Daily Times

Oh dear. Donald Trump has been ousted by one of his own. Meaning that the top US military officer — Gen Joseph Dunford — has snitched to Congress as to what may be the real reason behind the showman president’s public threats to the North Korean Rocket Man and his regime. In a word, it is China.

Now whether or not it was the good general’s intention to put this message across — this is, in fact, what he did. Which doesn’t give any of us much hope that Trump will be able to handle the 4,000-strong troop surge next door in Afghanistan. Not if he, as commander-in-chief, can’t even prevent his country’s top military man from going ‘rogue’.

Trump has taken off the table any chance for North Korean concessions. Though this would likely be a non-starter. Especially given how he is all set to bypass the UN on Iran. And also given past US targeted assassinations by another’s hand in both Saddam’s Iraq and Gaddafi’s Libya

But what is bad news for Trump is good news for the rest of the world, in terms of transparency at least. China has long feared that the US belligerence aimed at Pyongyang is but a smokescreen; that Washington is seeking to encircle it. And Gen Dunford’s confirmation this week that, from the American perspective, Beijing will pose the greatest threat to the US of any foe within a decade — thereby stealing the crown from both North Korea and Russia — seemingly lends credence to Chinese concerns. Beijing is a menace for two reasons. Firstly, it is the strongest contender to American economic supremacy. Secondly, it has committed the cardinal sin of, in Gen Dunford’s words, focusing on limiting US ability to project power as well as weakening Washington’s alliances in the Pacific. Yet it is important to remember here that Beijing hasn’t engaged in regime change abroad or committed a war of aggression against a sovereign nation. Here in Pakistan, it may or may not be engaged in economic colonisation. Yet whatever the case may be it is being done with our full consent. The top military man also goes on to say that Chinese leaders seem committed to increases in defence spending for the foreseeable future. Thus the country’s military modernisation is targeting capabilities with the potential to degrade core US military technological advantages. Thus it seems that China is single-handedly responsible for the arms race.

If one believes the hype.

For those of us who don’t, the pundits of dissent seem to have got it right. Meaning that the immediate US goal is likely to be the destruction of the North Korean regime, while keeping in mind that it at all costs wants to avoid an environment whereby Beijing can swoop in and secure the latter’s nukes. Already this week have we seen Pyongyang move fighter jets to its border, with the Rocket Man threatening to shoot down US bombers. While Washington is said to be planning to move an aircraft carrier strike group to the region. It may or may not also be shipping nuclear missiles to the South Korea. Given what this might mean for the 25 million or so civilians in Seoul – this will be yet more blood on the US hands that it presumably doesn’t want. For the more blood that one spills the more indelible becomes the stain.

At the moment China is the buffer zone.

Yet America’s actions have underscored the extent to which it wants Beijing cast out of this role. For Washington has wholly engineered the crisis to psychologically position Pyongyang up against the wall, where the only ‘option’ is war. In other words, Trump’s warmongering is aimed at making North Korean security entirely dependent upon a capability strike against US cities. And with his UN speech in which he threatened to utterly destroy the regime — the unquiet American took off the table any chance for negotiations. There was no room for North Korean concessions. Though to be fair, it is more than likely that this would a non-starter. Especially given how Trump is all set to completely bypass the UN on Iran, despite IAEA confirmation of Tehran playing by the nuclear rulebook. And also given past US targeted assassinations by another’s hand in both Saddam’s Iraq and Gaddafi’s Libya. Neither of these states had nuclear capability. Another Chinese thorn in the US side is that Beijing will likely manoeuvre to stop Washington from enjoying any advantage that may see it reunify the Korean Peninsula according to its own diktats.

So with the world watching, we may expect to see Trump once again play to the cheap seats. He may well choose to revisit exploiting the brutal murder of a young American university student virtually tortured to death in a North Korean prison to get the sympathy vote for his amateur militarist posturing.

To be sure Pyongyang must answer for Otto Warmbier. But the path to accountability does not lie in igniting what some parts of the British tabloid media have warned will be World War III. The people will not be fooled.

The writer is the Deputy Managing Editor, Daily Times. She can be reached at mirandahusain@me.com and tweets @humeiwei

Published in Daily Times, September 28^th 2017.