Highbrow Magazine - war https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/war en Ukraine: A Deeper Look Into the Threat of a Potential World War https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/19393-ukraine-deeper-look-threat-potential-world-war <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Tue, 03/08/2022 - 11:40</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1ukrainewar_maxpixel.jpg?itok=rtIWPJFS"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1ukrainewar_maxpixel.jpg?itok=rtIWPJFS" width="480" height="234" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">“I decided to conduct a special military operation. Its goal is the protection of people who have suffered eight years from abuse and genocide, from <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/24/putins-speech-declaring-war-on-ukraine-translated-excerpts" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">the Kyiv regime</a>.” stated Russian president Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Russia invaded Ukraine, just days after signing a cooperation agreement with China. The EU, NATO, and democratic allies, such as Japan, Australia, Taiwan and others have rallied to the U.S. side, imposing sanctions, amid discussions of increasing their military potential. While it is still unclear what China’s intentions are, it is possible that the Chinese regime will stand by Russia, forming an axis of authoritarianism, along with the Central Asian Republics and Collective Security Treaty Organization states, as well as Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, and Cuba. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Alternatively, Xi Jinping may distance his nation from Russia, sensing that being on the wrong side of this dispute could exclude him from economic opportunities in the West. As tensions escalate, it is also possible that China will seize on this opportunity to take Taiwan, forcing the U.S. to retire from the field, or fight a war on two fronts. So far, the sanctions are exacting a heavy toll on Russia, as the world waits to see if Putin will accept defeat, retreating back to Russia, or if he will escalate his attack, in order to save face. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">On February 21, 2022, President Putin delivered a fiery speech, in which he claimed that his nation was threatened by the expansion of NATO and a world order that was <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/24/putins-speech-declaring-war-on-ukraine-translated-excerpts" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">increasingly anti-Russian</a>. He reminded his listeners that Russia was one of the strongest nuclear powers on Earth. He then said that Ukraine had seized Russian territory and that he had no choice but to take it back, in order to ensure the safety of Russia. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2ukrainewar_ministry_of_defense_ukraine-wikimedia.jpg" style="height:400px; width:600px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The same day, he granted independence to two breakaway republics inside Ukraine, the Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) and Luhansk <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Ukraine-crisis/U.S.-and-U.K.-to-impose-sanctions-against-Russia-over-Ukraine?utm_campaign=GL_asia_daily&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=NA_newsletter&amp;utm_content=article_link&amp;del_type=1&amp;pub_date=20220222190000&amp;seq_num=8&amp;si=011334" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">People's Republic</a> (LNR), both of which have always been pro-Russian and have had Russian support. He then deployed troops to these regions, calling them “peacekeepers.” On February 24, Russia invaded Ukraine, with <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-orders-military-operations-ukraine-demands-kyiv-forces-surrender-2022-02-24/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Russian forces</a> hitting multiple targets, with missile and artillery barrages. Russian paratroopers dropped into the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-orders-military-operations-ukraine-demands-kyiv-forces-surrender-2022-02-24/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Hostomel airport</a> in the Kyiv region, while soldiers seized the Chernobyl former nuclear power plant.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Since 2014, Russian leaders have been obsessed with Ukraine, citing historical precedent that would potentially justify an invasion. During this time, Putin has been supporting an undeclared war within the <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/medvedev-echoes-putins-dangerous-ukraine-obsession/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">borders of Ukraine</a>, backing ethnic Russians and pro-Russian separatists, fighting  against the Kyiv government. Over the past eight years, roughly <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/02/21/what-is-donbas-donetsk-luhansk-conflict/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=newsletter&amp;wpisrc=nl_most&amp;carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F361f93d%2F621518689d2fda34e7a28be3%2F5f327828ae7e8a549a047327%2F55%2F70%2F621518689d2fda34e7a28be3" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">14,000 people</a> have been killed</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">In July, Putin published a paper, claiming that Russians and Ukrainians are “<a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/putins-new-ukraine-essay-reflects-imperial-ambitions/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">one people”,</a> and that parts of modern-day Ukraine occupies land that historically belonged to Russia. He went on to say that an independent Ukraine could only exist within the context of an agreement with Russia. In October 2021, former-President Dmitry Medvedev <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/medvedev-echoes-putins-dangerous-ukraine-obsession/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">published a paper</a>, questioning the legitimacy of Ukraine’s borders. For several weeks leading up to the invasion, around 100,000 Russian troops were stationed on the border. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Much of the Ukraine-Russia issue is one of identity. Only the most eastern part of Ukraine was  <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/25/history-of-ties-between-ukraine-and-russia" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">ruled by Russia</a>. A significant percentage of the people there speak Russian and many follow the Eastern Orthodox religion of the Moscow Patriarchate. In total, only about 14% of Ukrainians identify as Russian. The vast majority of the population, over 77%, identify with being Ukrainian and European, rather than Russian. The two largest religions in the region are Orthodoxy of the <a href="https://uacrisis.org/en/66314-religion-politics-ukraine" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Kyiv Patriarchate</a>, at 29%, and those who identify as just Orthodox at 24%.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">At the end of World War II, Russia wanted assurances that NATO would not shift eastward, threatening Russian territory. After the fall of the Soviet Union, however, Ukraine and other Eastern European nations became independent, removing the buffer zones between Russia <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2022/01/russia-ukraine-tensions-signals-to-china/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">and NATO</a>. Romania, Bulgaria, Poland and the Baltics have all become NATO members, and Russia sees this as a security concern. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Since the invasion, former President Dmitry Medvedev said Russia should seize the assets of foreigners from unfriendly countries. He also stated that Russia had no further <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/medvedev-end-diplomacy-russia/31725038.html" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">need of diplomacy</a> and that Moscow should close all its overseas embassies. It is unclear if the former president has any influence on policy, but it seems that the country may be headed the way of North Korea, an isolationist, yet belligerent state.  </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2presidentzelensky_presidentdotgovua-wikimedia.jpg" style="height:600px; width:443px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Western Sanctions</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">President Biden pledged that "We will limit Russia's ability to do business in dollars, euros, pounds, and yen…We're going to stunt the ability to finance and grow <a href="https://www.npr.org/live-updates/russia-invades-ukraine-putin#president-biden-hits-russia-with-new-sanctions-over-the-invasion-of-ukraine" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">the Russian military</a>." The administration is bringing a host of sanctions against Russia. Additionally, the U.S. is shifting <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/02/22/russia-ukraine-updates/#link-QMIMM75SBNC7NOB5MOW47JQYJU" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">US equipment</a> and troops, already in Europe, to support Baltic allies, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Under an executive order, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-22/west-plans-sanctions-as-putin-orders-troops-to-breakaway-zones?cmpid=BBD022222_OUS&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=newsletter&amp;utm_term=220222&amp;utm_campaign=openamericas" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">US trade</a> and investment in the breakaway republics is prohibited. For the time being, the greatest threat in the U.S. arsenal of sanctions, removing Russia from the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/us/politics/russia-swift.html" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">SWIFT payment system</a> is being delayed. If implemented, this would essentially make it impossible for Russia to import or export anything.  </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">America’s stance on Russia has rallied democratic allies. The U.K., EU, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLSLsJuX9E4" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Japan, Australia</a>, Canada, and others are moving forward <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-22/west-plans-sanctions-as-putin-orders-troops-to-breakaway-zones?cmpid=BBD022222_OUS&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=newsletter&amp;utm_term=220222&amp;utm_campaign=openamericas" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">with sanctions</a>. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU sanctions would include <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/eu-plans-harsh-sanctions-package-against-russia-01645689690" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">freezing Russian assets</a> and preventing Russian banks from accessing European financial markets. The U.K. is also planning to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-22/west-plans-sanctions-as-putin-orders-troops-to-breakaway-zones?cmpid=BBD022222_OUS&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=newsletter&amp;utm_term=220222&amp;utm_campaign=openamericas" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">freeze the assets</a> of banks and individuals financing the region. Germany has agreed to shut down the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which delivers gas from Russia to Europe. Russia is Europe’s <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/putin-tells-xi-new-deal-that-could-sell-more-russian-gas-china-2022-02-04/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">number-one</a> supplier of natural gas. Shutting down the pipeline will do tremendous damage to the Russian economy. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2joebidenandkamalaharris_whitehousedotgov-wikipedia.jpg" style="height:400px; width:600px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Economic Impact Outside the Region</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The effects of the war are being felt beyond the region with hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing to Poland and other nearby nations. Global <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/feb/24/gas-and-oil-prices-surge-amid-fears-of-global-energy-shortage-russia-ukraine" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">stock markets</a> dropped, with the Dow <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/02/24/stock-futures-plummet-oil-nears-100-as-russia-invades-ukraine/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">falling 700 points</a> immediately after the invasion. Grain exports from the region will be disrupted, threatening global <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/24/business/ukraine-russia-wheat-prices.html" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">wheat supplies</a>. In America and the rest of the world, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ukraine-russia-invasion-economic-impact-united-states/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">gas prices</a> are rising to levels not seen in years. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>The China Connection</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Beijing’s reaction to the crisis was to refuse to call it an invasion, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/24/china-refuses-to-call-attack-on-ukraine-an-invasion-blames-us.html" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">blaming the US</a>, rather Russia for increased tensions. China abstained from a UN vote condemning the invasion. And the former editor of the Chinese Communist Party news site, <em>Global Times</em>, applauded Putin’s actions, saying that the he had “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/02/22/china-russia-ukraine-reaction/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=newsletter&amp;wpisrc=nl_most&amp;carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F361f93e%2F621518689d2fda34e7a28be3%2F5f327828ae7e8a549a047327%2F57%2F70%2F621518689d2fda34e7a28be3" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">broken the deadlock</a>”  and demonstrated “Russia’s strategic determination”.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">In 2020, Chinese direct investment in Russia exceeded <a href="https://tass.com/economy/1335093" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">$12 billion</a>. China is Russia’s largest trade partner in both imports and exports, with total trade reaching <a href="https://www.russia-briefing.com/news/russia-s-2021-trade-and-investment-turn-to-asia.html/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">$108 billion</a> in 2020. The two countries are committed to increasing this number to $200 billion over the next four years. China is the world’s largest oil importer, and in 2021, Russia’s oil exports to China exceeded <a href="https://www.russia-briefing.com/news/russia-s-hydrocarbon-sector-set-for-long-term-gains-from-china-s-energy-crunch.html/#:~:text=For%20instance%2C%20Russia%20exported%20US,US%2441%20billion%20in%202018." style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">$36 billion</a>. Russia is a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), both are part of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS). The two countries have had <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-russia-america-military-exercises-weapons-war-xi-putin-biden-11641146041" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">joint military</a> exercises, but do not have a formal mutual defense agreement. Just before the invasion, Russia and China renewed a 20-year-old <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3158785/china-unlikely-take-sides-russia-ukraine-conflict" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">friendship treaty</a>.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Furthermore, China stands ready to dampen the impact of the sanctions by purchasing an additional <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/putin-tells-xi-new-deal-that-could-sell-more-russian-gas-china-2022-02-04/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">$117.5 billion</a> worth of gas from Russia. It has also removed <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/putin-tells-xi-new-deal-that-could-sell-more-russian-gas-china-2022-02-04/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">restrictions on imports</a> of Russian wheat and barley. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">If Western sanctions prevent Russia from earning money through exports, Moscow will become completely dependent on China. Many experts believe that China may take advantage of the situation to <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2022/01/russia-ukraine-tensions-signals-to-china/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">invade Taiwan</a><u>. </u>Beijing needs <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/02/22/china-russia-ukraine-reaction/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=newsletter&amp;wpisrc=nl_most&amp;carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F361f93e%2F621518689d2fda34e7a28be3%2F5f327828ae7e8a549a047327%2F57%2F70%2F621518689d2fda34e7a28be3" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Russia’s support</a> on the Taiwan issue, and the Ukraine crisis ensures that it will have it. Next, China will also increase its energy security through the construction of the <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/China-Russia-eye-supercharged-energy-ties-as-shield-against-U.S" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Power of Siberia-2</a>. The new pipeline will transport a greater quantity of gas from China to Russia, allowing China to avoid <a href="https://warsawinstitute.org/china-malacca-dilemma/#:~:text=Like%20most%20Asian%20countries%2C%20China%20is%20heavily%20dependent%20on%20hydrocarbon%20imports.&amp;text=Consequently%2C%20more%20than%2070%25%20of,the%20China's%20energy%20security%20policy." style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">shipping gas</a>  through the Strait of Malacca, an area patrolled by the U.S. Seventh Fleet.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1xiping_kremlin-wikimedia_1.jpg" style="height:371px; width:600px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">One possible outcome of the Ukraine crisis is the establishment of two camps; allies of the U.S., opposed to a China-lead axis. The U.S. coalition would include NATO, the EU, as well as Australia, Canada, Japan, Taiwan, and other democracies. On the Chinese side would be North Korea, Burma, Venezuela, Iran, and Vietnam. These would be combined with Russia’s allies, including Cuba, the Collective Security <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1556244/russia-allies-key-countries-back-putin-ukraine-invasion-evg" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Treaty Organisation</a> (CSTO) nations, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, as well as the remaining Central Asian Republics, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. These nations are within Russia’s political sphere, and also depend on trade <a href="https://www.coface.com/News-Publications/Publications/Central-Asia-is-the-menage-a-trois-with-China-and-Russia-sustainable#:~:text=The%20main%20partners%20of%20the,rank%20high%20among%20the%20partners." style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">with China</a>. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Vietnam and India both dislike China and have been moving into the U.S. sphere of influence, but both depend on Russia for much of their arms purchases. If a China-Russia axis develops, it is uncertain if their distrust of China would drive them to choose the West over Russia. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">On the other hand, Putin would probably not be content to play second fiddle in a Chinese-lead world order. Furthermore, the Power of Siberia-2 will be financed by China, creating a debt that Russia will be repaying <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/China-Russia-eye-supercharged-energy-ties-as-shield-against-U.S" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">until 2050.</a> The question is whether or not Putin would be willing to make his country into a China debt-slave, while subordinating himself to Xi Jinping. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">President Biden has hinted that countries that continue to <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2022-02-27/white-house-calls-on-china-to-condemn-russias-invasion-of-ukraine" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">support Russia</a> will also deal with U.S. sanctions. This leads to another possible outcome, that Russia could become so mired in Western sanctions that it would be geopolitical suicide for China to maintain <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/china-russia-ukraine-sanctions-politics-1.6363217" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">close relations</a> with it. In this case, Beijing may voluntarily distance itself from Russia.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">No one can guess Putin’s next move. But the U.S. reaction will determine the impact this crisis will have on the history of the world. If the U.S. shows any sign of weakness, Xi may feel emboldened and move on Taiwan. However, if the U.S. continues its show of strength, Russia may match strength-for-strength, escalating the conflict to a wider war. China may side with Russia in a military conflict, or may act unilaterally, to take Taiwan, placing the U.S. and its allies in the unenviable position of <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-looks-to-make-china-pay-for-close-ties-to-russia-in-ukraine-crisis-11645992755" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">fighting a war</a> on two fronts, against the world’s number-two and number-three military powers. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">In the case of any weakness from the U.S. and its global allies, Ukraine will then lose its sovereignty and a terrible precedent will be established: that authoritarian regimes can capture territory whenever they wish, and that Western powers are just paper tigers. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Author Bio:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Antonio Graceffo, a </strong><em><strong>Highbrow Magazine</strong></em><strong> contributor, is a Ph.D. and also holds a China-MBA from Shanghai Jiaotong University. He works as an economics professor and China economic analyst, writing for various international media. Some of his books include: </strong><strong>The Wrestler’s Dissertation, Warrior Odyssey, Beyond the Belt and Road: China’s Global Economic Expansion, and A Short Course on the Chinese Economy.</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Image Sources:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--</em><a href="https://www.maxpixel.net/Ukraine-Flag-War-Fist-Russia-Ukraine-Independence-7036311" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>MaxPixel.net</em></a><em> (Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Ministry of Defense Ukaine (</em><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anti-terrorist_operation_in_eastern_Ukraine_(War_Ukraine)_(27095245666).jpg" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Wikimedia</em></a><em>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--president.gov.ua (</em><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Volodymyr_Zelensky_Official_portrait.jpg" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Wikimedia</em></a><em>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Whitehouse.gov (</em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:President_Joe_Biden_and_Vice_President_Kamala_Harris_delivered_remarks_at_the_Capitol_on_the_anniversary_of_a_violent_insurrection.jpg" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Wikipedia</em></a><em>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Kremlin.ru (</em><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Xi_Jinping_(2017-07-07).jpg" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Wikimedia</em></a><em>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/ukraine" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">ukraine</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/ukraine-war" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">ukraine war</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/russia" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Russia</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/vladimir-putin" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">vladimir putin</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/president-zelensky" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">President Zelensky</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/nato" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">NATO</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/china" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">China</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/xi-ping" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">xi ping</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/president-biden" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">president biden</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/war" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">war</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Antonio Graceffo</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In Slider</div></div></div> Tue, 08 Mar 2022 16:40:03 +0000 tara 10974 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/19393-ukraine-deeper-look-threat-potential-world-war#comments Iraq Replaces Vietnam as a Metaphor for Tragedy https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4098-iraq-replaces-vietnam-metaphor-tragedy <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Thu, 06/26/2014 - 12:39</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1vietnamiraq.jpg?itok=hAtePaPx"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1vietnamiraq.jpg?itok=hAtePaPx" width="480" height="437" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner New America Media:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>A few years ago in a New York subway train I witnessed a scene that will always serve for me as an important marker of sort. A man in ruffled clothes walked up and down the aisle and panhandled in a loud voice. "Can you help a Vietnam Vet? I've got issues and I've been out of work. Folks, can you help?" All of a sudden a young man, who had been watching him, stood up and exploded: "You f'***g liar. You're too young to fight in NAM. Want to know issues? I've got issues. I just came back from Iraq."</p> <p> </p> <p>There was a collective hush, and some people fled to another car.</p> <p> </p> <p>For almost three decades after U.S. helicopters flew over a smoke-filled Saigon, Vietnam served as a vault of tragic metaphors for every American to use. In movies, in literature, someone who went to 'Nam was someone who came back a wreck, a traumatized soul who has seen or committed too many horrors to ever return to normal life. In politics, Vietnam was a hard-learned lesson that continued to influence U.S. foreign policies. It was an unhealed wound, the cause of post-traumatic stress, the stuff bad dreams were made of.</p> <p> </p> <p>Then came Iraq. Many comparisons have been made about the two wars. But what Iraq may have finally done is not so much remind us of Vietnam as ultimately usurp it from our national psyche.</p> <p> </p> <p>Fighting the Vietnam War brought a multitude of symbols and icons to the American mind. A new set has been acquired with the war in Iraq. One can almost imagine one era being replaced by another in the way that two kids might trade cards: "I'll take My Lai for your Haditha"; "I'll take 'Hearts and Minds' for 'Operation Iraqi Freedom'"; "Let's have Vo Nguyen Giap and Ho Chi Minh for Muqtada al-Sadr and Osama Bin Ladin"; "I'll take Tiger Cage for Abu Graib"; and "Let's have your Gulf of Tonkin for my WMD."</p> <p> </p> <p>Two-and-a-half years after the U.S. pulled out of Iraq the country has crumbled into a bona-fide failed state, with Baghdad under siege by ISIS (jihadist militants from the Islamic State), who are having a run of Iraq, and some analysts now worry that ISIS will commit mass genocide against Iraq's Shi'a population if Baghdad falls.</p> <p> </p> <p>The war in Iraq started with Operation Shock and Awe but ended in a fizzle and, some would argue, in an epic exercise in human futility. Here are some facts: Iraq claimed 4,487 American lives, and left 32,226 Americans wounded, according to Pentagon statistics. According to Iraqbodycount.org, the number of Iraqis who died from violence ranges between 103,000 and 114,000 during the U.S. occupation. Though Congressional Research Service has estimated the cost of Operation Iraqi Freedom at around $806 billion dollars, President Obama has said that the cost of the war is over $1 trillion.</p> <p> </p> <p>Yet, for a long time, Vietnam functioned as a benchmark for spectacular American failure, it remained a deep, searing wound. It took some time after the war's end before movies were made and books sold on the topic. There was a willful repression of America's only military defeat, followed by a flourish of Vietnam novels and movies. Together they constructed a mythic reality around the nation's experience in Vietnam that challenged our old notion of manifest destiny and examined our loss of innocence.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>In the 1980s, conservatives began to claim that the Vietnam Syndrome -- which they saw as an undesirable pacifism on the part of the American public and the U.S. government -- has been "kicked." Most famous of them all was George Bush Sr., who declared in 1991 after victory in the Persian Gulf War that "the ghosts of Vietnam had been laid to rest beneath the sands of the Arabian desert."</p> <p> </p> <p>But Bush Sr. spoke too soon. The glory of winning did not translate into a second presidential term, and Vietnam continued to haunt our national psyche. When President Clinton withdrew troops from Somalia after 18 soldiers were killed in Mogadishu in 1993, diplomat Richard Holbrooke called it the new "Vietmalia syndrome."</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/mediumIraqWar_0.jpg" style="height:279px; width:500px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>What we are learning now with the enormous failure of Iraq -- the lies and deception from the George W. Bush White House, the images of Iraqis wailing beside their dead loved ones, the shattered homes, bloody sidewalks, tortured prisoners, body parts in market stalls, burnt-out cars, roadside bombs, downed helicopters and horribly maimed American soldiers, the 2 million refugees, the unending sectarian violence -- is that tragedy cannot simply be overcome with some military victory, but with another tragedy of equal if not greater proportion.</p> <p> </p> <p>In another generation, when a future U.S. president sends troops to occupy some intransigent country on a dubious objective, American pundits will most likely ask this familiar question made new: "Will it be another Iraq?"</p> <p> </p> <p>Indeed, the unfinished violence in Iraq is showing us that the so-called Vietnam Syndrome cannot be "kicked," as it were, by winning but by losing, as it forces us to face our collective grief and guilt anew. For all the horrors committed in the name of democracy, and all the soul-searching Americans did after the Vietnam War, we failed to alter the bellicose nature of our nation. And, as if a reflection of our collective amnesia, the only obvious winner is the ever-growing military industrial complex.</p> <p> </p> <p>Going back into Iraq is an option unimaginable to the American public, and suicidal for any sitting president. But what will we do if the war between Sunni and Shi'a Muslims engulfs the Middle East? How do we reconcile with the lives imperiled by our direct intervention? What moral obligations do we have toward other nations that went up in flame due to our own meddling?</p> <p> </p> <p>Carl Jung, who made great inroads into man's collective psyche, once noted that, "It often seems as if there were an impersonal karma within a family, which is passed on from parents to children. It has always seemed to me that I had to answer questions which fate had posed to my forefathers, and which had not yet been answered, or as if I had to complete, or perhaps continue, things which previous ages had left unfinished."</p> <p> </p> <p>That observation can be applied to the fate of nations as well. For a country unable to confront and reconcile with its own heart of darkness is a country fated to repeat acts of barbarism. A war is waged, then there follows a period of reckoning. But then, like clockwork, amnesia settles in. And another war, and along with it, new tragedies, would begin.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><em>Andrew Lam is an editor with New America Media and author of the "Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora," and "East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres." His latest book is "Birds of Paradise Lost," a short story collection, was published in 2013 and won a Pen/Josephine Miles Literary Award in 2014 and a finalist for the California Book Award and shortlisted for theWilliam Saroyan International Prize for Writing.</em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/vietnam" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Vietnam</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/vietnam-war" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Vietnam war</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/iraq" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Iraq</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/war-iraq" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">war in iraq</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/war" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">war</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/iraq-war" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Iraq war</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/us-foreign-policy-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">us foreign policy</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/us-soldiers-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">us soldiers</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Andrew Lam</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Thu, 26 Jun 2014 16:39:56 +0000 tara 4901 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4098-iraq-replaces-vietnam-metaphor-tragedy#comments In Remembrance: A Pacifist Opposed to the First World War https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4075-remembrance-heroine-opposed-first-world-war <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 06/18/2014 - 10:33</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1bertha%20%28wiki%29.jpg?itok=UuvRP5sh"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1bertha%20%28wiki%29.jpg?itok=UuvRP5sh" width="340" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>From <a href="http://punditwire.com/2014/06/17/a-woman-against-world-war-i-2/">Punditwire.com</a>:</p> <p> </p> <p>This summer marks the hundredth anniversary of the outbreak of World War I. As we remember the jingoism, militarism, intrigue and paranoia that combined to produce one of history’s bloodiest debacles, we might spare a thought for the gallant and forgotten band of pacifists who offered Europe one last chance to pull back from the brink.</p> <p> </p> <p>In particular, we might rescue from undeserved obscurity the Baroness Bertha von Suttner, whom the writer Stefan Zweig called the “majestic and grandiose Cassandra of our time.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Born Countess Kinsky in Prague in 1843, Bertha was the posthumous daughter of a field marshal and, on her mother’s side, the granddaughter of a cavalry captain. Hardly the stuff of which pacifists are made. Yet the experiences of her adult life would cause her to reject the martial traditions that she had accepted without question in her youth.</p> <p> </p> <p>Bertha’s family was shabby genteel. Straitened circumstances forced her to seek employment in Vienna as a governess to the four daughters of the wealthy Baron von Suttner. Bertha was 30 at the time, but she fell in love with the baron’s son, Arthur, who was seven years her junior. When Arthur’s parents opposed the match, Bertha retreated to Paris, where she found work as private secretary to Swedish inventor and arms maker Alfred Nobel. Bertha would later persuade Nobel to establish the Nobel Peace Prize, of which she would be the fifth recipient in 1905.</p> <p> </p> <p>Bertha’s stay in Paris was brief. She returned to Vienna and, shortly thereafter, eloped with Arthur to the Russian Caucasus. Arthur’s family reacted by cutting him off without a penny, so for the next nine years the couple lived hand-to-mouth; Bertha giving lessons in languages and music, and Arthur working as a draftsman and business translator. Both were writers, and eventually they began to achieve some success in that field.</p> <p> </p> <p>Their lives changed dramatically when Vienna’s Neue Freie Presse engaged Arthur to report on Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78. Through Arthur’s work as a correspondent, the couple saw first hand the horrors and miseries that war inflicted on soldiers and civilians alike. Bertha was deeply affected, and vowed to devote the rest of her life to the cause of peace.</p> <p> </p> <p>Her opportunity came in 1885 when she and her husband were reconciled with his family and were able to return to a comfortable living in Vienna, pursuing parallel careers as writers. Four years later, Bertha published a gripping anti-war novel, Die Waffen Nieder! (Lay Down Your Arms!) based on her experiences in Russia. The book became an overnight best-seller in the German-speaking world. In 1890, Bertha founded the Austrian Peace Society and from 1892 to 1899 she co-edited a monthly pacifist journal also titled, Die Waffen Nieder!</p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/1wwi.jpg" style="height:363px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>In <em>Our Famous Gues</em>t, his fascinating book about Mark Twain’s sojourn in Vienna in the late 1890s, Professor Carl Dolmetsch offers a brief but arresting sketch of Bertha at this time: “By all accounts Baroness von Suttner was an extraordinary person. Touched with brilliance, if not genius, and with rhetorical and organizational skills of a high order, she was the kind of obdurate, single-minded visionary fired with evangelical fervor who, by force majeur has often changed the course of history.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Bertha believed passionately that an individual could indeed change the course of history and, for a brief shining moment, it seemed as if she actually might. In his book, Professor Dolmetsch describes a massive peace rally that Bertha staged in Vienna in 1898. She managed to secure Mark Twain as a speaker on this occasion, but the principal address was given by one Lt. Col. Manfred von Egidy, a Prussian officer who had been dismissed from the army for writing and circulating an antiwar pamphlet.</p> <p> </p> <p>The purpose of the rally was to build support for a proposal made by Czar Nicholas II of Russia that all governments send representatives to The Hague in six months to discuss proposals for world peace and international disarmament. The czar’s gesture was not entirely wasted; it led to the founding of the International Court of Justice, which still exists today. But it failed in its immediate aim of promoting peace and disarmament. Within months of the meeting at The Hague, the Boer War broke out in South Africa. Meanwhile, the European arms race hurtled on.</p> <p> </p> <p>In May of 1913, Vienna was shaken by a dramatic event that revealed just how immediate was the threat of all-out war. Colonel Alfred Redl, head of the Austrian Army’s counter-intelligence unit, blew out his brains in a hotel near the war department. It was shortly revealed that Redl had for years been in the pay of the Russians, selling them Austria’s vital military secrets.</p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2wwi.jpg" style="height:388px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>In his memoirs, Stefan Zweig describes meeting Bertha von Suttner on a Vienna street just after the Redl story broke. The normally dignified and soft-spoken baroness was beside herself at the news. “The people have no idea what is going on!” she cried out for all to hear. “The war is already upon us, and once again they have hidden and kept it from us. Why don’t you do something, you young people? It is your concern most of all. Defend yourselves! Unite! Don’t always let us few old women to whom no one listens do everything.”</p> <p> </p> <p>In reply, Zweig could only talk vaguely of going to Paris and persuading his fellow writers, artists and intellectuals to “perhaps”’ issue a common manifesto. But this was scarcely enough to satisfy the woman whom he would later call the “majestic and grandiose Cassandra of our time.” She shook her head. “Things are worse than ever,” she declared ominously. “The machine is already in motion.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Prophetic words. In a last-ditch effort to stop the machine, Bertha attempted to organize another peace conference, to be convened in Vienna in August of 1914. It was too late. On June 28 of that year, Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated at Sarajevo. By August, the great powers of Europe were locked in a cataclysmic struggle.</p> <p> </p> <p>The outbreak of the great war that Bertha had devoted her life to preventing would surely have broken her heart, had she lived to see it. But fate was kind. On June 21, exactly one week before the Sarajevo assassinations, Bertha von Suttner died.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><em>Hal Gordon, who wrote speeches for the Reagan White House and Gen. Colin Powell, is currently a freelance speechwriter in Houston. Website:</em> <a href="http://www.ringingwords.com/">www.ringingwords.com</a>.</p> <p> </p> <p><a href="http://punditwire.com/2014/06/17/a-woman-against-world-war-i-2/">Punditwire.com</a></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/bertha-von-suttner" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">bertha von suttner</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/pacifist" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">pacifist</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/pacifism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">pacifism</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/world-war-1" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">world war 1</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/first-world-war" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">first world war</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/war" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">war</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/europe" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Europe</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/military" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">military</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/conflict" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">conflict</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Hal Gordon</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Wikipedia Commons</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Wed, 18 Jun 2014 14:33:08 +0000 tara 4864 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4075-remembrance-heroine-opposed-first-world-war#comments Abrams Tanks v. the U.S. Army: Pentagon Wins This Round https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/2456-abrams-tanks-v-us-army-pentagon-wins-round <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 05/22/2013 - 08:59</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumabramstanks%20%28Benjamin%20Gable%20Wiki%29.jpg?itok=Y2WOJFyT"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumabramstanks%20%28Benjamin%20Gable%20Wiki%29.jpg?itok=Y2WOJFyT" width="480" height="310" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; line-height: 12.75pt; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">  </p> <p> On March 18, after 69 years of being stationed on German soil, the US Army loaded up the last remaining Abrams tanks and <a href="http://www.military.com/daily-news/2013/04/04/us-armys-last-tanks-depart-from-germany.html">shipped them home</a> to South Carolina. This will mark the first time that not a single U.S. tank is present on the European Continent since the first Sherman tanks landed on D-Day. The tanks, along with their corresponding armored divisions, were stationed there initially as a main combat feature throughout the Cold War. Modern realignments have altered the military landscape along with prospects of future conflicts which have shifted away from the type of heavy land battles that tanks are required for. As political and military realities shift and the historical presence of tanks as main combat tools is scaled back, the battle over the tanks has found a new frontier in Congress, concerning political posturing and defense budget cuts. </p> <p>  </p> <p> Once the sequester took hold, a large portion of cost-cutting would come from the Defense Department, requiring that the most well-funded military in the world trim down. Amongst many cost-saving initiatives, the Pentagon proposed shunning the production of any new Abrams tanks. Just as with the existing tanks being shipped out of Germany, the Abrams tank was no longer a necessary tool for today’s modern conflicts. The Pentagon explicitly stated that they already had too many tanks and did not want more of them, but as the <em>Washington Times </em><a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/9/lawmakers-force-pentagon-to-buy-tanks-keep-ships-a/#ixzz2TIQhCnk2">reported</a>, “Congress has authorized almost half-a-billion dollars over two years to build Abrams tanks for the Army.  But the Army has said it currently doesn’t need any tanks, and the money would be better used elsewhere. ‘If we had our choice, we would use that money in a different way,’ Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army’s chief of staff, said.’”</p> <p>  </p> <p> By going against the recommendations and budgetary requirements of the Army, Congress has voted to spend an extra $436 Million to continue production of the Abrams tank. However if the Army doesn’t want them then what is the motivation for Congress to force their production? The Huffington Post explained by <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/28/abrams-tank-congress-army_n_3173717.html">clarifying</a>, “If there's a home of the Abrams, it's politically important Ohio. The nation's only tank plant is in Lima. So it's no coincidence that the champions for more tanks are Rep. Jim Jordan and Sen. Rob Portman.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Since the closing of the Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant in 1996, the Joint Systems Manufacturing Center (Also known as the Lima Army Tank Plant) where the M-1 Abrams tank is manufactured has been the only operating tank plant left in the country. Closing the only American tank plant remaining, or at least temporarily as the army has proposed to do from 2014-2017, poses a few issues. The initial argument is that losing the key knowledge capital of how to manufacture large-scale tanks, as well as disrupting the industrial base, is dangerous to national security.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The argument goes that if in the future it is necessary to suddenly begin producing tanks again, we will not be able to do so as efficiently. However, the Army was never insisting upon completely shutting down all future full production of the Abrams tank. Tank production would only stop until 2017, and then the Army had planned to ramp up production on a newly designed Abrams tank. The Huffington Post <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/28/abrams-tank-congress-army_n_3173717.html">reported that</a>, “’This pause in tank production for the U.S. would allow the Army to spend its money on research and development work for the new and improved model, said Ashley Givens, a spokeswoman for the Army's Ground Combat Systems office.’”</p> <p>  </p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/jimjordan.jpg" style="width: 399px; height: 600px;" /></p> <p>  </p> <p> If the Army sticks to its chosen timetable, then the knowledge capital loss argument holds less weight. Building a more modern Abrams tank, along with research and development, would mean further training and manufacturing advancement that will only help bolster the process. However the argument over knowledge capital has more to do with Lima, Ohio.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The most contested argument over ceasing production on the Abrams tank has more to do with the realities of military pork spending in political districts. The plant employs around 700 people in the important manufacturing sector, and these workers along with the community count on the economic benefits from the hundreds of millions of dollars poured into the Abrams tanks. It is therefore no surprise that the senators and representatives who answer to the northwest constituencies in Ohio fought the loudest to force continued production of the Abrams tank.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Representative Jim Jordan, a Republican congressman known as a deficit hawk, insists that his drive to continue tank production has nothing to do with pork barrel spending, but as reported by the <em>Washington Times</em>, “‘My job is to represent the 4th Congressional District […] ‘But the fact remains, if it was not in the best interests of the national defense for the United States of America, then you would not see me supporting it like we do.’” This is questionable logic since the Defense Department has ardently maintained that it does not need any more tanks and that a half-billion dollars could be better utilized toward more pressing budgetary needs or newer technology better fit for modern warfare.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Representative Jordan, whose district includes the tank plant, has gone on to <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/army-says-no-more-tanks-115434897.html">insist</a> that we are supposed to spend taxpayer money in defense of the country, however, as <em>Business Insider</em> reported, “The only problem with this statement is that the Pentagon doesn’t want the tank. It’s an effective weapon if you’re trying to take Berlin from the Nazis. But it has no practical use in combating the threats the United States faces today.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> For more than 70 years, the Army has been purchasing tanks at a continuous pace, however with the changed military landscape, the need for the Abrams tank has diminished. Continued production of the older models has as much to do with politics as it does with the security of our nation. The Pentagon understands its own needs. Moreover, since it is tasked with maintaining U.S. armed forces, it has no reason to reject funding for weaponry, unless the weaponry is outdated for the modern threats that we face.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> <em>Alexander Ostrovsky is a contributing writer at</em> Highbrow Magazine.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/abrams-tanks" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">abrams tanks</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/army" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the army</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/pentagon" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Pentagon</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/us-army-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">us army</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/war" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">war</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/afghanistan" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Afghanistan</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/iraq" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Iraq</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/lima-ohio" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">lima ohio</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/rep-jim-jordan" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">rep jim jordan</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Alexander Ostrovsky</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Benjamin Gable, Wikipedia Commons</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Wed, 22 May 2013 12:59:36 +0000 tara 2895 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/2456-abrams-tanks-v-us-army-pentagon-wins-round#comments The Tragedy of Self-Immolation: An Act of Protest No Longer Noticed https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/2450-tragedy-self-immolation-act-protest-no-longer-noticed <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 05/20/2013 - 10:37</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2mediumsettingfire%20%28AK%20Rockefeller%20Flickr%29.jpg?itok=8vtmr64W"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2mediumsettingfire%20%28AK%20Rockefeller%20Flickr%29.jpg?itok=8vtmr64W" width="480" height="342" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> From <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2013/05/the-tragedy-of-self-immolation---no-one-cares.php">New America Media</a>:</p> <p>  </p> <p> Self-immolation isn’t what it used to be.  This ultimate form of protest became global news in 1963 when the venerable monk Thich Quang Duc set himself ablaze in the middle of Saigon, Vietnam, protesting religious oppression. Doused in gasoline, the monk sat serenely in lotus position and lit a match. A bird of paradise thus blossomed and bloomed, and quickly charred his body.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The photographer Malcolm Browne captured Thich Quang Duc’s fiery renouncement of the mortal coil, the image quickly becoming an icon of the Vietnam War era. The term “self-immolation,” in fact, entered into common English usage after his death, which led to a coup d’etat that toppled the pro-Catholic Ngo Dinh Diem regime.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Half a century later, to die by fire in protest registers little more than a media blip.</p> <p>  </p> <p> As of this writing, 117 Tibetans have set themselves ablaze since 2009 in a series of protests against Chinese rule. The most recent incidents came in April, when two young Tibetan monks and a lay Tibetan woman set themselves on fire. There was little coverage of their deaths.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Indeed, with the exception of Mohamed Bouazizi, the Tunisian fruit vendor who set himself on fire and thus sparked what became known as the Arab Spring, self-immolation has by all accounts become a failed form of protest as an agent of change. Since Bouazizi, in fact, 150 more Tunisians have set themselves on fire in protest against the new government that took over after the downfall of Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali's secular dictatorship.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Whether in Syria or Palestine, Greece, Italy or Vietnam, individuals continue to go up in flames as crowds look on.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “All the Tibetans who resort to self-immolation do so because they feel they have no other way to make China and the rest of the world listen to their country’s call for freedom,” Byrne-Rosengren, director of the London-based advocacy group Free Tibet, told Radio Free Asia last month.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Alas, China has turned a deaf ear to their cries, while the world media has averted its eyes.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Aristotle once observed that the plot of a tragedy should be so framed that, even without witnessing the events, simply hearing of them should fill one with “horror and pity” — even lead to insight and action. But the amphitheater of the 21st century has fallen into decay, scattered and fragmented into a multitude of media platforms. There are too many actors in too many theaters and their tragedies — overwhelming, lacking in context, incoherent, truncated or badly reported — have lost their grip on the human psyche.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Studies about desensitization of the modern mind are aplenty, but the general consensus is that over-saturation of images and narratives of violence have resulted in a collective numbness. A profound act of public death cannot hope to sway a world in which horror itself has lost its power.</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/mediumsettingfire.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 335px;" /></p> <p>  </p> <p> What we want instead is entertainment, and what we gravitate toward and react to, more often than not, is profanity.</p> <p>  </p> <p> A year after Bouazizi went up in flames in Tunisia, an unknown amateur filmmaker named Nakoula Basseley Nakoula,” aka “Sam Bacile,” inflamed the Middle East with incendiary video clips ridiculing the prophet Muhammad. His film turned the Arab Spring of 2011 into the Autumn Rage of 2012, resulted in the death of an American ambassador in Libya, and continues to be a bone of contention in Washington.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The cynic observer can’t help but wonder: If self immolation no longer works as an agent for change, then is it still worth the price?</p> <p>  </p> <p> At its most profound the act stands as the highest form of human compassion, a confirmation of life by giving up one’s own. At its most incoherent self-immolation becomes more expressive of the frustration of the powerless. The individual, enamored by death, possessed by anger, elicits neither horror nor pity but cynicism. After all, to burn with passion is very much different than to be consumed by rage.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Fire — this gift and curse to humanity — is a terrifying beauty. Contained, it hints at elegance, cooks our food and propels our world. Out of control, it engulfs body and soul. It seduces. It overpowers. And it destroys.</p> <p>  </p> <p> In a world where individuals leverage more power online than in the public square, it may be that to live burning with desire for change — regardless of the oppression and humiliation — is the real challenge to becoming actual agents of change in the world. So why not live instead? And find new paths that call attention to the suffering of one’s cause. Find a way to force the world’s attention once more back onto the stage — and evoke pity and horror in us all.</p> <p>  </p> <p> To burn with that desire, to call our attention and hold our gaze until we weep — isn’t that worth living for?</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> <em>Andrew Lam is editor and cofounder of New America Media</em>. <em>He is the author of</em> Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora, East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres, <em>and most recently, a collection of short stories</em>, Birds of Paradise Lost.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2013/05/the-tragedy-of-self-immolation---no-one-cares.php">New America Media</a></p> <p>  </p> <p> <em><strong>Photos: AJ Rockefeller (Creative Commons); New America Media. </strong></em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/self-immolation" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">self immolation</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/setting-fire" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">setting on fire</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/act-protest" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">act of protest</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/protest" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">protest</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/war" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">war</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/politics" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">politics</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/death" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">death</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tibet" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">tibet</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Andrew Lam</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Ak Rockefeller, Flickr (Creative Commons)</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 20 May 2013 14:37:56 +0000 tara 2881 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/2450-tragedy-self-immolation-act-protest-no-longer-noticed#comments Amidst Threats of War, N. Korea Grapples With a Struggling Economy https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/2387-amidst-threats-war-n-korea-grapples-struggling-economy <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Tue, 04/30/2013 - 10:37</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumnorthkoreatanks.jpg?itok=mX7c9yji"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumnorthkoreatanks.jpg?itok=mX7c9yji" width="480" height="268" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> From <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2013/04/as-north-korea-talks-economy-west-talks-of-war.php">New America Media</a>:</p> <p>  </p> <p> In the mounting war of words North Korea is having with the United States and its allies, it’s easy to believe who the chief aggressor is. A bankrupt dictatorship more interested in arming itself than feeding its populace can hardly expect a sympathetic audience.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Yet signals coming from inside the communist nation – via headlines, reporters, tourists and business people alike – are turning that picture on its head.</p> <p>  </p> <p> An April 5 piece by historian James Pearson that appeared on the site NK News.org notes that as world headlines continue to beat the drums of war with North Korea, the country’s largest daily newspaper, <em>Rodong Sinmun</em>, is “sending out quite a different message.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> What’s that message? Brian Myers, an expert on North Korean propaganda, told the <em>Wall Street Journal</em>, “The party daily has been calling for economic growth as always, and factories and farms appear on the TV news before the announcers launch into anti-U.S. and anti-South Korean rhetoric.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Last week’s appointment of Pak Pong Ju as the new premier of the North Korean cabinet adds further credence to the notion that the heated rhetoric out of Pyongyang may be tied to a push by the nation’s young leader, Kim Jong Un, to invigorate the North’s moribund economy. Pak is known to be a supporter of Chinese-style economic reforms.</p> <p>  </p> <p> According to NK News.org, four of the past five front-page headlines in the Rodong Sinmun explicitly call for economic strengthening as part of a larger policy known as byungjin, a term signifying military and economic security--including the development of a robust “nuclear deterrence.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Compare that to the litany of alarmist language daily seeping from mainstream media outlets across the globe. “Northeast Asia on Edge Ahead of Possible North Korean Missile Test,” declares CNN. The <em>New York Daily News</em> quoted former Vice President Dick Cheney stating that because Kim Jong Un “does not share our world view … we’re in deep doo doo.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> In South Korea, the media message is the same, despite the collective yawn elicited on the street. Residents are fed a daily diet of everything from North Korean “terrorist attacks” to cybersecurity breaches.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Swiss entrepreneur Felix Abt, who has spent the past seven years working in North Korea, summed up the contrast in the following tweet: “Warmongers in the West? Western Papers Discuss War, North Korean Papers Discuss Economy.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Abt, who has run financial training programs for bankers with North Korea’s Foreign Trade Bank, told Reuters the push to tighten sanctions could threaten humanitarian agencies working in the country.” The sanctions, he said, would be a "huge setback for economic development" in North Korea, forcing aid agencies to use “cash couriers or other funny methods" to continue their work.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Although the North Korean threat may be exaggerated, the fear certainly isn’t. A piece in the Korean-language Korea Daily noted that visitors to the South have fallen steadily, with Korean Air seeing a 6 percent decline in reservations from the same time last year.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Last week, a group of 500 Chinese tourists canceled plans to take a ferry from the Chinese city of Qingdao to the South Korean port of Incheon.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/mediumkimjongun%20%28petersnoopy%20Flickr%29_0.jpg" style="width: 505px; height: 600px;" /></p> <p>  </p> <p> In response, Seoul’s Ministry of Tourism is working overtime to convey another message: Things here are “secure.” Reports that acclaimed singer Psy, of “Gangnam Style” fame, was preparing to release another single probably helped.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Meanwhile, the Associated Press reporter Jean Lee tweeted recently that there is “zero panic on the streets of Pyongyang.” According to a story by Lee, tourists are still arriving in the North Korean capital for the April 15 commemoration of state founder Kim Il Sung’s birthday, such as biomedical engineer Australian Mark Fahey, who shrugged off the likelihood of war as "pretty unlikely."</p> <p>  </p> <p> While that’s hardly the image of a nation preparing for war, the question of objectives remains paramount, as the world attempts to glean clues as to Pyongyang’s motivation.</p> <p>  </p> <p> For North Korea scholar Bruce Cumings, the more pertinent question might be: What exactly does Washington want?</p> <p>  </p> <p> Writing for <em>The Nation</em>, Cumings argues Pyongyang’s intent is threefold: to pressure South Korea’s new president, Park Geun Hye, to reverse her predecessors hard-line stand, to challenge Obama’s “strategic patience” approach, and to present China with the choice of backing sanctions at the risk of more instability or maintaining its posture of support, however begrudging.</p> <p>  </p> <p> As for Washington, Cumings is more blunt. “Now comes Barack Obama with his ‘pivot to Asia,’ bringing new U.S. bases and force-projections to the task of containing China—while denying any such purpose.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> The journal <em>Foreign Policy</em> reported Wednesday that Obama’s latest budget proposal calls for stepping up spending in nuclear arms development while cutting down on non-proliferation programs. That plan only reinforces the perception, at least from Beijing and Pyongyang, that the U.S. position may be less than benign and certainly far from defensive.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> <em>Peter Schurmann is an editor with New America Media. He spent three years as a reporter and editor in Seoul, South Korea.</em></p> <p>  </p> <p> <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2013/04/as-north-korea-talks-economy-west-talks-of-war.php">New America Media</a></p> <p>  </p> <p> <em><strong>Photos: New America Media; Peter Snoonpy (Creative Commons).</strong></em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/north-korea" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">North Korea</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/south-korea" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">South Korea</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/north-korean-nuclear-weapons" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">north korean nuclear weapons</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/pyongyang" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Pyongyang</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/kim-jong-un" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">kim jong un</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/kim-jong-il" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">kim jong il</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/north-korea-economy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">north korea economy</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/war" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">war</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/threats-war" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">threats of war</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Peter Schurmann</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:37:17 +0000 tara 2774 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/2387-amidst-threats-war-n-korea-grapples-struggling-economy#comments