Politics is Inevitable VI

Despite their own upcoming Presidential elections on Dec. 19, Koreans remain acutely aware of U.S. politics. Especially as regards the peninsula.

Today's Joongang Daily carried a Yonghap write-up of comments made by Mitt Romney about how the Obama regime has weakened US influence around the world.

“You see North Korea continuing to export their nuclear technology,” Romney said, in what he termed evidence of a weaker America under Obama’s leadership. ... “I don’t see our influence growing around the world. I see our influence receding,” he said during the debate held at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida.

Romney is running as the Republican candidate for US President, with essentially the same neocon foreign policy ideas (and some of the same advisers) as GW Bush, under whose watch North Korea became a nuclear country to begin with. I can't say that Obama has handled DPRK that much better than W did, but we are talking about the most intractable dictatorship on the planet--and the succession of Jong-eun has made it that much more so. Still, Iraq and Afghanistan, "you're with us or you're agin' us" swagger, torture, universal wiretapping and Gitmo are all bad moves that a Romney administration would double down on.

He argued that Iran has come four years closer to having nuclear weapons and the Middle East is ridden with rising tides of violence and chaos, especially in Syria where around 30,000 civilians have been killed in prolonged bloodshed. Romney also pointed out the U.S.’ growing trade deficit with China.

Romney also seems to think that Iran is a landlocked country, whose only outlet to the waterways is through Syria. He has made this statement more than once. 1. Syria does not share a border with Iran. 2. Iran has substantial control of the Strait of Hormuz.

Trade deficit with China--got him there! During Obama's career in venture capital, he regularly bought struggling US concerns, converted their goods and chattels into salable capital, split the proceeds with his investors, and sent the jobs overseas. As a community organizer, one is focused on helping rich people improve their bottom line--petitioning city governments for more beat cops and firefighters, developing resources for early learning programs, trying to underwrite preventive medical care, looking after the 53%, you know.