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I have had several congratulatory messages concerning this essay of mine on North Korea:
Block, Walter E. 2018. “Dealing With North Korea.” January 1;
Most of them limited themselves to thanking me; one even nominated me for Secretary of State. This one, however, is very substantive, very important. It has the ring of truth. I urge everyone to read this insightful message:
—–Original Message—–
From: E
Sent: Monday, January 01, 2018 4:20 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: war is a racket
Dear Dr. Block:
I applaud your proposal for a new peace with N. Korea. Unfortunately, I don’t believe it is possible because there is too much money to be made by those who are in the business of wars in far off lands. In the 1990’s I worked for a NASA lab that created a computer war game simulation. Every 6 months or so, I and dozens of others would travel to Seoul for wargames with the S. Koreans and Americans. I was there to monitor their computer networks, which were somewhat flakey. I spent 3 weeks at the US base in Seoul. This base is about 1×1 mile and has a hotel, several fancy restaurants, a bowling alley, football and baseball fields, etc. Since the on-base hotel was full, I was put up at the Hilton Hotel in a private room. All my expenses were paid for; I could ride a free bus from the hotel to the base, or hire a cab and be reimbursed. In addition to all this, I was also getting $105 CASH per diem, to spend on anything I wanted or just save tax free. And that’s in 1990, when $105 was still a lot of dough. I had such a great time, I asked to be sent back.
However, instead they next sent me to Germany at a place called, get this: “The Warrior Preparation Center”. The networks there were much better and I didn’t need to do anything. I asked if I could go home early, but they said no and told me to just go have fun. I spent much of my time touring Europe in my rental car. Driving the Autobahn at 110 mph was quite an adventure. I was set up at a nice place that served free breakfast. At night, I would go to various fancy restaurants with my co-workers. I could also go onto the air-force base next store and buy gas for my car at 20% of the cost outside, thus saving my per diem for more enjoyable things. All this, of course, was on the taxpayer’s nickel. For this reason, I don’t think you will ever see peace in your time or even our children’s time. There simply is too much money to be made. As S. Butler said, “War is a racket”. Regards, E
7:47 pm on January 1, 2018
