The summit between Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un is over. And their message was clear.
The U.S. is welcome at the negotiating table but they are not necessary to resolving the situation. Russia, however, is.
Kim went to Vladivostok to build a relationship with Putin and put the U.S. on the spot. Per Putin’s comments after the summit:
We are going to discuss the situation with the US. Russia is always open on this – there are no conspiracies. More than that Kim Jong-un personally asked us to inform Washington of his position and the issues he wants to ask about.
What Kim has done is elevated Russia and Putin to the level of mediator between North Korea and the U.S. Russia is now an equal partner in the process.
And the U.S. has been diminished in its position in these talks.
As I said yesterday, I expected something big to come from this meeting and this was it. Kim is no longer willing to talk with the U.S. directly and they must go through Putin and his staff of professional diplomats to do so.
What’s the U.S.’s response to this? Ambassador to Russia and Deep State mouthpiece John Huntsman said of two aircraft carrier groups in the Mediterranean, “When you have 200,000 tons of diplomacy that is cruising in the Mediterranean, this is forward-operating diplomacy — nothing else need to be said.”
This is the kind of statement that is completely counter-productive and Huntsman knows it. It betrays the kind of thinking that led us to this point.
In fact, it is now exactly that kind of thinking that is precluding a settlement with North Korea. And that’s exactly what John Bolton wants and Trump isn’t strong enough to see the situation for what it is and rein in his foreign policy staff.
None of that fazes Putin, however. He’s made it clear that sabre-rattling is not diplomacy. And relative to North Korea’s nuclear weapons it is irrelevant to the process.
The U.S. will not attack North Korea. If that was going to happen it would have by now.
He knows that the Koreans are driving the reunification process and urged South Korea to act with more independence.
And while Putin holds out the possibility of future diplomacy, being willing to relay Kim’s positions and concerns to Trump, he also knows that Trump is not setting policy.
That’s the take away from this. Trump has to now, with RussiaGate concluded, take back control of his foreign policy and take the lead, end the Korean War and be a peacemaker or fold.
Remember the U.S.’s calculus here. North Korea is about Iran, which, in turn, is about Israel. Since all of Trump’s foreign policy is focused on securing Israel’s future no one in the administration is willing to let him end the stalemate without testing all involved to the limit.
The problem is, however, that threats are only threats if you are willing to go through with them. Proxy war proliferation to destabilize central Asia as a central strategy has failed. Syria is mostly secure, as is Iran. Turkey, Pakistan and India are off the reservation.
Sure there is still a lot of damage those 200,000 tonnes can do but at what cost? And to whom? Russia? No. Where do those strike groups go and who do they attack?
The answer is, “No one important.”
The time for belligerence is over. Kim just went to the Russians to show the world his willingness to be reasonable and find new solutions to his country’s situation.
Set against the backdrop of China bringing the world together through the incentives of Belt and Road shouldn’t be discounted. Kim is showing not only the U.S. but the world that he is the statesman here and that the U.S. precludes a solution which will weaken support for continuing sanctions.
Support for Gold Goats ‘n Guns can happen in a variety of ways if you are so inclined. From Patreon to Paypal or by your browsing habits through the Brave browser where you can tip your favorite websites (like this one) for the work they provide.
It seems that you are right about this and future historians will record that this is when Pax Americana ended. As long as Congress and the White House are Israeli occupied territory this will not end.
Obsolete carrier battle groups are not diplomacy but rather huge targets. The US has a navy perfectly configured to take on the Imperial Japanese Navy which hasn’t been seen since 1945. That statement shows the US government for what it is: A mafia with nuclear weapons.
Any head of state from this point forward will probably choose to deal with Russia and Putin rather than the US if they have the option. Deal with the US and you get threats and economic blackmail where Putin offers peaceful trade. There is also the small matter that Putin’s Russia has a much better track record of sticking to agreements.
The neocons are going to find out that foot dragging compliance due to threats is far less effective than voluntary agreements. Incentives matter.
Well said Galen. I know that I’m right about this stuff because behind the scenes my Soros trolls are active again. I was getting lonely.
Interesting that Soros assigned some trolls to you. It means that someone is listening.
Normally, given his globalist ambitions, I would assume that Soros would be happy to see the US diminished. After giving the matter some thought it came back to me that Putin threw his organizations out of Russia. Putin is also encouraging traditional culture including Christianity to return and both of these things are an anathema to globalists in general and Soros in particular.
Brilliant analysis! Spot On about the cast of characters in your vid . The ascension of Eurasia is afoot. Now come the real bad things. One has to ask, (Assuming conventional/nuclear War are off the table)-As I believe, since even the Neocons are beholden to “others higher up”. One has to wonder if these “orbital reconfigurings” play out in the currency markets, since it appears that these geopolitical shifts center around the securing of calls on future energy resources.- Or at least, that’s what the US geopolitical expansion is about???
1 million starving refugees on the go does a whole lot more damage than bunker busters into a few hard or soft targets.Call it war if you like.
Thank you
I liked Putin’s opening remarks concluding the summit with Kim. He stated that the world must return to international law and not “might makes right”. He stated this in various ways and multiple times. He was calling out the US for what it is without openly naming it.
Reading between the lines, it seems to me he’s saying that Kim will keep his nuc arsenal as a deterrent against regime change as long as the US continues to act like the 6th grade bully at the playground. And the US behavior is encouraging other countries to acquire nukes to keep the US from spreading democracy to them.And all this said with very diplomatic statesmanship. It’s clear to anyone watching that Russia is the adult in the room on the world stage and US is the three stooges (Pompeo, Bolton, Trump)
And that will eventually trickle up to the U.N.
Kim learned the lesson of Libya which consists of three parts. First any agreement with the US will not be honored in the fullness of time. Second, don’t give up the nukes and acquire them if you can unless you want to experience the joys of regime change courtesy of the CIA. Three, Russia is more likely to help stabilize your government rather than start a regime change operation. Syria is the biggest example of the third part of the lesson.
Any head of state that hasn’t learned the lesson of Libya at this point in time is so stupid that I have to wonder how they remember to keep breathing much less stay in power.
Tom, you have touched on the Boomers tendency to confuse what they want with what actually is. It might be worth elaborating on this for your younger audience who might think this an artifact of old age. Sadly, it is not. It doesn’t matter if they are counter-culture or religious right they always believe that they recreate the world as they wish without any negative consequences.
The other takeaway here is that for all the media accolades during his candidacy, Huntsman actually would have been a terrible president. Beto and Mayor Pete may be similarly overrated.
Excellent; thanks! I did notice one typo: “None of that phases Putin” should be “None of that fazes Putin.”
true that… thanks!