Understanding North Korea - Part Two

     In my earlier blog ("Understanding North Korea" September 7) I pointed out the historical influences on North Korean thinking, and how it was important to understand this aspect of North Korean mentality when dealing with them.  Since that blog, some two weeks ago, North Korea has conducted more missile tests and even tested a nuclear bomb that our "experts" are conceding is of hydrogen bomb size!  To top it all off, they just fired a second mid range missile over Hokkaido, Japan, causing mild panic within Japanese government.  Firing a missile over Japanese territory is equivalent to invading not just Japanese air space, but actually committing a hostile act.  What do you think will happen if Russia or some other country fires a couple of missiles over the U.S.?  Keep in mind that when Soviet Union shot down a clearly identifiable Korean Air Lines plane with innocent civilians aboard, killing everyone, they justified it by saying that the KAL aircraft had violated Soviet air space.  Earlier, when North Korea captured the U.S. spy ship USS Pueblo and held the crew hostage, it was because we had violated their boundary and entered their "space", according to them.  North Korea does not recognize the two mile international boundary line, they stretch their boundary beyond that range!  We, by the way, paid ransom to have our ship and crew released.  Of course the American public was not told about the fact that we "paid off" the North Koreans!
     So, now with all that is going on, we are still using the same approach as before!  Our government is asking UN Security Council to act....kind of a joke.  We are asking China and Russia (both permanent members of UN Security Council) to step up and do "something."  We are also trying to level even heavier economic sanctions on North Korea than it is already facing.  All of this sounds well and good, but it will not work!  I think our government knows it, yet continues to pursue this route.  Are we trying to drive North Korea into an act that would bring about war?  There appears to be no attempt to open any sort of a direct dialogue with North Korea.  Instead, we are asking China and Russia to do the heavy lifting.  This is precisely what North Korea doesn't want.  They want to be treated as an independent entity, to be dealt directly, not through some foreign power as China or Russia, making them out to be a vassal state!  That is how North Korea is interpreting our actions and words.  At the same time, neither China or Russia will do much to ease the situation.  North Korea is a perfect "buffer," a proxy for them.  North Korea has been surviving all these years through Chinese economic support, i.e., trading between the two countries which is estimated at around 85% of North Korea's economic trade.  New sanctions, no matter how strict, will not impact North Korea like we think it will.  Trading with China will continue as before.  China and Korea have been trading partners for centuries, going back several thousand years!  New economic sanctions will change nothing.  By the way, even for South Korea, our ally, the biggest trading partner is China, not us!
     We appear to be bound and determined to somehow resolve the North Korean issue with tough talk and tough sanctions.  As the saying goes, talk is cheap, and as far as sanctions are concerned, they won't work.  The common people in North Korea will suffer more, but the North Korean establishment will continue as before since their trade with China will go unabated, sanctions or no sanctions!  Even now, much of the trading between China and North Korea is illegal, i.e., contraband goods going from one country to another.  We have got to open a dialogue with North Korea directly if we want to resolve this on going issue that could easily lead to a disaster.  We can't rely on China or Russia.  Neither one of those countries really want to do anything to help us!  Unless we are prepared to take the military option and go to war, we have to change our approach.

Understanding North Korea

     If there is one thing that seems to be lacking (and that has been going for 70 years), is that we do not understand North Korea.  We do not understand what motivates North Korea to do what it does, to be the way it is, to think the way it thinks.  Of course, we are not alone in this.  Even South Korea has a difficult time understanding North Korea, although they do have a better inkling as to what makes North Korea tick.  What South Korea does understand is the underlying reasons for North Korea's behavior that is rooted in Korean mentality as a whole, both with north and south.  However, owing to modernization, globalization, and economic prosperity, South Korea has removed itself from the mindset that appears to still control North Korean thinking and behavior.  It all has to do with Korea's historical past, its ancient history as well as the more recent history.
     Korea has a very ancient history dating back almost as far as China's.  The first recorded Korean kingdom was called Gochosun (literally means old Chosun) which supposedly dates back to 2333BC when it was founded.  Gochosun was a large kingdom, encompassing all of Korean peninsula and what is known today as Manchuria and part of Siberia.  Gochosun lasted from 2333 BC until 108 BC when it was conquered by a smaller warlike kingdom which went on to become the great Koguryo Empire that ruled approximately the same large territory as Gochosun, from 37 BC until 668 BC.  Both Gochosun and Koguryo were independent kingdoms and feared by China as well as other surrounding smaller states.
     Koguryo was finally defeated by the combined forces of Silla from the south and Tang China from the northwest.  Silla, a smaller kingdom in the southeast during Korea's great Three Kingdom Period, first conquered Paekche in the southwest, then with the help of China defeated Koguryo in 668 AD.  After the collapse of Koguryo, there were a series of smaller Korean states until finally the Kingdom of Koryo was established 918 AD.  Koryo was the name that was also used by Koguryo in its latter years, and it is the name from which the modern name Korea was derived.  With the demise of Koguryo, the newly established kingdom of Koryo was no longer independent like its predecessors Gochosun and Koguryo.  Koryo was a product of Silla's conquest of Koguryo which they accomplished with the help of China, so Koryo became the vassal state of Tang Dynasty China first, then a vassal of the Mongols when Mongols ruled China as Yuan Dynasty.
     In 1392 Koryo became Chosun (or Yi) Dynasty and continued to be China's vassal state.  The Japanese attempted the invasion of Chosun in 1592 (Imjin Wars 1592-98) and Chosun was able to repel the invasion with Chinese help.  In 1636, the Manchus (Jurchens) invaded Chosen, and although the Manchus were repelled briefly with Chinese help, it wasn't long before China fell to the Manchus and therefore, Chosen became a vassal state of Manchus, the Ching Dynasty.  So, in essence, Korea experienced existence as an independent kingdom only in very ancient times, during Gochosun and Koguryo.  From the time that Koryo was established in 918, Korea was always a vassal state of China, whether it was Tang, Ming, Yuan, or Ching Dynasty!  It was only for a very brief period from 1897 to 1910 that Korea declared itself an independent "Korean Empire", before Japan annexed Korea in 1910!
    It may seem far-fetched, but part of the motivation that drives North Korea to behave in the way it does, constantly seeking recognition, is to get out from under the "cloud" so-to-speak, of being a vassal of some bigger power for much of its history! The very fact that we insist that China and Russia, especially China, "control" North Korea makes them all the more belligerent!  Historically, it was always China that called the shots when it came to Korea, whether it was Koryo or Chosun.  China (Ching Dynasty) even went so far as to "give up" Korea to Japan after the last Sino-Japanese War, as if Korea was nothing but a piece of real estate that China owned.  That is why North Korea continues to insist that we deal directly with them, no China or Russia!  We must recognize the fact that to North Korea, that is a very important and sensitive issue.  They want to be recognized as an independent entity, not as someone under control of China or Russia.  Until we recognize this factor, there will be no dialogue with North Korea.
     South Korea, on the other hand, has managed to shed that complex of being a "vassal."  Largely owing to its economic prosperity and technological advancement, South Korea does not feel the need to "prove" itself, to show its independence.  Its biggest concern is competition on the international market with China and Japan!  South Korean goods are well respected and they have cornered the market on electronics and cars in some parts of the world, as well as being the world's leading ship builders!  Despite the presence of U.S. military bases and troops, South Korea does not consider itself a "vassal" of the U.S.  Rather, it thinks of itself as a partner with the U.S. for regional security and trade.  That is obviously not how North Korea sees things.
     Is Kim Jong Un really as dangerous as he is portrayed by the media?  I believe that he is indeed dangerous because he has what can be best described as "Mussolini Complex."  Remember him, the one who wanted to re-create the great Roman Empire?  Well, Kim wants to recreate the great Koguryo Empire that everyone in the region feared and respected.  Koguryo was known as a great warrior state that was dominated by a warrior culture.  Is he capable of launching an attack on South Korea, Japan, or even the United States, knowing that it will bring about a disastrous outcome, possibly his own demise?  I believe he thinks he can somehow survive it all, that he is smarter than his enemies in more ways than one.  That is what makes him so dangerous.  He is not stupid, but he is delusional and he is obsessed with the notion of seeking "revenge" against those who had "wronged" North Korea.  That would be mainly the United States and South Korea, but Japan and other countries are on the list as well!
     Revenge is a very important element in the Asian culture.  It may seem unrealistic in some cases and silly in others, to be so obsessed with revenge.  But righting the wrong, seeking restitution for perceived or actual wrong doing is a very important part of the Asian makeup, mentality.  As the countries become more technologically advanced and gain economic wealth, they seem to drift away from this sort of mindset, but nevertheless, it is there and plays an important role.  In most Northeast Asian cultures, you are almost duty bound to seek "revenge" if a wrong has been committed against you and your family.  This "revenge" seeking does not have to end in death or some sort of physical punishment or imprisonment.  In most instances, even for the most serious offenses, if the offender admits to wrong doing and is willing to atone, and apologizes with sincerity, then the offender can be forgiven and "revenge" is considered to have been accomplished. 
     In their way of thinking, the North Koreans feel that a great wrong has been committed against them and continues to be committed by the U.S., South Korea, and others.  Aside from many deaths and destruction of their country during the Korean War, there are other real or perceived wrong doings, especially by the U.S.  So, North Korea is not only seeking to be treated as a sovereign state, but also seeks some sort of an apology or at least language that sounds like an apology from the U.S.  No doubt an offer of massive economic aid from us will take care of the language part!

Our Changing View of North Korea

     When I first blogged on North Korea several years ago, I mainly talked about the vicious Kim family dynasty that has ruled that country since its beginning more than 70 years ago.  Later, as various incidents took place, I blogged on specific issues like the poisoning of Kim Jong Un's half brother in Malaysia, but mostly it was about their nuclear development.  I am certainly no seer or claim to have any special knowledge of North Korea, but even with what I know, I was able to determine that their nuclear weapons development was far ahead of what our "experts" kept saying.  When North Korea finally tested a hydrogen bomb, our experts said that it was just a large atomic bomb, not a hydrogen bomb.  When they tested their missiles and claimed that they had ICBMs, we "pooh-poohed" the whole thing and said they were incapable of developing ICBMs.  Throughout, it seems that our experts on North Korea were determined to convince the American public that North Korea was just incapable of developing sophisticated weaponry such as nuclear devices and long range missiles.  Short range SCUD type missiles, we agreed that they could make....perhaps even mid range missiles.  But long range missiles, no way.
     In one of my blogs, I said that they had ICBMs and could deliver nuclear devices to our shores.  At that time (about a year ago), everyone in our government said that they did not have the capability.  As Trump put it so emphatically only a few months ago, they will in no way develop the capability, we will not allow it!  But now, only a few months later, it seems everyone is singing a different tune.  The latest assessment from the same experts who had earlier said North Korea was incapable of developing ICBMs, is that they have missiles that can not only reach Chicago, but possibly even New York!  This is a complete turn-around from earlier statements about North Korea's capabilities!
     What changed?  Why did we insist earlier that North Korea did not have these weapons?  During the past several years, while news would appear that North Korea was testing nuclear devices or new missiles, we kept saying that most of the tests were failures and that they simply did not have the know-how to make things work.  To be quite honest, it even smacked of racism, that North Koreans just did not have the brains or the ability to develop advanced weapons.  During World War Two our propaganda machine churned out the same kind of racist-tainted information about Japan's ability to produce sophisticated weapons.  It was widely rumored that the famous Japanese fighter plane, the Mitsubishi Zero, was actually designed by Germans.  In other words, the Japanese were not capable of coming up on their own with such an advanced and complicated design.  So it seems we have been doing the same thing with North Korea.  After all, they are a small, backward Asian country.  How could they come up with such advanced technology on their own.  Surely the Russians must have had a hand in it!  But now, it seems things changed completely.
     Could it be that our government has finally realized that North Korea will not just go away if we ignore it?  Has there been a change of the guards, so-to-speak, with the "experts" in our government?
I am not too sure what is happening, but I suspect that it is mostly a realization that perhaps North Korea is a real threat and that our government better be ready to "answer" to the public, should the worst happen.  It may also be the realization that neither China or Russia are really interested in disarming North Korea.  It is not that they want a war in the region, it is simply that they want a buffer in the form of a threatening North Korea.  Contrary to some who think China and Russia do not object to the reunification of north and south, neither China or Russia want a unified Korea.  Should reunification take place, perhaps there will be economic chaos at first and possibly even political unrest.  But eventually things will settle down and an economically and militarily powerful unified Korea will emerge.  It will without a doubt be a democratic government such as the one in South Korea, a government that will be allied with the U.S.  Korea will not abandon its military and economic ties with the U.S., not with the two giants to their north, Russia and China.  This will put U.S. military presence right on the Chinese and Russian border!  No, China and Russia definitely do not want that.
     Although North Korea's large million plus army is a major threat on the ground, it is not as big a threat as it may seem.  Should hostilities break out between north and south, it is possible that large numbers of North Korea's feared People's Army will defect!  Defectors from the north consistently tell stories of the unhappy state of North Korean troops.  Although they are better fed than the general population, it is still no picnic, and they are not completely stupid.  They don't all believe in the communist propaganda that is daily churned out by the system.  There are constantly defectors from the People's Army who risk their lives crossing the DMZ.  So, it is very probable that a large number of troops will defect on the battle field. 
     One of the reasons that Chang Kai Sheik's Nationalist Army lost to Mao's People's Army was because of defections.  The Nationalist Army developed a reputation for being a poor fighting force, that is because the morale was low and the average soldier did not believe in what they were fighting for....i.e., the Nationalist cause.  In contrast, Mao's troops had high morale and believed in their cause.  The Nationalist's defected almost enmass....by divisions, including their generals!  The same thing could happen with the North Korean army.  When you consider that since the Armistice was signed in 1953, there has never been a defector from the south going north (no Koreans, but there were a few misguided Americans!), but thousands of defectors from the north to the south, despite the extreme danger involved in crossing the DMZ.  It is not inconceivable that mass defections would take place if the opportunity presents itself to the North Koreans.  I am not saying that it is going to happen, but it is a possibility, Donald Rumsfeld's words notwithstanding that "North Koreans will fight to the last man, woman, and child."  So, it isn't so much the North Korean army that is a problem, despite its huge size and fearsome reputation.  It is their nuclear arsenal and their ICBMs that now our "experts" concede that they can reach our shores, all the way to the East Coast!

Our Longest War - Afghanistan!

     Our war in Afghanistan is the longest war that we have been involved in our history.  We are now going into our 17th year of that war and there appears to be no end in sight!  Afghanistan has had a long history of wars, dating back centuries.  In the 19th Century the Great British Empire tried to control that entire region.  The British Empire was the largest and most powerful empire in the world, unchallenged by any other nation or empires at that time.  A good portion of the world was under British rule or its influence.  It was at this time that the phrase, "the sun never sets on the British Empire" was coined. No doubt the British felt that they could handle Afghanistan without much problem.  To their dismay, the British became embroiled in what appeared to be a never ending conflict.  Ultimately, the British were able to end the conflict by some backdoor deal making and striking a compromise, not a military victory!  In the late 20th Century, 1979 to be more precise, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.  What Kremlin thought would be a quick fix if they threw their military might at the rag-tag Afghan fighters, turned into a never ending war.  Ten years later, after heavy fighting and much suffering and loss of life, the Soviet Union was forced to pull out of Afghanistan.  Do doubt the involvement in that unpopular war in part helped to bring about the downfall of the Soviet Union.
     A little over a decade after the Soviet departure from that land, the United States launched its invasion of Afghanistan.  There may be those who will disagree with the belief that the invasion was necessary, but given the situation at time, the United States had little choice.  The horrific 9/11 attack was launched by members of Al Qaeda, the terror group that was led by Osama bin Laden and based in Afghanistan.  The Taliban that ruled about 80% of the country provided sanctuary to Al Qaeda.  They were in fact, partnered with the terror organization.  More lives were lost in the 9/11 attack than in the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack!  Opponents of the Afghanistan invasion blame George W. Bush for getting us embroiled in that country, but Bush really had no choice.  What was he supposed to do?  Negotiate with Osama bin Laden, the man who openly swore to destroy the United States?  Given the circumstances, any other president would have done the same thing.  Hindsight is always 20/20, and George W. is a convenient target, but his decision, under the circumstances, was not wrong.  America had to do something, and the man responsible for the 9/11 attack and his organization were in Afghanistan.
     What followed the initial invasion of Afghanistan by our Special Operations, particularly those Army Special Forces teams that partnered with various Northern Alliance groups, was nothing short of spectacular.  The surprisingly small number of American soldiers were able to lead the Northern Alliance groups to an unprecedented rout of Taliban and Al Qaeda forces in an amazingly short space of time.  Unfortunately, after the spectacular and dramatic victory over Taliban and Al Qaeda, we shifted gears and changed our policy and tactics and the nature of the war changed.  We poured-in ground troops and equipment and began conducting a conventional war, the very same kind of war that did not work for the Soviets!  Apparently, we did not learn anything from the Soviet experience that took place earlier!  So, like the Soviets, we too began to get bogged down.  We tried to extricate ourselves by periodically downsizing our presence, but all it did was provide a "yo-yo" effect and required "surges" of increase in troop strength.  Things just went from bad to worst!
     So what went wrong?  Aside from the fact that we unnecessarily shifted gears and increased troops strength and changed from unconventional to conventional warfare, we changed focus.  We should have stayed with the unconventional warfare and with the goal of getting Osama bin Laden and destroying Al Qaeda and Taliban.  Instead, we got involved in "nation building" and conducting a large scale conventional war.  We did exactly the same thing in Vietnam, and we all know how that ended!  However, the problem is not just simply military tactics and or political decisions involving "nation building," etc.  The problem goes much deeper.  It has to do with what has been taking place both with Pentagon's approach to fighting wars and with the American people's attitude and mentality when it comes to wars since the Korean War.
     If there ever was such a thing as a "popular" war, it was World War Two.  Perhaps "popular" is not the right word to use, but the majority of the American population at that time supported the war effort and believed that we should destroy the enemy.  People understood that lives would be lost and although it was terrible, it was something that had to be accepted in time of war.  Korean War was the first "unpopular" war and Americans wanted to know why we had to engage in a war far away when our country was not threatened directly.  There was not anywhere near the kind of support or understanding that existed during World War Two among the population.  In fact, there was no public support and there was an outcry to stop our involvement!  Fortunately, the Korean War lasted only three years, a relatively short war and our boys were returned home.  A little over a decade after the ceasefire agreement was signed at Panmunjom, we began our involvement in Vietnam.  Actually our involvement in Vietnam took place even earlier, shortly after the ceasefire in Korea.  First American combat casualty in Vietnam took place in 1958.
     America carried on an unconventional warfare with Special Forces and other Army and Marine advisors in Vietnam from around 1958 until 1965 when President Johnson decided to escalate the war and sent in conventional forces.  Prior to this, in 1963, CIA engineered a coupe in which the unpopular South Vietnamese president was removed by assassination.  Yep, we meddled in their elections before elections even took place! Those were "low tech" days and no computer hacking, just assassinations.  In the early 1970s "Vietnam-ization" (abandonment of our ally) took place and in 1975 the Republic of South Vietnam was no more.  Materially (in terms of equipment) we were far superior to the black pajama clad Viet Cong and later the North Vietnamese Army, the NVA.  Our troops were better trained, better equipped, yet we couldn't defeat them.  Although we had successes on the battlefield, they just kept coming back time and time again.  Technically we were superior, but tactically, we were inferior!  There was no cohesiveness in our fighting units.  Our soldiers and Marines were deployed for a year, then rotated back out of the country and new soldiers and Marines would replace them.  There was no continuity or institutional memory with enlisted personnel as well as officers.  Once you served a tour in Vietnam, you did not have to go back.  Only those who volunteered served more than one tour.  Vietnam War was fought on our side with troops that either served for one year or even less, sometimes just a six month TDY tour!  In contrast, the Viet Cong and the NVA were there for the duration!  They did not serve a one year tour and then return home!
     We have had the same situation in Afghanistan.  Our soldiers and Marines would deploy for a year, then return home.  Many of the combat units would redeploy after a while and some soldiers and Marines end up serving multiple tours, but not with the, the same squad or platoon or company.  In other words, despite troops with multiple tours, there is no continuity.  Even at the higher level there is no continuity.  In the past 15 years we have had 17 different Generals or Admirals in charge of our war in Afghanistan!  You can't expect true cohesiveness or any institutional memory when you change personnel so often.  During World War Two, soldiers and Marines served for the duration of the war, that was four years if you were in the service in 1941 when we entered the war!  Yes, troops were rotated out of combat zone periodically, but as a unit, not individually.  The only way you could leave was if you received a "million dollar wound," then you would leave the combat zone for good!  The troops in Europe had one Supreme Commander the whole war, Eisenhower.  Those in the Pacific had Nimitz on one side and McArthur on the other, also for the whole war!
     Pentagon is finally beginning to realize that you cannot fight a war and constantly change personnel and leadership.  There has to be some continuity in personnel for a unit to have true cohesiveness.  But what is the solution?  We can't very well deploy our troops for the duration of the war in Afghanistan!  Can you imagine if we had kept the same Army and Marine infantry units in Afghanistan for the last 16 years!  We tried that in Vietnam, many of the initial Army and Marine units that arrived in 1965 stayed the whole duration until they were pulled out for "Vietnam-ization" in the early 1970s.  But, replacement of troops had to be made constantly during their stay, since the individual soldier's or Marine's one year tour would come to an end and they would leave.  So, when those units left Vietnam, they were not composed of the same personnel, the same commanders!
     Believe it or not, there is some talk about hiring mercenaries to do the work in Afghanistan!  There is talk of hiring veteran Europeans and Americans who are willing to serve in Afghanistan to train and advise Afghan National Army and other troops.  They would be paid substantially for their work, something in the neighborhood of $600 a day!  They would remain in Afghanistan for the duration, for however long they are needed.  This would remove the need for deploying our army and Marine units and would supposedly stop our public from voicing opposition to our involvement in that country.  I don't know, sounds kind of crazy.  But, as I said, it is seriously being considered and discussed in our government!

My Friend Reinaldo Diaz

     A little over a year ago I did a blog titled "Tom Mix of Ecuador."  In it, I talked about an eccentric Ecuadorian cattle rancher who had a thing for Tom Mix, the old Hollywood matinee idol, the cowboy actor.  The Ecuadorian Tom Mix took to dressing like Tom Mix, and as I explained, even wore a six shooter and a white ten gallon Stetson!  He met an untimely death in a shoot-out that took place at his ranch house on the banks of the Rio Taura.  The house is said to be haunted since that time and no one has occupied it.  Surprisingly, it stood in fairly good shape, despite the tropical climate with heavy rains and humidity.  I guess they don't build them like they used to!  A typical tract home that you find stateside today would have crumbled into a pile of rotting timber in that climate and in that space of time.  Yet, that building stood some 40 years after it was abandoned, still apparently structurally sound and appearing almost unscathed, except for some old bullet holes left from that infamous shoot-out!
     This blog, however, is about his nephew, Reinaldo Diaz, a real character in his own right and just as eccentric as his uncle, in my opinion.  I talked about Reinaldo in the previous blog, about how he got into trouble with the law back in the 1960s when he shot a cattle rustler on his ranch.  Reinaldo went on the lam for 7 years, hiding out in "El Norte" in "Nueva Jersey."  He fled to the states, via Tijuana (illegally, of course!) and lived and worked in New Jersey for 7 years.  He finally returned when his Dad sent word that the coast was clear, that the Police Chief (his nephew was a rustler that Reinaldo shot and killed) had been arrested for various crimes (including cattle rustling) and was serving time.  So Reinaldo returned to Ecuador, surprisingly not speaking a word of English after 7 years in New Jersey!  As he explained to me, he didn't need to learn English.  Where he lived and worked, everyone spoke Spanish!
     Reinaldo inherited one of the largest cattle ranches in that region.  Back in the old days, before his uncle got himself killed, there were two large ranches.  One ranch was owned by Reinaldo's father, and the other by his uncle, the Tom Mix of Ecuador.  When Reinaldo's uncle was killed, his brother (Reinaldo's father) inherited the ranch, so the two large ranches were combined and made into a huge piece of property.  When Reinaldo's father died, Reinaldo ended up with this enormous cattle ranch.  The ranch stretched from Rio Taura to Rio Churrute and beyond.  During the dry season, it was mostly lush pasture land broken up with stands of scrub jungle.  During the rainy season (winter), most of the pasture land on the ranch flooded and was impassable except on horseback or canoe!  The cattle, which was a hardy breed that was developed for tropical South America, originally came from Southern India.  But that was over a century ago and by the mid 20th Century it developed into a unique breed of cattle that seemed to thrive even in flooded pastures, sloshing around like water buffalos and eating leaves off scrub jungles on the fringes of pastures.
     I once asked Reinaldo how many heads of cattle he had and he wasn't sure, finally ended up just saying one word, bastante - a lot!  Being an eccentric, Reinaldo had his share of quirks.  He did not believe in branding his cattle.  He told me that it was unnatural to mark cattle, that it was cruel to brand them with a hot iron!  Yet, he raised his cattle for the beef market, and once sold, they were, of course, all butchered!  I guess it was O.K. to kill the cattle, but not brand them!  Anyway, his unbranded cattle were always prime pickings for rustlers!  Amazingly, Reinaldo and his vaqueros were able to identify each head by its markings!  Many of his cattle were semi wild, freely roaming since birth and hiding in the scrub jungles that spotted the ranch.  It was truly a wild time at round up, since most cattle refused to be controlled or guided by humans on horseback.  It was a very dangerous time as well for the vaqueros!
     My good friend Lorenzo (who introduced me to Reinaldo) told me that Reinaldo was very wealthy.  You wouldn't know it by looking at him.  He always wore cheap clothing and drove a beat up old pick up truck.  I don't think he even owned a suit and surely didn't know how to put on a tie!  He lived in a cheap, somewhat rundown house not far from his ranch in the town of Duran, just across Rio Guayas from the city of Guayaquil.  Duran was not a wealthy town, it was a working class town then and still is mostly occupied by lower socio-economic class residents.  Reinaldo did not see any need to spend more money and live in a costlier place.  His wife desperately wanted to move to Guayaquil to a better neighborhood and better home, but Reinaldo would not have it!  Reinaldo often stayed at the ranch and slept at the "ranch house."  The so-called ranch house was nothing but a one room casita on stilts, a typical house in that part of rural Ecuador.  It did not have electricity nor running water (no plumbing whatsoever).  Water had to be carried from Rio Taura a few hundred yards away, and bathroom facilities consisted of a crude outhouse with a shallow hole, not the best of facilities!  All people living in that area lived in such housing.  They were built on stilts to keep them off the water once the area flooded in the winter!
     Reinaldo was quite proud of his casita, which he told me that he built himself.  I am no carpenter or house builder, but I've built better dog houses and sheds with my limited skills than that casita of Reinaldo's!  Once on an overnight hunting trip, I slept in that casita.  If it had not been for the  mosquito netting that draped over each hammock that we used, I would have ended up looking like a pin cushion!  The mosquito activity outside of the netting was absolutely astounding.
     We (Lorenzo and I) often hunted on Reinaldo's ranch, especially for ducks during winter months.  We had to traverse the flooded ground on horseback.  Reinaldo's cow ponies were a lot like those hardy little Mongolian ponies, they were small.  The saddles were something else, they were wooden with no covering whatsoever, and painted in gay colors, usually bright blue, green, or red.  The stirrups were round metal rings suspended on thick ropes, they were not adjustable!  To put it mildly, it was very uncomfortable to ride those Ecuadorian ponies.  But, that was the only form of transportation and we couldn't very well walk in water that ranged in depth from knee high to chest level.
     On one memorable overnight duck hunt, we slept outside.  Well, we tried to sleep.  But the mosquito activity was so ferocious that Reinaldo and I ended up building a huge, smoky fire to keep the hungry mosquitos at bay.  We sat up all night, talking,  roasting plantains (verdes) and keeping the fire fed with wet wood that produced smoke.  It was on that occasion that Reinaldo told me his life story, about fleeing to the states after killing the police chief's nephew and finally returning and ending up being the patron of the huge ranch.  I asked him if he ever wanted to return to America and live, and he answered with an emphatic no!  I asked him why he didn't want to live in America and his response was that the people here did not know how to live.  He said that in his 7 years, he never saw anyone really living, everyone just worked everyday, came home tired, ate, watched TV, went to sleep, then started the process all over.  Some of the younger ones he said went out drinking or dancing, but that was it.  That was not living for him. He preferred to live as he did in Ecuador, even if it meant living in his casita with no electricity or water! 
     At that time he boasted that he was as in good shape as I was, and he had at least ten years on me!  Funny how as time passed, those ten years began to shrink to eight, then six, then four, and finally last year he told Lorenzo that he was the same age as me!  Lorenzo had attended Reinaldo's birthday celebration which was held at this ranch, a real outdoor parrillada (Ecuadorian barbeque).  Lorenzo said that Reinaldo was in remarkably good shape and looked years younger than his mid 80s or so, Lorenzo wasn't sure.  It was on that occasion that Reinaldo asked Lorenzo about me, since he knows that we keep in touch, and mentioned that we were of same age!  Good old Reinaldo!  I am old, very old, but not quite as old as Reinaldo.  But if he wants everyone to think that he is "only" "seventy something" rather than "eighty something", so be it!

North Korea - A Problem That We Can't Seem To Solve -Part 2

     In yesterday's blog I basically vented my frustrations and dissatisfaction at our government's inability to come up with a solution for the problem with North Korea.  I pointed out that we have had problems with North Korea for over 60 years, since the Korean War.  But now, or at least for the past decade, and especially during Kim Jong Un era, we have been facing a real national security threat.  No country in the world, either with nuclear weapons or without, has actually threatened to attack us, to reduce our cities to "burning hell", as North Korea put it.  Yes, we have enemies who have threatened harm to us, most notably the Islamic Extremists such as Al Qaeda and Islamic State (ISIS), and Iran still calls us the "Great Satan".  But, their threats and attempts to harm us have been on a different scale, they seem to be mostly interested in taking over other Islamic countries, more of a regional war confined to the Middle East.  That is true in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria.  Even the Arab-Israeli conflict into which we have poured billions upon billions of dollars and considerable effort for over a half a century, is still but a regional problem and does not have a direct impact on our national security.
     The two military powers that have the capability to reach our shores with nuclear weapons, China and Russia, have never threatened to launch an attack against us.  We are China's biggest trading partner and Russia, despite all the noise about their trying to interfere with our elections, would love to improve trading relations with us.  Right now our relationship may be cool, but it is not in danger of escalating into a "hot" war as some news media alarmists would like us to think, claiming that we are engaged in a new "cold" war, etc.  But despite whatever is being said about our "deteriorating" relationship with Russia (which was never great or "close" to begin with!), it is not anywhere near a nuclear attack by either side!  The only country that has the nuclear capability and ability to reach our shores that has openly threatened us is North Korea.  Now, call it what you like, a bluff, an empty threat, whatever.  But the fact remains that they have consistently and openly threatened to attack us and destroy our country!
     North Korea's nuclear program may have started much earlier, but it became known to the outside world for the first time during Kim Jong Il era, during Bill Clinton's administration.  At that time the program was at an infant stage, supposedly (no one can really be sure) and Kim Jong Il used the North Korean nuclear capability, such as it was, as a bargaining tool in blackmailing the U.S. into giving economic assistance and making certain concessions.  He was successful in gaining his goals, if not completely, at least partially.  He forced us to the bargaining table and made us give him basically, much of what he sought.  Our negotiators were naïve and came away from the bargaining table informing Clinton that we had succeeded.  It didn't take long to find out that we didn't gain anything and North Korea was pursuing its nuclear program full speed!  During this period, we were more preoccupied with the Balkans (Bosnia), Haiti, Somalia, and of course, the Arab-Israeli situation.
The fact that we were scammed by North Korea was somewhat irksome, but soon forgotten and North Korea and its leaders continued to appear as silly caricatures, tin pot tyrants, and really not taken seriously.  At the same time, none of the countries and conflicts into which we poured our energy and tax payer dollars were a direct threat to our national security, and they still are not!
     The situation has changed dramatically.  Kim Jong Un, the son of Kim Jong Il the original North Korean leader who blackmailed us with his nuclear program, is not like his father!  His father used the nuclear program as a blackmail tool, to lessen sanctions, to gain economic advantage, to gain actual financial and economic assistance from his enemies, primarily the U.S.  To that end he succeeded.  His much more dangerous and unpredictable son has a different agenda.  It is a mistake to think that he is like his father, that he would be satisfied if we sat down and negotiated with him.  If Clinton or George W., and Obama had stated that they would be "honored" to meet with Kim Jong Il, he would have been thrilled and perhaps things would have been different today.  But none of the three previous U.S. presidents ever even mentioned about meeting with the North Korean leader.  That, according to our foreign policy, would have been making a too great a concession, elevating a known dictator to a legitimate world leader status!  So it never happened.  But did you notice that when Trump said that he would be "honored" to meet Kim Jong Un, which took many by surprise, the North Korean leader did not reciprocate with much of a response!
     Kim Jong Un is a nasty, unpredictable, psycho.  As I have stated previously, the worst of the three Kims, worst than his grandfather Kim Il Song, the founder of North Korea, and worst than his father Kim Jong Il who was considered a nut case!  Both grandfather and father would have jumped at the chance to meet with the U.S. president.  This would have legitimized their position, their country.  They would have immediately countered with arrangements for such a meeting.  But such is not the case with Kim Jong Un.  What does he do?  The North Korean anti-U.S. rhetoric continues unabated and he launches an ICBM on the Fourth of July as if to say to Trump, "what do you think about that?" 
     I know that there are many out there that still think that Kim Jong Un's goals are the same as his father's.  They think that all he wants is for sanctions to be lifted and for the U.S. to treat him with respect.  That may very well be part of his goal, but he wants much more.  South Korea had been bending over backwards trying be nice to him because they want to return to the negotiating table for the reunification process which was stopped.  But he is having none of it!  He recently openly announced that he has put out a "contract" to assassinate the former South Korean President Park.  Keep in mind that he put out a "contract" to assassinate his own brother (half-brother) not too long ago!  He doesn't care about being accepted by the world community!  Obviously, having Trump say that he would be "honored" to meet him had no effect on him.  When you consider that no American President had ever before agreed to meet with a North Korean leader, that was quite a concession on Trump's part.  Yet, no reaction from Kim except to thumb his nose on the Fourth of July and launch an ICBM!
     Today, North Korea is the only country in the world that is a direct threat to our national security.  As I said, it is not ISIS or Al Qaeda or any other Islamic Extremists group, nor is it any other conflict that is taking place around the world.  Yes, they all pose a danger to us in one way or another, but not like North Korea.  It isn't even Cuba, which is less than 100 miles from our shores, it is North Korea and Kim Jong Un with his nuclear arsenal and ICBMs!  Unfortunately, our anti missile system is lacking!  From Alaska down to San Diego, California, we have a total of 36 anti missile systems set up.  There are huge gaps, and no guarantee that even if an ICBM is detected and we launch anti missiles that they would do the job!  Reagan tried to change the situation with his "Star Wars" program which was, of course, most strongly opposed by the then Soviet Union, but also domestically by liberal element in our government.  It was ridiculed as being unnecessarily expensive and with no assurance that it would really work.  That may have very well been the case when it was first proposed, but it would have been a start.  Instead, the program was scrapped and we have been creeping along on missile defense system development.  Since the 1980s, we have spent less than $200 Billion on missile defense, that is in the last 35 years!  On the other hand we have spent over $1.5 Trillion on just two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.....and that doesn't include Syria!
     I said in the last blog that we seemed to have paid too little attention to North Korea all this time and instead spent inordinate amount of effort and money on other countries and conflicts.  When Kim Jong Un came to power we assumed that he would be like his father.  Others thought that he would be "kinder and gentler" because he was educated in the West and was familiar with the West!  But it seems that all those "experts" were wrong.  He is the worst of the lot.  He is completely unpredictable and definitely a sociopath/psychopath.  Of course he would like to have sanctions lifted and receive economic help from the West, primarily the U.S.  But, like I said yesterday, he is not a Chinese or Russian puppet, although he does receive economic help from those countries.
     There are many who say that despite all his talk and demeanor, he is not so foolish as to launch an attack against the United States.  But these people are forgetting one thing, Kim Jong Un is not normal, he does not think like a normal person.  To compound the situation, living in an isolated situation as he does, and being the absolute ruler that he is, there is no one to counter his decisions, to try to sway his thinking to a more rational approach. 
     Japan launched the attack on Pearl Harbor thinking that U.S. would sue for peace after its 7th Fleet (Pacific Fleet) was destroyed.  Japan did this despite opposition from Admiral Yamamoto, the very architect of the Pearl Harbor attack.  Yamamoto openly stated that unless U.S. sues for peace within six months of the attack, Japan would lose the war.  Ironically, although everyone thought Yamamoto was brilliant, no one listened to him. The Japanese, not even Tojo, were crazy like Kim! 
     Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa (Invasion of Soviet Union) against the advice of all of his generals! Many historians today agree that the end result of World War Two in Europe would have been very different had Germany not engaged in a war with the Soviet Union!  Keep in mind that 70% of Germany's war machine was bogged down in Russia!  Essentially, the "allies" had to deal with 30% of German forces, not the brunt of the Wehrmacht (army) and Luftwaffe (air force).  Most historian feel that had Germany stayed out of Russia, Europe would have been under their rule.  With U.S. stepping in to help, UK would have been spared, but the rest of Europe would have been under Germany!
     I believe that unless our leaders realize that we are now confronting a real threat to our national security, we are going to be in trouble.  I just do not understand why we continue to underestimate North Korea and the damage that it can do to us.  Yes, we can level the northern part of the Korean peninsula into a nuclear wasteland.  We could probably do that without using nuclear weapons.  But, before we could do that, we will suffer some significant damage on our shores and American lives will be lost, on our shores and in Korea and Japan.  South Korea will also suffer great damage, more than anyone else outside of North Korea.  Japan too will suffer damage.  You can rest assured that nuclear armed missiles will be launched against our bases in Japan.  Okinawa will definitely be hit.  Even Guam will be hit.  So it will be a horrific, nuclear catastrophe in that part of Asia and Pacific, including Hawaii. parts of Alaska, and our Pacific Coast!
     Before Pearl Harbor, most Americans thought that it could never happen.  Japan a small country with no natural resources to speak of and so far away would never actually attack the U.S.  Well, they were wrong. Japan may have had nationalistic zealots in its government, but no real sociopath in a position to make major decisions.  Tojo was portrayed as a villain, but he was not crazy! Yet Japan attacked the U.S.  Hitler was a sociopath and look where it led Germany, down to the last minute until he committed suicide in a bunker!  Do you really think North Korea is only bluffing, that Kim Jong Un only wants to be treated with "respect" and have sanctions lifted?  It is that kind of
thinking that has led the situation to reach this point.  Kim Jong Un is an absolute ruler and he is completely unpredictable.  He is the kind of a nut that will cut off his own nose (kill his own people and destroy his nation) to gain what he wants, which is unclear!  Why do our leaders not take him seriously?

North Korea - A Problem That We Can't Seem To Solve!

     North Korea has been a thorn on our side ever since the Korean War.  After the cease fire agreement was signed in 1953, North Korea constantly created problems for us and we, for one reason or another, haven't been able to handle them!  It is like one of those day time soap operas, it just keeps churning and churning.  There were plenty of provocative actions by North Korea since the cease fire that could have resulted in military action, and I don't think anyone would have faulted us.  But for one reason or another, we refrained from taking any action and instead used verbal condemnation and economic sanction, which have been in place since the cease fire anyway!
     On the one hand, we seem to take them seriously and appear to be concerned.  On the other hand we take them too lightly.  It seems that none of our presidents, Republican or Democrat, have been able to solve this problem.  Clinton had the best shot at stopping North Korean nuclear development, but for one reason or another, whatever deal we struck with North Korea did not work, and things got out of control.  G.W. Bush tried also, but his approach did not work.  Remember those words of the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld at that time?  A reporter tried to trip him up and asked a double edged question.  He asked why we didn't carry out a "surgical" air strike with smart bombs to knock out their nuclear facilities.  This was after the so-called "shock and awe" air bombardment that we carried out against Saddam Hussein in Baghdad.  Rumsfled, in his typical caustic, sarcastic manner, responded by saying that: "North Koreans are not Arabs!  They won't quit until every last man, woman, and child is killed!"  So, obviously, at least Donald Rumsfeld did not take North Korea lightly.  But then, the rest of the members of Bush's administration didn't seem to feel that North Korea was too much of a threat.  Obama, in his eight years with his "non-active, reactive foreign policy" managed to give North Korea more confidence, if anything.  Kim Jong Un came to power in 2011 and lived with Obama's non-policy on North Korea for the last six years!  Obama and his "reactive policy" emboldened Kim.
     Now Donald Trump begins by first saying that he would talk to Kim, then also stated that North Korea was incapable of making an ICBM,  You can be sure that Kim was very much aware of it when he decided to launch an ICBM on the Fourth of July and tweak Trump's nose!  Month's earlier I blogged and stated that North Korea had ICBM capability, however, all our "experts" were saying that they did not have ICBMs.  So I guess Trump was listening to those "experts."  Guess what?  They do have ICBMs!  It seems to me that we are forever underestimating North Koreans.  Why?  I can't quite understand this attitude.  Look how high tech South Korea is today.  I hate to say this, but they are ahead of us in many areas of high tech, especially electronics.  If South Korea has the brain power to develop such high tech stuff. why can't the North Koreans?  After all, they are the same people, just different political ideologies!
     So now, there appears to be genuine alarm and concern in Washington over North Korea.  My god, they have nuclear bombs and ICBMs capable of reaching our shores!  What do we do?  Russia and China must get involved and reign-in North Korea - that is what we have been saying for years!  Note the responses from Russia and China.  Russia says North Korea did not test an ICBM, it was just a "medium range" missile!  Yeah, right, a medium range missile that can reach continental U.S.!
Both Russia and China are saying that if we stop the bi-national military exercises that we hold each year with South Korea, that would be the first step to curbing Kim's activities.  If our leaders believe that, then they are even bigger fools than I think they are!  Stopping the joint military exercises would be the first step.  The next demand will be that we reduce significantly or totally remove our military presence from South Korea and Japan!  Once that happens, guess what?  Korean War II will begin!  When the Korean War began in June of 1950, we had no combat troops whatsoever in South Korea.  We had a few military advisors and administrative type personnel.  We had no combat ready troops in Japan either.  Our troops in Japan had been on occupation duty and relatively soft life style with practically no regularly scheduled combat training.  We know what happened at the outset of the war!  We don't want to repeat that.  We now have about 30,000 combat ready troops in South Korea and about 50,000 in Japan.  We also have troops in Guam and Hawaii that can reach Korea in relatively short time as reinforcements.  This is what China and Russia does not like.  They would love to see those 80,000 troops leave South Korea and Japan!
     North Korea and Kim Jong Un are not the puppets of Russia or China.  Kim Il Song, the grandfather of current psycho was a Soviet puppet for a while, at least during the Korean War.  But he broke away from Soviet Union and PRC, becoming fiercely independent, starting the juche (self reliance) movement that exists to this day!  Yes they trade with China and Russia and are dependent on those two countries for economic trade, but they are not their puppets!  To add to this situation, neither China nor Russia want a weak North Korea.  They want a militarily strong North Korea on their border as a buffer.  North Korea would never attack them, but it will prevent any encroachment by South Korea, and therefore, U.S., to their borders!
     After Trump met with Xi, it was announced that China will get involved in "denuclearizing" North Korea by applying political and economic pressure.  There was this token stopping of coal shipments and China has supposedly stopped petroleum shipments.  Some reporters got excited over these insignificant acts. Well, guess who has more petroleum than China?  Russia!  Russia has already signed a deal with former South Korean President Park to supply South Korea with oil, build a pipeline from Vladivostok!  How difficult do you think it will be for Russia to supply oil to North Korea, if it isn't doing so already!  Vladivostok is a stone's throw away from North Korea.  Russia is desperate to sell to other countries.  We had a chance to make a deal with Russia on oil back during George W's days.  Putin offered Bush Russian oil but things sort of went sour and a deal was never struck.  Economic sanctions by China and Russia against North Korea?  If you believe that, you must believe in the tooth fairy!  That will never happen in reality, at least not in this century!  It may happen on paper and Russia and China may "claim" that they imposed sanctions, but in reality.........
     In any kind of discussion with North Korea over their nuclear program, China and Russia must participate, but so does Japan, South Korea, and the U.S.  That is a given, because all those countries are very close to each other.  But to expect Russia and China to step up and pull North Korea's teeth?  That isn't going to happen.  Keep in mind that both China and Russia were directly involved in the Korean War.  There were more Chinese troops on the ground after November 1950 than North Korean troops!  The core cadre of North Korean Army was Russian, there were many Korean Russians in key positions including the Army Chief of Staff Nam Il, who was a major general in the Soviet Red Army, not to mention Kim Il Song himself who was a Brigadier General in the Soviet Red Army!  Many Russian pilots flew MIG-15s in combat against our pilots!  All in all neither Russia nor China want the Korean peninsula to become a democratic state that is more friendly to the U.S. than to them.  Reunification of the two Koreas is not what China and Russia want, unless it will be reunited under North Korean control!  In the same token, it is in their best interest to keep North Korea strong, a threat in the region!
     Just what are we going to do now?  Trump says that he is not ruling out military action at this time.  That could be just tough talk.  We haven't taken any military action before when North Korea's actions cost American lives.  I would be very surprised if we did anything now.  So, like a good soap opera, the North Korean saga keeps churning on and on.  Sadly, I think that unless we really do something, it will blow up in our face one day soon.  But if we do take military action, we risk Korean War II, not World War III as some alarmists suggest.  But even if the war is confined just to that peninsula as it did before, it would be devastating, not just to North Korea but South Korea as well.  South Korean capital Seoul is some 36 odd miles south of the DMZ.  North Korea doesn't even need nuclear weapons to devastate that city, conventional rockets and missiles could do tremendous damage.  Of course, in retaliation, South Korea and U.S. would probably destroy most of North Korea.  I know there are a lot of FB postings about reducing North Korea to ashes, etc.  But that is not the answer.
     The best solution to the whole situation is if somehow the two Koreas got together and came up with a plan for peaceful reunification which would lead to free elections.  This was what was supposed to happen in 1947 when North Korea decided not to play and took all its marbles home only to launch an invasion of the south three years later.  South Korea is desperately hoping to settle the problem of divided Korea by peaceful reunification.  This is what the UN and all the other world powers should push for.  However, everyone has their own agenda and two of the most powerful countries, China and Russia, do not want to see a united Korea.  They know that should reunification take place, despite initial economic and political chaos, a democratic form of government will prevail.  If that happens, then both China and Russia will lose their influence, such as it is, over Korea.  Right now, at least they have some influence over North Korea and are enjoying economic benefits of trading with a developed South Korea.

Women Shooters

     Because firearms (guns) are mostly seen as weapons of war or tools for hunting, which has been in the male domain, women are usually not thought of as being capable shooters, users of guns.  In the last two decades, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of women who have taken up hunting, and even more women buying guns not just for recreation, but for self protection.  In fact, handgun sales for self defense have become a huge business, and a great percentage of these guns are now being sold to women.
     Just to set the record straight, for those who are unfamiliar, guns are not used only for warfare or hunting.  Generally speaking, more guns are used for recreational purposes than most people realize.  But, today self defense has become a huge factor in gun ownership in America.  There is no doubt that America is the largest user of firearms in the world, especially when it comes to recreational use such as hunting and target shooting.  There are more forms of target shooting than shooting at paper bull's-eye.  There are clay targets, there are steel targets....all sorts of targets for all forms of shooting for rifles, shotguns, and handguns.  Americans love shooting sports, and most own guns for this purpose more than any other.  But with increasing crime, more and more people today, women in particular, acquire guns for self protection.
     Perhaps the best known American female shooter was the great Annie Oakley of the 19th and early 20th Century.  Annie Oakley was a phenomenal shot with either rifle, shotgun, or pistol.  She performed for the Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and was known to beat men in shooting matches.  However, in America, someone like Annie Oakley was considered an exception.  Women as a rule were not considered to be suited for shooting, something that everyone thought was a "manly" skill or ability!  We seemed to have developed a somewhat skewed view of shooting and women, despite people like Annie Oakley who proved otherwise!  But, I believe that attitude and view is changing. 
     In the last Summer Olympics (2016), Kim Rhodes, an American woman shooter set the Olympic record by winning her sixth medal in six consecutive Olympics!  She won her first Olympic medal, a gold medal in Skeet in the 1996 Olympics.  Since 1996, she has  won a medal in each subsequent Olympics for a total of six, three golds, one silver, and two bronze!  No one has been able to accomplish such a feat, not in any sport or any country!  Yet, how many Americans have heard of Kim Rhodes?  A pity!  Anti-gun sentiment can sometimes go too far!
     Russia, during World War Two, trained and deployed 2000 female snipers.  Some of them were as good, if not better than their male counterparts.  The Russian trainers said that women were easier to train and had the right temperament for shooting!  Men tend to rush things and show less patience! 
     With the increase in women buying guns for self defense in America, the business of teaching shooting handguns for self defense has become a big business.  My brother Jim, who retired here in Arizona after more than 30 years with law enforcement in California, teaches CCW (Concealed Carry Weapons) classes at one of the local gun shops.  The business is booming and more than 50% of his students are women!  He tells me that women are a lot easier to teach!  Men tend to think they know everything already and don't take instructions as well as women!  He has been doing this for more than 15 years now and is convinced that women are not only better students, but make better shots!
     I don't have the experience that my brother has, teaching shooting to men or women!  My first experience teaching a woman to shoot took place in 1967.  About a year after Jo and I got married on Okinawa, I took up hunting again, which I had not done for more than 5 years.  Jo wanted to go hunting with me so I decided to teach her to shoot.  It was a fairly straight forward and easy process, so I thought nothing of it.  I basically showed her how to hold a shotgun properly, how to point it at a target and swing the gun with the moving target.  I stressed the safety factor and she seemed to grasp it readily.  We shot skeet at Keystone Gun Club which was located in Mercy area.  Jo shot skeet decently, no Annie Oakley, but good enough.  We went hunting and to my surprise she was able to hit flying birds.  Since that time we hunted together on and off, in the states as well as overseas.
     My next teaching opportunity came with our children.  I taught our son Tony gun safety and shooting at an early age, when he was about 5.  Tony listened to my instructions and followed them as much as he could.  But as boys will, he did go off on his own "style" now and then and developed his own shooting technique.  When his sister turned 5, I started her with the same small BB gun that I had originally gotten for Tony.  Natalie picked up shooting quickly and was outshooting neighborhood boys her age!  We lived in a rural area at that time and all the neighborhood kids had access to BB guns etc.  So Natalie was often involved with boys shooting.  She was the only girl in that area!  When they got older, I started them on shotguns and clay targets.  I noticed immediately that Natalie was a better shot than Tony.  She followed my instructions faithfully, while Tony tended to go off on his own and would get frustrated when he started missing while his sister was breaking targets!  I didn't think much of it at the time.  I wasn't trying to make champion shooters out of my kids, just wanted them to be familiar with guns.
     Many years later, I started my grand kids with shooting.  Again, it wasn't to make them avid shooters or hunters.  I just felt that as with their mother when she was little, they should become familiar with firearms.  I started them with the same BB gun that I used to start Tony and Natalie.  At the time, there was a physical difference in size that was considerable.  My oldest grand child, Claudia, was bigger than her brother David and the youngest, Liam.  She was able to handle the BB gun easier.  But once again I noted that like her mother, she followed my instruction more carefully while the boys sort of "winged it."  As they grew older, I switched them to .22s and finally to shotguns.  I took Claudia and her two brothers who were now much bigger, and Natalie, their mother, to shoot clay targets.  Natalie didn't forget her instructions from the past and shot fairly well.  Claudia, who was shooting a shotgun for the first time followed my instructions carefully and was soon busting those clay pigeons as well as her mom.  The boys did not fare as well.  I believe the boys would have done much better if:  1.  They were not shooting with their mom and sister.  2.  If they were instructed by someone who was more authoritarian, like a Drill Instructor!
     Whatever the case may be, I found my somewhat limited experience in teaching women to shoot very interesting.

The "Han River Miracle"

     The "Han River Miracle" is what brought South Korea into the modern world and has propelled it even beyond some of the developed countries that were ahead of it before.  Supposedly the "Han River Miracle" began in the 1980s when the South Korean government went all out to help its struggling businesses and industry to develop.  It seems that almost overnight South Korea developed an automotive and electronics industry that has now become a serious rival to Japanese companies that have dominated the world market.  Prior to "Han River Miracle," South Korea, having been devastated during the Korean War, was one of the struggling, poor countries in the world, far behind many developed nations.  Japan was literally light years ahead in development.  All that has changed in a remarkably short time.  By the 1990s South Korea was seriously beginning to compete with Japan for its automotive and electronic share of the world market, especially in Asia.  South Korea also emerged as the leading shipbuilder in the world!
     As the economic miracle began to raise South Korea's GNP and the earning power of average South Korean, the city of Seoul naturally began to spread, increase in its size.  Prior to the start of the so-called "Han River Miracle," the city limits of Seoul ended just short of Han River, which in Korean is called Hangang ("gang" in Korean is river, like "gawa" in Japanese).  It seems that the popular form of referring to Han River is Hangang River, which is wrong.  That is like saying Han River River!  But be that as it may, whether it is called Han River or Hangang River in English, it is a river that has always been an important part of Korean history in one form or another.  The capital city of Seoul was build close to its shores because of the importance of Han River as a transportation route, and the industrial miracle of South Korea began on its shores.
     Through the 1970s, the city of Seoul ended its limit at the Han River shore.  But with the sudden birth of industries, new factories and office buildings, more space was needed so the city of Seoul began to spread outward in every direction, except north.  Going north would have put the city even closer than it is now, to the DMZ and North Korea!  Within a decade, the city of Seoul spread across the river and in every direction.  So now, the city occupies both banks of the river, stretching southwest almost to the city of Suwon, while former towns such as Yongdonpo, Kimpo, and Yijongbu, just to name a few that used be towns on the outskirts, have become part of the city of Seoul.  The city of Seoul has grown rapidly, both in size and population!  A friend of mine who was in Seoul in the early 1970s used to go duck hunting on the shores of Han River where now high rise buildings stand!
     I last visited Seoul, South Korea in April of 1993, some 25 years ago.  I was astounded at how modern the city had become with high rise buildings, glitzy electronic signs, and heavy traffic.  A friend who was transferred to Seoul from Tokyo in 1980 told me that Seoul seemed like a small town compared to Tokyo at that time!  By 1993 when I visited, Seoul was close to catching up with Tokyo, it no longer was like a small town!  I can well imagine what it must be like today, 25 years later!
     Back in March, I did a blog called "SNAFU, BUBAR - Still Taking Place!"  In that blog I talked about the screw-ups that our military seems to continue to do throughout the years, no doubt dating back to the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War!  I ended that blog by recounting my personal experience of having flown from very hot, tropical Philippines in the month of February and making a parachute jump with my unit over semi frozen shores of Han River.  Well, that particular shore area where we made the jump was a regular drop zone for the military use in those days.  South Korean troops as well as U.S. troops used that particular shore area as a drop zone for military training.  It was one of the areas along Han River that had the widest expanse of sandy beach along all of the shoreline.  Despite the frigid conditions, I did note that it was indeed a beautiful area with very unusual expanse of sandy shore.  Well, you guessed it.  Today it is part of the Han River Park, much of it paved over and turned into a vast area for people to use for various activities.  How time changes, or is it that I am so damn old?  After all, I made that jump in February of 1964, that is some 53 years ago, more than a half a century!  I guess time does change things, nothing is the same.

Double Standard

     As readers of my blog may have noted, I have refrained from writing about the current political situation in America.  Earlier, after Trump was elected and anti-Trump factions launched their campaign to discredit and smear Trump, on anything and everything, I said that we should wait and see how his tenure pans out before criticizing his decisions and his administration.  However, the anti-Trump campaign has gone on unabated.  There is, of course, room for criticism of any administration, and Trump's administration is no exception.  There have been many cases and instances where I felt Trump and his administration deserved criticism.  But what has been going on so far is unprecedented, vicious attacks that definitely show a strong double standard.  For the very same gaffs or missteps, Obama and Clinton were never criticized.
     Always, in the past, if a President had committed some major gaff, after some initial criticism, it was more or less quietly swept aside with the explanation that it was for the good of the nation, that it would not be good for America to create a big mess, etc.  The one exception was Nixon who was forced to resign after the Watergate incident.  Still, Gerald Ford pardoned him, saying it was best for the nation to start healing!  But such is not the case with Trump.  The media in particular has been especially vicious in attacking Trump, taking their "gloves off," so to speak, and piling-on.  It was always taboo for the media or anyone else to pick on the President's family, the children in particular.  Yet, there have been some vicious attacks aimed at Trump's youngest child, and everyone seems to just accept it.  Do you recall such attacks aimed at Obama's daughters?  At Chelsea Clinton?  Why is there a double standard?  Why is it OK to pick on Trump's boy but it was taboo to do so against Obama's or Clinton's kids?
     The Russian attempt to mess with our elections is a serious thing, and had they succeeded in anyway to interfere with our process, it would have been a very grave situation.  But it is apparent that they did not succeed and the whole thing is over at this point.  Yet, we are continuing on with the investigation, taking a different route, and have brought in a special prosecutor, former FBI Director, Robert Mueller.  Mueller is charged with trying to uncover any possible ties that Trump and some of his administration members may have with Russia.  This, in my opinion, is "Joe McCarthyism, the Commie Hunt of 1950s" all over again!  That exercise proved to be not only wasteful, but McCarthy was proven to be a self promoting phony who looked for commies under every bed!  I am not suggesting that Mueller is a phony, but I believe that the whole investigation could have been conducted with much less fanfare and money!  Mueller so far has hired more than a dozen high powered lawyers.  Do you think they are working for free?  Who do you think is paying for all those lawyers and their very expensive fees?
     Ironically, I believe it is the liberal left that is looking for Trump and some of his staff's "ties with Russia" in this very expensive and time consuming investigation.  I do not believe that Trump or anyone else has any so-called "ties" with Russia.  There may have been meetings and discussions, such as what happened to the short-lived National Security Advisor.  But actual ties, I don't think so.  I would be very surprised if there were ties.  However, why doesn't anyone look into Clinton Foundations financial records?  Russian money is definitely involved.  But of course no one is even suggesting looking into the financial records of possibly the most corrupt political couple in our history Bill and Hillary Clinton!
     I am truly puzzled as to why the people who elected Trump are keeping quiet while those who supported Hillary and Bernie are lashing out in every way possible to discredit Trump.  Why isn't there a move to discredit Hillary or some of the others who are now involved in this hatred and revenge campaign?  It seems that those who are bound and determined to bring down Trump are really not concerned about this nation.  Much of this hatred that is directed at Trump is of personal nature.  Just look at the political cartoons that constantly appear with insulting caricatures of Trump.  Had such caricatures appeared on Obama, there would have been such an outcry of "racism" that the offending publication and the artist would have had to offer a public apology.  It has become a very personal vendetta, and it has even trickled down to affect other areas of our society.  Just look at what has been going on about the removal of Confederate monuments!  Those statues of Confederate soldiers is a reminder of our past, our history.  Removing them is exactly the same as what the Taliban was doing with those ancient statues and structures when they were destroying them!
     It is one thing to bring down the statue of a hated dictator like Stalin or Saddam Hussein, but a statue of Robert E. Lee or Stonewall Jackson?  If removing these statues is for the purpose of removing reminders of a painful past, then we should simply remove anything to do with the Civil War and the slave era in the South.  We should burn all books and material that remind us of that "painful past"! What has happened in our society is that the few now dictate what they want and the majority is just keeping mum.  I realize that the world has changed, that people have changed with time.  But that doesn't mean that the change is for better.  Just because it is new and now "acceptable", it doesn't mean it is better. 
     Europe, including UK, is now paying for its liberalism, for allowing minorities to become the majority!  I won't go into details, but I think most people know what I am talking about.  America, it seems, is not far behind, and we are doing it now to our own detriment.  This Russian "witch hunt" and the hatred campaign against Trump isn't just going to harm Trump and his administration, it is going to harm our entire country.  Trump and some of his administration members may indeed be guilty of "ties with Russia."  But these aren't "ties" that will bring down this country.  Throughout history there were always "ties" among members of opposing governments involved in an ideological, economic, or actual war.  But that was never what caused the downfall of that particular state.  If majority of Americans continue to just sit by and watch the minority continue to make demands and changes, America as we know it will no longer exist.

A Double or Triple Agent?

     Spy novels and Hollywood movies are full of stories about so-called "double agents,"  those spies that are supposedly working for one side, but in fact are working for the other side.  This was an especially popular vehicle for spy novels during the cold war era.  Someone who was working for the "West" was in fact a "plant" or a "mole" for one of the communist bloc country's intelligence agencies.  Usually this played out in the form of a "mole" in the CIA who was leaking information to the Soviets and causing all sorts of problems.  As far fetched as some of these stories were, there were in fact many double agents during the cold war era and no doubt are still many such cases in existence, although the cold war is supposedly no more.  However, they were not "double agents" in a strict sense.  They were simply Soviet moles or Soviet spies.
     Some of the more infamous cases of Soviet agents involved the British MI6 in the 1950s and 60s when a bunch of MI6 officers, known as the "Cambridge Five" were discovered to be actually working for the Soviet Union's KGB or the GRU.  The worst case was that of Kim Philby (part of that Cambridge Five), who rose to a very high position within MI6 and worked as the head of the liaison between MI6 and CIA in Washington for counterintelligence.  He, like most of his compatriots in similar position, managed to escape capture and ended up living out their lives in Moscow after escaping from the West.  These British spies did tremendous damage to Western intelligence and are often referred to as "double agents."  They were not "double agents"!  They were officers of the MI6 but agents of the Soviet Union.  For us, the Aldrich Ames case was a bad one, possibly the worst case involving a CIA Officer.  But, like the infamous Brits, he was not double agents, he was simply an agent for the Soviet Union.  Unlike the Brits, who were communists, Ames did his spying for money!
     A true double agent would be someone who is supposedly spying for one side, but is in fact spying for the other side.  In other words, if someone is hired by country A to spy on country B, but is in fact spying for country B, then that individual is a double agent.  A CIA officer or an FBI Special Agent who is paid by a foreign country to provide information to them is a foreign spy, not a double agent.  But, if that same CIA officer or FBI Special Agent is in fact still loyal to the U.S. and is only pretending to be working for the foreign interest, then he or she is a double agent.  So, although the cases of true double agents are not that common, they do exist.  Far more complicated and more rare are cases involving "triple agents."  Those are the extremely rare cases involving individuals who are hired by country A to spy on country B but are in fact providing information to country B, but are still actually working for country A.  This all sounds very confusing and complicated, and it is to some extent.  The individual involved has to be extremely crafty and good at providing selective information to one side while gathering and providing more important information to the other side.  True cases of triple agents are very rare and very few survive for very long doing this extremely dangerous work.
     In my lifetime, I knew of only one person who was a double, possibly a triple agent and survived performing this extremely dangerous work mainly because of his very high intelligence and exceptional ability to "read" other people.  It all started for this man in a very unusual, almost adventure novel style of beginning.  He was a son of a wealthy Russian family who had to flee Vladivostok after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.  He was but a mere babe at the time when his large family fled Russia and settled in what is now North Korea.  His family consisted of his father and mother and three brothers and sisters as well as some aunts, uncles and cousins. 
     Korea was a Japanese colony at the time, so naturally the family had to learn to get along with the Japanese.  Since they had money, they were able to settle comfortably in a large estate and ran a very successful resort for wealthy people.  Japanese nannies were hired to take care of the small children, so all the children grew up speaking Japanese as well as Korean fluently.  But, their good life came to an end when the Soviets entered and occupied North Korea in 1945.  Immediately, all of the men, his father and his two brothers were arrested, and even though the younger men had no political affiliations, they were all considered enemies of the State.  However, the Soviets saw the possibility of using the younger men to their advantage. 
     Initially, they were all hired to work for Soviet intelligence to interrogate Japanese and Korean prisoners.  But as soon as the occupation era was over, roughly after one year, the father and the oldest and youngest brother were sent off to Siberia along with uncles and cousins and even some women.  The middle brother was kept in Korea for a short while.  He was the only one of the three brothers who had gone to school in Shanghai and was fluent in English.  So, the Soviets offered him a deal.  If he went to South Korea which was under U.S. occupation, and went to work for the U.S., he could spy for the Soviets.  In return, his father and brothers as well as other relatives will be spared.  It wasn't much of choice, so he took it.
     As soon as he ended up in the south, he went directly to the U.S. military intelligence (G2) and told them that he had been instructed by the Soviets to gain employment and spy for them.  After a lengthy interrogation session, he was given a clearance by the U.S. intelligence and hired to work for G2.  As he was instructed by the Soviet GRU (military intelligence), he made contact with his Soviet handler (case officer) and duly reported intelligence that he gathered.  A year after his employment, in 1947 a new intelligence organization, the CIA was formed and he became an employee of the CIA.
The GRU was no doubt very happy that they had a man in CIA, but what they didn't know was that he was giving CIA intelligence that he gathered through his Soviet handler.  He provided the Soviets with juicy bits of intelligence, just enough to keep them interested.  In the meantime, he was able to give CIA detailed information on Soviet network in Korea, contacts, etc.
     Within a year after his arrival in the south, he learned that his father and younger brother had been executed.  Only his older brother was still in the Gulag.  Yet, his Soviet handler kept telling him that everyone was alive and well.  He continued to pretend to believe his Soviet handler and continued to give him bits of information.  In the meantime, he also provided the CIA with all the information that he could gather through his handler.  During the Korean War his contact with his handler was broken and he, after working in Korea for a while, was moved to Tokyo.  In Tokyo he reestablished contact with the Soviets and continued on with the very dangerous game.  Eventually he left the employment of CIA and went to work for a private company and had a very successful career.  What was fascinating about his work with GRU-CIA, was that apparently the Soviets never suspected in all those years that he was feeding them information that was carefully selected and provided by CIA.  There was just enough "real stuff" in the information to keep the Soviet interest, and at the same time there was "misinformation" that would delay and sometime sabotage Soviet efforts.
     Was he a double or a triple agent?  Its hard to say.  Obviously the information that he provided to both sides satisfied each side.  One thing is for certain, he was an ultimate survivor!  Interestingly, when he finally left CIA and went to work for a private company, the company, a U.S. electronics firm, ended up making him one of the top executives in their Tokyo office, which was understandable because of his native level fluency in Japanese.  What was interesting was that this company was a DOD contractor (still is!) and was heavily involved in our Space Program at the time.  I wonder if he still had contact with intelligence communities?
    

Fading Memory of World War Two

     As time marches on, it is only natural that memory would become fainter.  It is, therefore, not surprising that the memory of World War Two begins to fade, especially since survivors of that war, both veterans and those who stayed at home, are fast disappearing with the passage of time.  Each year, it seems, that the 6th of June, the date of the great D-Day Invasion, becomes less and less prominent in the newspaper headlines and TV coverage.  To be sure there are still bits and pieces in newspaper about D-Day and its veterans, and TV does still provide its usual fare of Hollywood movies about World War Two and D-Day to commemorate this day.  For all practical purposes, in the minds of most Americans, D-Day the 6th of June, represents the Second World War, most especially in the European Theater of Operation!
     There is no denying that the D-Day invasion was a tremendous effort with the largest assembled invasion fleet in the history of world's warfare.  It was indeed a monumental effort and a gigantic scale military operation.  Many brave men and women lost their lives in this giant, never before attempted military operation in history.  But not to take anything away from those who participated in the D-Day operation or paid with their lives during the invasion, but D-Day was not the biggest nor the bloodiest invasion of World War Two.  That credit has to go to the very last land battle that was fought by American troops in the Pacific, the Battle of Okinawa.
     For comparison purposes, let's just look at the numbers, the troop strengths and casualties of both battles.  The D-Day Invasion took place on June 6th 1944 and did not end until the last objective of the invasion was attained on July 21st 1944, so it lasted a little over a month and a half.  There were 156,000 U.S. troops and 83,115 allied troops (mostly British) faced approximately 50,300 German forces.  There were 10,000 casualties with 4,414 dead for the allies.  German figures ran higher, somewhere between 20,000 to 30,000 dead and wounded, no accurate figure is available. 
    The Battle of Okinawa began on April 1, 1945 and lasted until June 22, 1945, a month longer than the D-Day Invasion.  U.S. Forces consisted of 500,000 Army and Marine ground troops, plus Navy (US and British), more than twice the number of D-Day Invasion, that suffered more deaths than total number of casualties for D-Day!  There were 12,520 combat deaths with 55,000 wounded for a total of 67,520 casualties on Okinawa!  Japanese forces consisted of 86,000 men and they suffered 77,166 dead!  But the worst part was the civilian (Okinawan) casualties.  There were approximately 150,000 Okinawan civilians killed out of a total population of 300,000.  In other words, half of the civilian population on Okinawa was killed in the bombings and other war related activities!  The figure of 150,000 dead is disputed by some who claim it is much higher, more like 200,000!  So, as you can see, the last land battle in the Pacific was much costlier in terms of human lives for both sides, but especially for Okinawan population!
     Then there is still the actual very last land battle in Asia during World War Two that was the Soviet Invasion of Manchuria.  Now, I know that some of our historians derisively refer to Soviet Invasion as simply an opportunistic move by Stalin to grab some territory, since the invasion took place after we dropped the bomb in Hiroshima, but before Nagasaki.  However, the Invasion of Manchuria by the Soviets was agreed upon by Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill much earlier.  The date of the invasion was chosen by all parties, and the 9th of August was selected.  We dropped the bomb on Hiroshima without informing the Soviets!  The Soviets had planned the invasion of Manchuria for months.  It was important to neutralize or destroy the Japanese Kwantung Army, the Manchurian Army, which was arguably the largest and the best in the Japanese Imperial Army.  The Japanese kept the Kwantung Army in reserve to protect the homeland, and although troops were pulled from the Kwantung Army periodically to replenish the units in other places in the Pacific, for the most part the Japanese tried to keep the Kwantung Army intact.
     The Soviet Union invaded Manchuria on August 9, 1945 in a multi-pronged attack with 1,577,725 troops.  The Japanese Kwantung Army was at the time just shy of one million at 927,729 men, just below its normal strength of around 1.2 million troops.  Still, it was obviously a sizable and a potent force.  It would have been very costly for the U.S. had we made a Japanese homeland invasion as it was planned.  Combined with troops stationed in Korea and in Japanese homeland, we would have faced about a 2 million man army!
     The vicious fighting in Manchuria lasted until September 25, 1945, well after Japan had surrendered.  Although it became obvious that the Soviets were steamrolling through Manchuria, many Kwantung Army units refused to surrender!  Soviet Union lost 11,033 men in that period while the Japanese lost 21,389 men.  The rest, including the commanding officer of the Kwantung Army, were taken as POW and put in Soviet slave labor camps in Siberia!  Combined with the destruction of the Kwantung Army and the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, it became very clear to the Japanese leaders that the war was completely lost. 
     For years, our historians refused to give Soviets any credit for contributing to the Japanese surrender.  Japanese, however, have always maintained that the destruction of the Kwantung Army was a major factor in their decision to surrender.  The Kwantung Army was their last hope!
     So, as you can see, the D-Day was a major event that started the ending of the war in Europe, and it was a huge endeavor by the allied troops.  But, it wasn't the only "invasion" that helped to end the war completely, i.e., the war in the Pacific.  For us, the Battle of Okinawa was the bloodiest of all in World War Two, and the Soviet Invasion of Manchuria did play a part in ending the war in the Pacific.

Understanding Russian Mentality

     Six days ago I posted a blog about understanding North Korean mentality.  In it, I talked about the fact that revenge seemed to be a very important factor in anything to do with dealing with North Korean thinking.  Korean mentality, north and south, has strong cultural ties to the business of avenging an affront or wrong doing.  You can see this even in old folk tales.  Just look at today's very popular K-dramas.  Like the folk tales, they too predominantly deal with the subject of revenge.  So, North Koreans are culturally bound to feel a need to "avenge" the wrong, the wrong that was carried out by the United States during the war.  We have to understand that part of the Korean mentality to be able to deal, to negotiate.  Russian mentality is different, it does not have the same need for revenge as Korean mentality.  But, it too has its own peculiarities, its own quirks, that are completely different from other cultures.
     It is easy to see Russia and Russians as just "Eastern Europeans,"  i.e., in the same category as other non-Western Europeans.  That is the way Russians are most commonly perceived by Americans.  Europeans, Western Europeans in particular, may have a different view.  But we, being somewhat removed from Europe, both culturally and physically (separated by the Atlantic Ocean) have somewhat of a simplistic view of Russians.  We see them mostly as blonde, blue-eyed, northern European types, which they are indeed to a large extent.  Just walk the streets of a Russian city and you will note that the majority of the population, particularly in the western part of the country, resemble Nordic types.  Of course there is a reason for that.  Russia was settled by Vikings in the early days, so they are descendants of Vikings as much as other ethnic groups.  But that is where the similarity with Scandinavians or other northern Europeans and Russians stops.
     Russia has been isolated from the rest of Europe by the simple fact of its location.  It is essentially located on the eastern edge of Europe.  Aside from its physical isolation, Russia has had a long history of foreign invasions, invasions that brought about destruction and death at a level experienced by very few countries in the world.  Russia's relations with Western European countries has not been all that good.  Historically, various European countries have tried to invade and conquer Russia repeatedly.  Going back to the days of Mongol invasion and conquest of Russia as well as parts of Europe, Russia was under the Mongol yoke longer than any other country.  The Golden Horde ruled over Russia for a long, long time.  Since shedding the Mongol rule, Russia has experience major invasions by various European countries several times in each century.  If we jump to more "recent" times, we find that just about all of Russia's great rulers had to fight off foreign invasions.  Fredrick the Great of Sweden attempted to conquer Russia and caused great destruction and death before he was defeated.  This was followed by Napoleon in his now infamous attempt to conquer Russia.  Again, great suffering by Russian people, many deaths, etc.  In between those two great invasions, there were numerous smaller invasions by various countries, ranging from Lithuania, Poland, and others.  Russia also fought almost repeatedly with the Ottoman Empire, the Turks. 
     The 20th Century saw Russia engaged in World War One against Kaiser of Germany, but there was no invasion of the Motherland, instead, a revolution broke out causing bloodshed and destruction.  The revolution and the civil war that followed lasted into mid 1920s, and less than two decades later Hitler invaded Russia!  This war, World War Two, was a defining war for Russia in the modern era.  What few Americans really realize or think about is the fact that Russia, or the Soviet Union as it was known then, fought all alone for all practical purposes for about a three year period!  Yes, England was engaged in the war and we stepped-in and started with North Africa and later Italy, before actually opening the second front by making the D-Day landing in Normandy.  But we must remember that 75% of Germany's fighting machine was committed to the Eastern Front, to Russia!  The final result, victory for "allies" and defeat of Germany cost us millions upon millions of dollars in war material and other supplies.  We, as a nation had to tighten our belts, women had to go to work in factories because of shortage of manpower.  Certain food items were rationed, there were shortages, but we managed.  We lost 418,000 men and women in the war.  As a result of the war and its finale, America came of age and emerged as the leading economic and military power in the world.  Our homeland was untouched.  Hawaii, not yet a state, was the only place other than the very isolated Aleutian Islands that experienced any destruction and had direct contact with the war.
     Russia, on the other hand, had suffered tremendous destruction and loss.  Cities were completely destroyed, like Stalingrad, and the population suffered unbelievable hardships.  A total of close to 25 million Russians lost their lives during the war.  More than half of those deaths were civilian!  In Leningrad, today's St. Petersburg, more than a million civilians died of starvation and other causes during almost a three year siege!  No country in the world suffered such losses.  Yes, Germany (over 5 million deaths) suffered tremendously, as did Japan (over 2 million deaths).  Japan even had atomic bombs dropped on its two cities.  But over all, no country went through what Russia had gone through during the war.  During the war, Stalin continuously asked Churchill and Roosevelt, his allies, to open a second front to provide relief for the beleaguered Red Army.  But, the second front was delayed for various reasons, one being that Churchill wanted to sap Russia's strength before stepping-in and opening a second front.  Churchill, incidentally, entertained thoughts of pushing on into Russia after defeating Germany!  Stalin and the Russian leaders were keenly aware of this situation.  To say that they didn't trust the allies, i.e., U.S. and U.K. would be an understatement.  The Cold War had started before World War Two ended!
     Throughout its history, Russia saw Western Europe betray or go against Russia's wishes or wants.  The Crimean War (1853-56) was fought between Russia and England.  The Russo-Japanese War (1905) ended in a stalemate but the subsequent peace treaty brokered by the U.S. (Teddy Roosevelt) forced Russia into making many concessions, giving up its rights in Manchuria and Korea.  Roosevelt did not want the Russian Empire to expand and used the opportunity to lessen Russia's influence in the Far East.  During Russian Civil War both U.S. and U.K. sent expeditionary forces to Russia, to European Russia (Archangelsk) known as the Polar Bear Expedition and to Far Eastern Russia, Vladivostok.  Russian lives were lost at the hands of British and American troops.  There were countless other incidents and conflicts in which Russia was cast as an opponent by Western European countries.  Great Britain and the British Empire was the dominant power in the 19th Century while the 20th Century belonged to the United States.  Russia, has seen both Great Britain and the United States as its greatest adversaries for its own advancement and a rightful place in the world.
     When Gorbachev lost control of his government and Soviet Union fell apart, many Russians thought that this would be the time when America would step-in with help for Russia to establish a new democratic system.  But what happened instead was that only capitalists with business interests showed up to try to take advantage of the chaos and gain concessions.  As far as help to establish a new system, it didn't materialize.  Also, rather than welcoming the fact that communism had collapsed and had been ousted, there was still a show of strong mistrust on the U.S. and U.K. side, alienating Russia by not allowing it to become a partner in NATO.  Although NATO was originally established to fight the Soviet Bloc, since the Soviet Union was no more, many Russians naively thought that they could now be a part of the rest of Europe and not worry about any kind of a military alliance.  Instead, what we did was allow many of the former Soviet Bloc countries to become a part of NATO, building even a bigger bloc of countries that would now be part of an alliance against Russia!  Whether correctly or not, Russians see this as an act of adding insult to injury.  Russia's mistrust of the West has been around for a long time, and what we did after the collapse of the Soviet Union simply validated their belief that the West, the U.S. and U.K. in particular, was not to be trusted. 
     Most Western Europeans have never seen Russians as fellow Europeans.  Russians were always thought of as Eurasians or something of that nature.  They were not true Europeans.  They were crude, unlike the rest of the Western Europeans, therefore, Russia was not Europe, never was, never will be.  Russians are keenly aware of this attitude found in Europe.  They also believe that the British and Americans feel the same way.  During the height of the Soviet power, Russians were proud because they felt that the rest of the world had to contend with them.  Today, they feel as if no one really has any respect for Russia.  Putin, with his tough talk and military build-up has managed to regain some of that old "respect", or at least that is what some Russians believe.  That is why he can still stay in power.  If you ask an average Russian on the street what they think about Putin, that is what they will say.  They may not like him, but they will say that he has managed to gain Russia some respect in the world.
     What Putin has done and is doing is essentially taking Russia into the "empire mode."  What he is saying to the world is that, since you won't show us respect and accept us (admittance into NATO, etc.), we will take what we want.  Thus, he took Crimea and eastern part of Ukraine.  We Americans may not realize it or see it that way, but Russians seem to feel that we look down upon them.  They often say that it is an Anglo-Saxon trait to look down upon everyone, something that Great Britain was known for during its British Empire days.  America being an Anglo-Saxon nation, both the U.K. and the U.S. is seen by the Russians as being literally the same when it comes to attitude and mentality.  It is a simplistic view, but that is how the average Russian sees us.  Unfortunately, there is some truth in this.  Many of our so-called "experts" on Russia, the ones who advised the President, were also Russian haters!  Zbigniew Brzezinski was considered a Soviet expert and he openly hated Russians.  Condoleeza Rice may be a Soviet expert, put she clearly showed her dislike for Russians.
     If we are to successfully deal with Russians, we need to get off the high horse and try to deal with Russia earnestly.  I may personally dislike Tillerson, but if there is one man that seems to be able to get through to Russians it is our current Secretary of State.  Tillerson may have learned to deal with Russians and understands their mentality because of his experience in business dealings in Russia.  He apparently was highly successful as a businessman in Russia, so, it wouldn't be a stretch to think that he understands Russian mentality.  To deal successfully with Russians, like with anyone else, you have to win their trust first.  To win their trust, we have to show them by making concessions in certain areas that many may consider to be too much!  But having had the history that we have with Russia, the only way that we can deal with them is first win their trust!