[Peace-discuss] Tim Shorrock on Korea & American pundits

[David Green]

No, still good on Korea and Israel;  not so good on Syria & Russiagate.

On Tue, May 1, 2018 at 1:31 PM, Brussel, Morton K <brussel at illinois.edu>
wrote:

> So Democracy Now! has not completely gone off the rails…
>
> On May 1, 2018, at 10:55 AM, David Green via Peace-discuss <
> peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
>
> *AMY GOODMAN:* Let me ask you about the issue of media coverage of the
> possible rapprochement on the Korean Peninsula. In a recent article
> <https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/28/us/politics/trump-north-korea.html>
> in *The New York Times* headlined “As Two Koreas Talk Peace, Trump’s
> Bargaining Chips Slip Away,” Mark Landler expressed skepticism that the
> meeting between the South and North Korean leaders could be beneficial to
> the U.S., concluding, quote, “The talk of peace is likely to weaken the two
> levers that Mr. Trump used to pressure Mr. Kim to come to the bargaining
> table. A resumption of regular diplomatic exchanges between the two Koreas,
> analysts said, will inevitably erode the crippling economic sanctions
> against the North, while Mr. Trump will find it hard to threaten military
> action against a country that is extending an olive branch,” unquote.
> Meanwhile, Brookings Institution senior fellow Michael O’Hanlon had this to
> say on Friday.
>
> *MICHAEL O’HANLON:* President Trump’s going to have to rein in his more
> ambitious goals and yet still drive a relatively hard line and not give
> away too much for an interim or partial agreement. … The denuclearization
> idea, however, is a long ways from even getting seriously started, because
> we’ve heard this kind of talk before. We know that North Korea means
> something else by the concept of denuclearization than we think we hear
> with our Western ears. And I haven’t seen even any realistic discussion of
> what would be the first steps or any kind of an interim deal along the way.
>
> *AMY GOODMAN:* Tim Shorrock, your response to all of these comments?
>
> *TIM SHORROCK:* Well, Michael O’Hanlon has been so wrong on so many
> things, like Iraq and Afghanistan, for so long, I don’t know why anybody is
> listening to him. But he’s completely wrong. He apparently has not read
> this Panmunjom Declaration, for one thing.
>
> But let me get back to that *Times* piece. I mean, you know, I quoted
> from that—I quote from that in my next article and my last one in *The
> Nation*. I also talked about his reporting. I mean, that statement, that
> somehow it comes out that, you know, a peace agreement is bad for the U.S.
> national security because it will prevent Trump from taking military
> action, what kind of talk is that for a reporter? He depends on all the
> establishment, you know, pundits and experts in town, rounds them all up to
> make this analysis.
>
> It’s just amazing to me to see the Washington consensus. I mean, people
> here in Washington, in the press and in the pundit class, they make fun of
> North Korea for being this totalitarian state where everyone thinks the
> same and has to do what the leader says. Well, the lockstep groupthink here
> in Washington is very similar. It’s just they all say the same thing. You
> can read the same analysis that you just heard from Brookings, that you
> just saw in *The New York Times*, you can see that, you know, in * Post*,
> in all these hot takes that appear in the *Post*, * The Atlantic*, *The
> New Yorker*. Everybody thinks the same way in this pundit class here in
> Washington.
>
> Nobody takes Korea, South Korea, seriously, nobody takes North Korea
> seriously, that South Korea and North Korea mapped out a procedure, a plan,
> to denuclearize and to decompress and to move toward a peace regime and
> decrease the tensions. And South Korea took steps today, for example, that
> they said they were going to end all hostile acts. One of those hostile
> acts is these huge speakers they have set up in the DMZ to broadcast
> propaganda and broadcast K-pop into North Korea. They’re taking them down
> today. They’re taking these steps, one by one, to move toward this peace
> that’s been denied to Korea for so long.
>
> And I think American pundits should be—you know, applaud South Korea for
> taking these steps, and applaud North Korea. You see these—you see these
> stories like, you know, eight months ago, North Korea must denuclearize,
> must say they’re going to denuclearize. You see this all over. And then,
> all of a sudden, they say they’re going to denuclearize, and then the
> headline is “U.S. Wary of North Korea Saying They’re Going to
> Denuclearize.” I mean, you know, give it a break. You know, open your eyes.
> Try to understand what’s actually happening in North Korea and South Korea.
> And the fact is, the United States cannot control Korea anymore. The United
> States has been in Korea militarily since 1945. And it’s time to end this
> colonial-like relationship the U.S. has with South Korea.
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