The subject is North Korea.  An interesting conversation at the John Batchelor Show: Gordon Chang, in discussing a piece he wrote at the Daily Beast regarding North Korea and the seeming inevitability of war; I paraphrase the concluding remarks:

Thaddaeus McCotter: let me be sure I understand you: there are means at our disposal to pressure communist China to stop their client state from developing nuclear weapons and generally being a rogue state, but there seems to be a lack of political will [within the US] to do that so instead they are willing to risk American soldiers’ lives to stop him?

War is a Racket: The A... Butler, Smedley D. Best Price: $2.55 Buy New $7.01 (as of 05:45 UTC - Details) I will interject – the number of “American soldiers’ lives” at risk will be a rounding error in this one.  More numerous will be the lives of millions, if not tens of millions of Koreans, potentially Japanese, and depending on how far things go, all of us.

Gordon Chang: that is 100% accurate description of my feelings right now.  The threshold for war is lower than the threshold for taking effective non-kinetic actions in stopping North Korea.

He speaks of taking on the Bank of China, etc.  But American business interests are not supportive of such steps.

McCotter sums it up: from the Leninist / communist China point of view, they believe that greedy capitalists care more about money than the lives of their soldiers, and “God forbid we prove them right!”

The last part, a direct quote, with disdain in his voice.

But he is right. It has always been true. Ask General Smedley Butler.

Time to buy old US gold coins

Reprinted with permission from Bionic Mosquito.

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