Thursday, May 27, 2010

TWO RATHER DIFFERENT VIEWS ON THE CHEONAN

One, written by Christopher Hitchens, argues that if any regime deserves the appellation "evil, it is North Korea.
So this is the way we live now: conditioned by the awareness that no North Korean provocation, however egregious, can be confronted, lest it furnish the occasion or pretext for something truly barbarous and insane.
The other, written by a previously-unknown-to-me Stephen Gowans, argues that the real culprit is to be found south of the 38th parallel.
Lee is a North Korea-phobe who prefers a confrontational stance toward his neighbor to the north to the policy of peaceful coexistence and growing cooperation favored by his recent predecessors (and by Pyongyang, as well. It’s worth mentioning that North Korea supports a policy of peace and cooperation. South Korea, under its hawkish president, does not.) Fabricating a case against the North serves Lee in a number of ways. If voters in the South can be persuaded that the North is indeed a menace – and it looks like this is exactly what is happening – Lee’s hawkish policies will be embraced as the right ones for present circumstances. This will prove immeasurably helpful in upcoming mayoral and gubernatorial elections in June.

As noted previously, I don't put much stock in conspiracy theories. I would also have a hard time reconciling the images below (urging the North Korean people to become "human bombs" and threatening to "eliminate America from the earth") as any more consistent with a "policy of peace and cooperation" than are Lee Myung-bak's recent declarations.


No comments:

Post a Comment