Pen Meets Paper May 31'10

Opinion by Helge Nome

“Despite its strong denial of any involvement and expressions of sympathy for lost fellow Koreans, fingers are being pointed at North Korea over the tragic sinking of the 1,200-ton South Korean corvette Cheonan in the West Sea or Yellow Sea on the night of March 26.”
So begins an article in Asia Times Online by Kim Myong Chol, a North Korean with close ties to Kim Jong-il, the North Korean ruler/strong man. The sinking of the Cheonan has been a prominent story in the main news media recently, before being overtaken by more spectacular events in the last few days. The Obama administration has pointed an accusing finger at North Korea, siting “irrefutable evidence” involving recovered torpedo parts of North Korean origins. Now, North Korea stands accused and summarily judged by its accuser which is using the incident to build support for isolating North Korea even further from the world community.
This story has a faint ring of familiarity for those that remember the “evidence” presented to the UN Security Council by the US “proving” that Iraq had a supply of “Weapons of Mass Destruction” that could be used against the US on short notice.
This has since been proved to be a total fabrication of facts fueled by post 9/11 paranoia. The decision to invade Iraq had been made long ago in Washington and London and all that was needed to go ahead was a pre-fabricated excuse.
Then there was Vietnam. From Wikipedia:
“The second Tonkin Gulf incident, which occurred on August 4, 1964, was also a naval battle, but this time, may have involved the "Tonkin Ghosts"[7], and no actual NVN Torpedo Boat attacks. The outcome of this second incident was the passage by Congress of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which granted President Lyndon B. Johnson the authority to assist any Southeast Asian country whose government was considered to be jeopardized by "communist aggression". The resolution served as Johnson's legal justification for deploying US conventional forces and the commencement of open warfare against North Vietnam.”
Back to the Korean incident, according to Kim Myong Chol: “The disaster took place precisely in the waters where what the Pentagon has called "one of the world's largest simulated exercises" was underway. This war exercise, known as "Key Resolve/Foal Eagle" did not end on March 18 as was reported but actually ran from March 18 to April 30.” See Kim’s story here
How likely is it that a North Korean submarine would have entered into South Korean waters with such an exercise under way? And attacked a South Korean naval vessel, while there? It would have been a suicide mission. What most likely happened was an accidental collision between vessels that were part of the exercise that has now conveniently been blamed on the North Koreans for political reasons. The complete absence of critical thinking on the part of the mainstream media has been duly noted.
Do those guys ever get out of the bar?