Analyst:

US needs enemies to justify military spending, wars

Rasa - The United States has always tried to make up adversaries in order to justify its military spending and wars, says an American author in Chicago.

News ID: 425974

Date: 22 December 2016 - 17:09

RNA - Stephen Lendman, an author and radio host, made the remarks while discussing Washington’s plan to regularly deploy strategic weapons to South Korea to counter nuclear and missile threats from North Korea.

American officials reaffirmed the commitment at the first meeting of the joint Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group (EDSCG) between the US and South Korea in Washington on Tuesday.

Earlier this year, the US dispatched several B-52 strategic bombers and stealth fighter jets to South Korea in a show of force after North Korea conducted a nuclear test.

The bombers, capable of carrying nuclear weapons, briefly flew close to the demilitarized zone between the two neighbors.

In September, the US flew two other B-1B strategic bombers over South Korea and near North Korea’s border. One of the nuclear-capable supersonic bombers landed at Osan Air Base near Seoul, a first in two decades.

“There really is no threat at all,” Lendman said, noting that the Korean War was about Pyongyang defending itself against a joint aggression by Washington and Seoul.

Lendman said the North was not interested in a confrontation with the US and it is Washington that needs to make adversaries in order to push forward its agenda.

“It needs enemies, it needs adversaries,” he said. “Otherwise, how can it justify its outrageous military expenditures” and the wars it has waged.

“It could not possibly justify this unless it claimed that a major to US security; so the threats are hyped out of whole cloth… there are none and countries like North Korea are kept isolated from America,” the analyst continued.

Lendman further argued that there is no way for the US animosity towards North Korea to end under Trump’s government.

Trump’s security adviser, retired lieutenant general Michael Flynn, told a South Korean delegation this week that the Trump administration would continue to cooperate with Seoul to further strengthen the South Korea-US alliance, according to officials.

Pyongyang says it will not abandon its nuclear “deterrence” unless Washington ends its “hostile” policy toward the country.

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