------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the May 31, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- BY ITS OWN DEFINITION: U.S. A ROGUE STATE By Leslie Feinberg The United States is the worst "rogue state" by its own definitions, reasoned a May 20 signed article in Rodong Sinmun--the official newspaper of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The term "rogue state" was invented by the Clinton administration in an attempt to justify its targeting of any country that stood up to U.S. imperialism on any front. The term also served as a fig leaf that barely covered plans by the U.S. military-industrial complex for expensive new weapons of mass destruction. The May 20 article from North Korea--itself in the Pentagon's crosshairs--noted the grounds on which the U.S. labeled other countries as "rogue states." The first is the development of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and missiles. However, the article explained, the U.S. ranks first in the world in the number of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and missiles. The quality and destructive capabilities of these U.S. weapons systems far outstrip all other countries. And it is Washington that inflicted the most terrible massacres of people around the world by ordering the use of these weapons. No one can forget that it was the United States--the first and only country in the world to use nuclear weapons against humankind--that dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, at the end of World War II. The death toll was staggering. Strategists from the bunkers of Pentagon war rooms to the boardrooms of Wall Street thought their monopoly on this mega-weapon would guarantee their political and economic domination of the world, as well as their military hegemony. The war had so weakened most of the other imperialist countries in Europe and Japan that the oppressed peoples of Asia, Africa and the Middle East were emboldened to rise up to fight for genuine independence. In China, Korea and Vietnam, communist-led liberation movements routed pro-imperialist puppet governments. They formed an anti-imperialist world bloc together with the USSR and the Eastern European regimes. This new relationship of forces enraged the U.S. ruling class and their military brass. Riding tall in the saddle after World War II, the generals and admirals thought they could steamroller these countries and reap the spoils of war. By 1952, the U.S. sent hundreds of thousands of GIs into a war to keep Korea in the capitalist orbit. During that war, the May 20 article reported, the Pentagon repeatedly tried to use nuclear weapons. But the Korean people battled so heroically and stalwartly against this Goliath that for the first time in its history the U.S. military machine was fought to a standstill. THE REAL TERRORISTS The second criterion U.S. officials used in characterizing countries as "rogue states" was that they "sponsor terrorism," the Rodong Sinmun article continued. But "the criminal sponsor of international terrorism is none other than the United States." Acting as if it were a "judge of terrorism," the article stressed, "it lists other countries as 'terrorism-sponsor states,' puts pressure upon them and uses armed forces against them under this or that pretext." Rodong Sinmun recalls the terror bombings the first Bush administration rained down on the Iraqi people. And the U.S.-led NATO war against Yugoslavia that hammered the remnants of that socialist state with high-tech weaponry. "Its military actions against Yugoslavia two years ago," the article stated, "contravened the international law and norms of international relations." And the recent announcement by the newly-installed Bush regime that it would not comply with the Kyoto protocol--a modest accord to protect the environment of the planet--"is the reckless act of a rogue country which unhesitatingly commits any unjustifiable acts for its own sake. "Such arbitrary and strong-arm practices of the United States will not work in the present world," Rodong Sinmun concluded. "Humankind will certainly bring the U.S. to the court of history and severely punish it." - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
