President Obama is facing his first major foreign policy test after NorthKorea fired a rocket, that travelled sufficiently close to Japan, for conductinga missile strike. It was deliberate provocation. The US and Japan had warnedPyongyang that the rocket would be shot down if fired. The rocket was fired.Nothing was done to stop it. American, South Korean and Japanese officials whomonitored the launch from nearby warships said that that North Korea was reallytesting long-range ballistic missile technology that could be used to carry anuclear warhead to as far as America.
As yet all that Obama could do was to criticize North Korea’s test andpropose a summit in Washington to ratify a ban on nuclear testing. He wants alsoto create a nuclear fuel bank for servicing peaceful nuclear power. Obama said:"I state clearly and with conviction America's commitment to seek the peaceand security of a world without nuclear weapons. This goal will not be reachedquickly -- perhaps not in my lifetime. It will take patience and persistence.But now we, too, must ignore the voices who tell us that the world cannotchange."
This response is pathetic. It is plain hot air. Why is the US impotent? It isbecause the world’s statesmen and media acting as obedient voices ofinternational finance capital dare not state the obvious truth: North Korea isnothing but an instrument controlled and used by China. Pakistan is the same. InPakistan however America shares some influence. In North Korea it has none. Allthe technology for North Korea’s defence comes from China’s People’sLiberation Army. China can bring North Korea to its knees within forty-eighthours if it stops fuel and food supplies. And yet the US and mainstream mediacontinue with the fiction that UN sanctions are the only way to effectivelypressure North Korea.
In the forthcoming debate in the UN China will reveal its hand. If it cooperatesto bring North Korea to heel it would seem that China is ready to assume aconstructive role as a world power. If it softens the demand for UN sanctionsand does not force North Korea to abandon its nuclear programme that wouldindicate that China will persist with its present policy of using proxy nationsto harass and intimidate other big powers. Obama will continue to whistle in thedark. He is helpless. The powerful international finance capital lobby stillcontrols US policy. Witness how bankers who robbed the public were bailed outwhile ordinary folk lost jobs. This corporate lobby, as repeatedly stated inthese columns, is the architect and main beneficiary of the unholy and unhealthyUS-China business nexus.
President Obama’s newfound resolve for a world without nuclear weapons, thatfollows the newfound advocacy for the same objective by Henry Kissinger and SamNunn, is a laudable goal. It is especially desirable for India which arguably isthe softest target for the world’s first possible future terrorist nuclearstrike. But it is futile to repose hope in America to initiate effective policyfor total nuclear disarmament. India can occupy centre stage and help achievethis much faster if it pursues an innovative policy.
