Remember The Long Game

I would be worried. I am not an alarmist but I see an escalation looming.L’il Kimmie J does not need much to rile him.  He has nukes, we know they work, and we know he wants to use them. Now, as Trump brazenly throws out verbal threats backed by further sanctions, the North Korean despot has all the incentive. If you poke a bear with a stick …

What is troubling me more is the sudden support of China. They are no friends of the West. They have been friend and supporter to North Korea far longer, and it is in their interest to keep their volatile neighbour appeased. Being seen to join forces with Trump, a sworn enemy, could only be taken as an act of hostility or even betrayal, to prompt retaliatory action. And I think that is the plan. 

China is the master of the long game. We realky have no idea what they are aiming for because they are that much further ahead of us. But it is safe to say they have always wanted control. To take control in a game, you need to get the strongest player off the board. In this case, that player is the US. They are already hampered by the costs of hurricane damage in Texas, Florida and now Puerto Rico. What would happen if they got hit by a strategically aimed nuke? It would only take one. 

For all Trump’s admonishment, the world does not want nuclear war. That’s why other nations have not pushed back nor taken overt action against Kim. I would not expect anyone to mass a military campaign in retaliation. So what if there was a tag team effort between China & North Korea effort to lure the US down a dark alley, so to speak, and fool the Donald into thinking he had support? As the neighbour to the north, I don’t like where this is going.

Who to watch: Myanmar

One word: Genocide. Perhaps the ugliest word we know, because we keep forgetting it. For the Rohingya people, each day brings new terror as ethnic cleansing sweeps through their nation, forcing almost 400K to flee. That is one third of the population in just two weeks, mostly women and children. And there may be landmines involved, to keep those who flee from turning back. We have not learned from other similar atrocities in Syria, in Africa.

Events escalated rapidly from August 25, to mass burnings of entire villages. Yes, that still happens today. Amnesty International and Human Rights watch are providing terrifying details from a country where no independent observers or journalists are allowed. Of note: this isn’t the first time but a repeated occurrence of this kind of event. Bangladesh is home to successive waves of Rohingya refugees.

Strangely, disturbingly, Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi remains silent as her people suffer.