore for a teenager.  I have blogged about some of the people that I met in Chinen previously, they were all very interesting, fascinating people.  As I explained in one of the blogs, as a teenager I couldn't always get away from Camp Chinen to go to one of the teen clubs located on the main part of the island.  In those cases, I was "stuck" in Chinen and had to find a way to entertain myself otherwise.  During fall and winter I was usually occupied with hunting in the surrounding area, but during spring and summer there wasn't much to do, so I used to hang around the bowling alley where I became good friends with its manager, Moriyama.  I had told the story of Moriyama, who was originally from Hiroshima area, who was a "boy soldier" during WWII, a kamikaze pilot, no less!  Moriyama was a very good friend and I spent many hours talking with him, since I was not much of a bowler!  The other person that I befriended was the manager of our gym, a man who went by the nick-name of "Henrose."  Moriyama the bowling alley manager and Henrose the gym manager were two of my closest friends in Camp Chinen during my five years in that place.  I befriended both of them when I first arrived in Chinen as an 8th Grader and continued my friendship with them through all the years until after I graduated from Kubasaki and left Okinawa!  So, ours was a long association and friendship, and I got to know the two men very well.
     Like Moriyama, Henrose came to work in Camp Chinen shortly after it was built during the Korean War.  His real name, Ikemiyagi, apparently was difficult to remember or pronounce for some Americans, so someone gave him the nick-name of Henrose, which stuck, and everyone called him by that name.  He didn't mind, in fact, he seemed amused by it.  I asked him once if he wasn't upset with the foreign nick-name when he had a perfectly good name, and he just waved it off and said he didn't care.  Essentially he said it didn't matter what he was called.
     Henrose was a stocky, muscular guy with a dark complexion.  He was the exact opposite of Moriyama who was slender with a very fair complexion.  Henrose told me that when he first went to work at the gym, he used to lift weights regularly out of boredom, that's how he became so muscular.  The gym usually had no customers during the day.  Perhaps someone who was not working might pop-in, or someone else might drop by during lunch to exercise a bit.  But for most of the day it was empty.  It was after work hours and weekends that the gym saw most activities such as pick-up basketball, in which case Henrose had to work those times and days.  On movie nights Henrose worked as a projectionist, so he got to see all the movies that were shown! But, most of the day Henrose was by himself or in company of another Okinawan employee who was off work that day and they would be engaged in a game of shogi (Japanese chess) or go and work regular 8 to 5 work hours.  Henrose loved to play shogi or go, and from what I understood, he was the grand champion of all Okinawan employees in Camp Chinen.
     Unlike Moriyama who lived in Naha and used to make the long commute on his motorcycle daily, Henrose lived in Oyakibaru, the small village just outside the main gate across the fire station.  Oyakibaru was a small village that was created after Camp Chinen was built.  Some of the Okinawan employees at the camp lived there, as well as one American who had an Okinawan common law wife and family!  Once, during the summer, Henrose invited me to his house after he closed the gym.  He had a nice, very typical Okinawan house and we sat in his house eating goat sashimi.  That's the first time that I had eaten goat sashimi!
     Through the years I learned some very interesting things about Henrose.  He was older than Moriyama and in 1944 he was in his final year at the Ryukyu University when he was drafted into the Japanese Imperial Army.  Because he was an Okinawan, despite his university education, he was sent to a work battalion where he served as a private, mostly as an ammunition bearer on the front lines and laborer in the rear areas.  It goes without saying that he was treated brutally, not only because he was a private, but because he was not a "real" Japanese.  He was not from naichi (main islands) therefore, according to what he told me, Okinawans were treated like Koreans and Taiwanese, who were also drafted into Japanese military to serve in work battalions!  He was in Burma for a while, then got transferred to Philippines where he served most of the war years.  At the end of the war, after spending time in a POW camp in Philippines, he was repatriated back to Okinawa.
     Once when I was walking with him through the main gate (I was headed for Machinato area and was going to catch an Okinawan bus) and Henrose was headed home.  Henrose had a bag that he carried and the guard insisted on thoroughly searching the bag before allowing him to leave.  Henrose was visibly upset, and it was also obvious that there was some bad blood between him and that particular guard.  They exchanged some unkindly words before parting, Henrose calling the guard a "watch dog."  Later, when we were talking in the gym, for some reason I mentioned the Japanese Imperial Army's notorious secret police, the kempei tai.  Henrose bristled upon hearing the name kempei and practically spit out the name followed by some strong language.  He called them chiksho (animals) and some much stronger names!  I asked him why he hated the kempei tai so much and he proceeded to tell me that he hated all security services, including our own gate guards!
     It took a while, several months, before Henrose finally told me the reason for his hatred of "security personnel."  He said that when he was in the army during the war, he along with some of his companions in the work battalion complained to the higher ups about the brutal treatment.  They had written a petition requesting better treatment, saying that they were all in it together and they were willing to work hard, but the treatment was unfair and brutal, and counterproductive.  He said that shortly after they submitted the petition the kempei swooped down on them and arrested all of the involved members.  They were tortured, beaten daily, and forced to make false confessions that their protests were a part of a much bigger plot that involved all sorts of high ranking individuals.  Of course it was all made up to make the kempei look good.  He said their torture involved everything from simple beating with kendo swords to using electric shock, attaching car battery wires to genitals!  He said that eventually several of his comrades died, and those that remained alive were returned to their units, broken men!
     Henrose said that to this day, if he ever ran into any one of his former torturers, he would kill them with his bare hands, without hesitation!  He said he didn't care if he had to go to prison for the rest of his life, it would be worth it!  Although Henrose was married for over ten years at that time, he and his wife had no children.
     Few people who lived on Okinawa actually realized how badly Okinawans were treated by the Japanese before and during the war.  When talk of reversion first started to be heard in the 1960s, the older generation, especially those who had suffered through the war in the military, were strongly opposed to any kind of a return to Japan.  Moriyama, who was a Japanese, but married to an Okinawan, didn't think it would be good for Okinawa.  Henrose, when I asked him about the reversion, snickered and spit out, "Return to motherland?  What motherland!  We're not Japanese!  We are Okinawans, Ryukyuans, not Japanese!"  But apparently he and those others like him had very little to say, as Okinawa was "returned" to Japan in 1972.

Putin's View of America - "Rabid With Fat"

     Someone once said that the Russians language was one of the best languages for poetry, that one could express feelings in a fashion that was not possible in another language.  Whether that is true or not, I cannot say.  I can say, however, that Russian language is full of very unique and interesting expressions and sayings.  Take for example how Boris Yeltsin's face was commonly described by his critics.  He was said to have a "a mug that invites a brick" ("rozha kotorye prigloshayet kirpitcha").   Perhaps not the most complimentary description of Yeltsin's appearance, but nevertheless a very colorful though crude expression!  There is another very old popular saying, "zhyrym besyatza" which literally translates to "rabid with fat."
     "Rabid with fat" refers to a person or people who are spoiled, have everything and are bored so they seek to satisfy their boredom with useless activities with self gratifying goals.  Some historians believe that is what happened to Rome, that the rich and powerful were so hedonistic, engrossed with satisfying their own pleasures that they completely lost track of what was happening to their country.  Putin, as well as some of the other members of his ruling class (the new nomenkultura), definitely believe that America has fallen into the category of ancient Rome before its fall.  Putin, in some of his speeches has said that America was on the decline, that its people were "rabid with fat."  He pointed at the various changes that had taken place in the last few decades and derisively said that it was a sure sign of our impending collapse as a nation.
     Being basically the old hard-line Soviet that he is, he considers any softening or changing of old rules as a weakness, a sign of decay!  He points at our acceptance of same sex marriage, the legalization of marijuana in some parts of the country, and our seeming inability to control Muslim population.  He made quite a joke about the flap that we had not long ago about bathroom usage by transgender kids in schools.  He constantly points out some of the more controversial occurrences that take place in America.  His remarks concerning the latest "Clowns' Lives Matter" (yes, if you haven't heard, there is a movement afoot for "Clowns' Lives Matter," its not a joke!) illustrates his view and opinion of our country.  He said that he was surprised it took so long for the clowns to get into the act!
     Putin is an extremely dangerous man.  I don't believe there has been a world leader as dangerous as Putin since Yuri Andropov (1982-84), and not surprisingly, both are diehard former KGB!  It is not very well known that before he became the Soviet Premier, Andropov, as the head of KGB, came up with a plan to involve PRC in a war with the United States.  A complicated plot was hatched to launch a missile attack on South Korea and Japan by North Korea and PRC.  At least the attack would appear to have been launched by China and North Korea.  The idea was to engage us in a war with China and Soviet Union would step-in to take over when we were weakened and unsuspecting!  Obviously, nothing like that happened, and today it sounds more like a Hollywood movie script or a spy novel.  But if the truth be known, intelligence information surfaced that Andropov and the KGB indeed had such a plan which they planned to execute without the knowledge of Kremlin and the Politburo!  Well, I don't mean to be an alarmist, but Putin is just such a man, having been trained and groomed by the KGB during that era!
     The current alarming situation in Aleppo, Syria is a good example of what Putin is doing.  He is completely ignoring previous talks and promises of mutual cooperation and continues to bomb indiscriminately and refuses to allow UN or any other NGO to enter the area to help the desperate people.  European sensationalist press is abuzz with rumors that World War Three is about to start!  Putin supposedly recalled all his high ranking officials and their families stationed abroad, calling for them to return to the "motherland."  Alarmists insist that it is a precursor to the start of World War Three, that Putin is getting ready to attack.  I don't think so.  Putin will get what he wants without resorting to such drastic actions. 
     Despite Europe's opposition to Putin's antics and the seeming cooling relations at present, Europe needs Russia!  Europe gets its natural gas from Russia as well as some of its oil supply!  If Russia cut off its supply of natural gas to Europe, it would cause considerable problems.  So, despite the cooling relations and periodic quarrels, most of Western Europe (as well as all of Eastern Europe) will not risk going to a catastrophic war against Russia.  Putin knows this, and European leaders know this as well.  That is why Putin recently ordered nuclear warhead missiles to move as close to the Western border as it has ever been.  He knew there would be no physical response as such, just verbal protestations!  NATO, on the other hand, does not have any nuclear weapons anywhere near the Russian border!  So, who is the winner in this game of show of strength?
     Right now, while most of Americans are preoccupied with the forthcoming presidential elections, Putin is making his moves to strengthen his position in Europe and Middle East.  He would like nothing more than to create chaos during the elections which he believes will bring about an unstable government, regardless of who gets elected!  Using others to say things that he wants said to disrupt and destabilize our elections, his spokesmen, both official and unofficial, claim to want Trump to be elected rather than Clinton.  They claim that Clinton would bring about World War Three.  I don't believe that Putin really thinks that will happen.  All of the talk is simply to destabilize the elections, cause confusion.
     Make no mistake about it, Putin's ultimate goal, his dream in life is to bring about the downfall of the United States of America.  He hates the U.S. and has made no bones about it.  He is an old school, ruthless former Soviet who blames all of Russia's woes on the United States.  Although Russia has its Parliament, the Duma, Putin makes all the decisions and will override anything the Duma does that does not please him.  It has taken him a while to modernize the Russian military to the point where he feels that Russian forces are no longer behind times, inferior to NATO.  The main thing, however, is that he knows that Western Europe, like the United States, has a current population that is "rabid with fat."  Rightly or not, he does not fear us.  He fears our weapons, but not our leadership or resolve to carry the fight!  Putin is the most dangerous man of the 21st Century, so far!