NATO on the Korean Peninsula

http://www.dw.com/en/nato-chief-calls-on-un-to-uphold-north-korea-sanctions/a-41193631

http://www.korea.net/NewsFocus/policies/view?articleId=150871

This story is something of a stunner and it has received almost no coverage in the West, certainly not in the American mainstream news.

NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg has been touring Japan and South Korea and even visited the contentious DMZ. What is the head of NATO doing in Northeast Asia on the Pacific Rim? The timing is also noteworthy as he's passing through just days before Donald Trump's visit to the region.

NATO has been moving East since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Russians and the Chinese know this all too well, but few know that in just the past couple of years NATO has leap-frogged into the Pacific Rim. Terrorism is being used as the excuse for NATO forging an early-stage relationship with Japan. Clearly they are now reaching out to South Korea.

This is where NATO more than ever looks like an arm of US policy and yet on a larger scale you could just say that it represents the militaristic aims of the Western Establishment. The latter is dominated by the US but there are other players involved.

The danger here is painfully obvious and a strong message is being sent. It's not meant merely for Pyongyang but for China and the whole of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) which thus far has been Moscow and Beijing's paltry attempt to cobble together some kind of Eurasian bloc to oppose NATO. And yet this is alliance is weak and already compromised. NATO sitting in East Asia is sending a signal and it's moments like this that remind one of the 1930's and the growing tensions before global conflagration.

Am I being alarmist? I'm not the only one. Is war going to break out tomorrow? Probably not, but it's not too hard to envision how things could quickly spiral out of control should a Korean War erupt. While many in Washington, London and Brussels will laud and celebrate the NATO chief's visit to the East, those who are still sane will find it troubling. For those in Beijing and other Asian capitals the signal is clear and very threatening.

This should be a substantial story in the West but it's receiving very little notice. Stoltenberg is of course a figure-head. He actually controls no armies, can give no orders. He's a manager, a bureaucrat and a public relations figure. NATO is dominated by the Pentagon and he's there on their behalf if not their direct orders.

He's there because of the contemporary crisis but the US/NATO is using the crisis to set up the board. They're planning a few moves ahead. It's hard to imagine Japan and South Korea joining NATO but they don't need to. At this point NATO has expanded not only its geography but its concepts. It has new categories in which it can place 'partners'. 'Global NATO' came out of the closet so to speak under the Bush administration. Under the guise of democracy coupled with law and order those who would master the world have established what can probably be described as the most powerful and pervasive military alliance in the history of the world. Given that these governments have a proven track record of deception and the obscuring of imperialism behind a humanitarian facade... anything is possible.

The American Right-wing has long feared global government. Blinded by their own avarice and power they continue to fail to understand that the closest thing the world has ever produced toward that reality is centered in the twin US capitals of Washington and New York. While NATO is ostensibly headquartered in Europe the real centres of power are located on the eastern seaboard of the United States. The US has been the de facto global power since the end of World War II. Since 1989 she has sought to ratify the notion and solidify the claim. There have been substantial setbacks and in over-reaching the US has brought itself to the brink of failure. Once again, I am not of the school that believes the US Empire will fade quietly. The Anglo-American Elite will (I think) seek survival and victory through arms and the Stoltenberg visit to the DMZ is a case of them showing their hand.