OIL AND EXEGESIS:
IRAN, KOREA AND THE GLOBAL MACHINE

North Korea declared on Thursday for the first time it possessed nuclear weapons and pulled out indefinitely from six-party talks on its atomic ambitions, saying it needed a defence against a hostile United States. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice played down the dramatic announcement, saying the United States had assumed since the mid-1990s that North Korea could make nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile Iran, facing mounting U.S. pressure over its nuclear program, promised on Thursday a "burning hell" for any aggressor as tens of thousands marched to mark the 26th anniversary of its Islamic revolution. "The Iranian nation does not seek war, does not seek violence and dispute. But the world must know that this nation will not tolerate any invasion," President Khatami said in a fiery speech in central Tehran. (Reuters, 10 February, 2005)

So everything is going great. At least for those 'End of Days' enthusiasts in the White House whose worldview is beginning to resemble a chilling glimpse into the mind of the Reverend Jim Jones. The only grit in the cogs is North Korea and that Tourettes afflicted dwarf who just can't seem to keep his damn' mouth shut. But how ironic is it that the task of exposing Bush's foreign policy as the hollow, oil-thirsty farce it really is has fallen to Kim Jong Il in the absence of any functional opposition in the US?

Although Kim's Stalinist shit-pit hosts a cavalcade of human rights abuses (downtown Tehran must seem like Telly Tubby Land compared to the living hell of North Korea), we are supposed to ignore that and concentrate on Iranian 'evildoing' instead. Trouble is, for Bush and Condoleezza, the Korean dictator won't shut up long enough for the American public to forget about him: "Hey! That guy's got the bomb? What do you mean 'just ignore him'?"

Of course, Kim is probably several six-foot subs short of a picnic, but his strategic reasons for maintaining the pressure seem sound. Like Saddam did with his Daddy, Kim can appear to beat Junior Bush just by standing up to him and outlasting him politically. Of course, this strategy of baiting the big guy relies totally on the assumption that the big guy will not actually attack you. Much to Saddam's chagrin, he had assumed that even Bush would be too 'civilized' fly in the face of world opinion and throw down a blatant invasion of Iraq. Oops.

But invading a friendless Iraq was a very different proposition to an invasion of North Korea that, whilst being an isolationist, rogue regime (like Bush's US?), does have a very powerful minder in the shape of China right next door. It must be gut wrenching for Bush's foreign policy advisors - so used to knee-jerk summations and "you're either with us or against us" frontier logic - to be faced with a conundrum like North Korea: Invade and stir up an unwinnable and fantastically costly shit storm. Don't invade and lose more face than the Phantom of the Opera. How much more of a psycho hypocrite is Bush going to look when the Humvees roll into Iran to 'liberate' its people while ignoring the death camps, cannibalism and nuclear proliferation in North Korea? If only their chief export was oil, not desperate refugees, the North Koreans could be in with a chance of liberation too...

No state, not even the United States, can thrive in isolation as the unstoppable force of globalization marches on. Sooner or later, in spite of the Bush junta's imperial delusions of invincibility, the Global Machine will have had a gut full of his bullshit. Bush is already scraping the bottom of the credibility pool with previously unquestioning allies beginning to turn, US foreign trade in plummet mode, and smaller nations snubbing American ties and looking to Europe for saner stewardship. In short, he is becoming a loose cannon.

Although the US sees itself as the superpower, the truth remains that the real superpower is not one defined by territory or democratic process. The futures and fortunes of sovereign nations are now decided by the omnipotent, behind-the-scenes networks of Globalization: those exo-national movers and shakers with the ability to create new powers or demote existing powers. Organizations like The Trilateral Commission and The Council On Foreign Relations have been influencing governments/controlling world events for years (and for secretive organizations, they are surprisingly candid about their mission).

Bush should not make the mistake of assuming his power as his own - the Global Machine owns him, not vice versa. And as is the case with any possession, things that no longer work properly can easily be replaced. So far, the Bush M.O. of sowing discord and conflict around the planet is paying dividends. But if his administration should take that one last baby-step to the other side of sanity, with its pinheaded obsessions regarding oil and exegesis, America's superpower days will be numbered.

Who could replace the US as world top dog? The European Union? A new Asian alliance of 'Tiger' economies..? Only brown acid could help us envision North Korea's diminutive Doctor Evil ever being awarded favored status by the Global Machine. But that is not the aim of his personal war on America. Instead, Kim dreams of the day that his capitalist bête noire falls from iffy superpower status to fully-fledged pariah. With Bush at the helm, Kim's day of vindication will hover tantalizingly on the horizon: "See, I finally won the Korean War — them Yankees is pussy!" God forbid. And for the sake of the estimated three to four million who have died in North Korea since Kim's ascendance in 1994, really, God forbid.

GREAT PIONEERS OF NEOCON THOUGHT #4

"I believe that people would be alive today if there were a death penalty."

Nancy Reagan

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