The Duran  by Shane Quinn   Posted Thurs., Night, Sept.28, 2017

In the Western mainstream North Korea is continually classified as a “rogue nation”, a “reclusive state” or, best of all, “the nuclear state”. The sense of irony has been lost entirely it seems. Such titles are more applicable to the United States and its right-hand man in the Middle East, Israel. It is conveniently forgotten that the US possesses the largest nuclear weapons arsenal of all.

North Korea is continuing to pose a real dilemma for the US, in what is one of the greatest energy producing regions on earth. Donald Trump’s threat to “totally destroy North Korea”, in his inaugural UN speech, reportedly drew gasps from the audience. Few pointed out, however, that the US President neglected to put the word “again” at the end of his sentence.

A little over two generations ago, the US completely destroyed North Korea (1950-53) in what was “one of the deadliest wars in modern history”. Much of the destruction was inflicted upon the North, and was so severe that it even “shocked and disgusted the American military personnel who witnessed it”.

General Douglas MacArthur served as the US Army’s Chief of Staff during the 1930s – he was a five-star general and Medal of Honour recipient. Of the Korean War MacArthur said, “I shrink – I shrink with a horror that I cannot express in words at this continuous slaughter of men in Korea. The war in Korea has already almost destroyed that nation of 20 million people. I have never seen such devastation”.

MacArthur continues, “I have seen, I guess, as much blood and disaster as any living man, and it just curdled my stomach the last time I was there [in Korea]. After I looked at the wreckage and those thousands of women and children and everything, I vomited… If you go on indefinitely, you are perpetuating a slaughter such as I have never heard of in the history of mankind”.

These words were uttered in 1951, with two years of the conflict still to run. Bearing in mind, this was not the account of a fresh-faced cadet exposed to war for the first time. It was the testimony of one of the most distinguished soldiers in American history. MacArthur oversaw major battles in both world wars, notably serving as commander of US Army Forces in the Far East (1941-45). General George S. Patton described MacArthur as “the bravest man I ever met”, the two having fought alongside each other during the First World War.

Patton further said of his colleague that, “I was the only man on the front-line except for MacArthur who never ducked a shell”. Come the closing stages of the Great War General Charles T. Menoher, MacArthur’s superior, described him as “the bloodiest fighting man in this army”. Yet the Korean War had reduced the indomitable MacArthur to a bewildered wreck.

In another account John H. Kim, a US Army Veteran and Chair of the Korea Committee of Veterans for Peace, said of the Korean War, “The US Army, Air Force and Navy were directly involved in the killing of about three million civilians in Korea”. Historian and author Bruce Cumings said, “…we [the US] destroyed more cities in the North than we did in Japan or Germany during World War II”.

And privileged Westerners wonder aghast why North Korean governments act recklessly at times? Perhaps it is not so surprising after all – also when under persistent threats to the present from their old foe.

Full article here:  http://theduran.com/us-far-in-the-lead-in-violating-international-law/