US military-industrial complex wants to preserve confrontation with North Korea: Writer

The US military-industrial complex has the vested interests in preserving the confrontation on the Korean peninsula, according to E. Michael Jones, an American political analyst in Indiana.

Jones, a writer, former professor, media commentator and the current editor of the Culture Wars magazine, made the remarks in a phone interview with Press TV on Friday.

The US military in South Korea has opened its "biggest overseas base,” just weeks after President Donald Trump said he would love to get American military out of the Korean peninsula, following a historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un earlier this month.

North Korea has long demanded US troops be removed from the Korean peninsula as part of a nuclear deal, but the US has been at pains to stress the issue is not a bargaining chip. The US has about 28,500 service members stationed in South Korea.

Trump said at a press conference following the June 12 summit with the North Korean leader that the United States was stopping “very provocative” and expensive military exercises with South Korea to facilitate denuclearization negotiations with North Korea.

The United States and South Korea hold regular military drills to the fury of North Korea, which has long seen the drills as preparations to invade it.

PressTV-What Trump’s U-turn on North Korea shows

Trump’s latest somersault on North Korea shows the possibility that complete chaos exists inside the US government, American writer James Petras says.

Last week, Trump however declared North Korea an "unusual and extraordinary threat" to US national security as he acted to maintain harsh economic sanctions against Pyongyang.

Trump at war with military-industrial complex

“What we are seeing here is a repeat of what happened in Syria recently. If you remember, Trump announced that he was withdrawing troops from Syria. What follows was an immediate false flag attack, gas attack which then allowed the United States government to say that ‘well, we are not pulling the troops out of Syria. They are still necessary,’” Jones said.

“What you are seeing here is Trump at war with the bureaucrats, the generals, the military-industrial complex, who have the vested interests in preserving the confrontation that has existed ever since the World War 2,” he stated.  

“This confrontation allowed the United States to have hegemony over the entire world. It’s no longer what it was; it’s no longer viable; it’s no longer tangible for the people who are in charge or determined to maintain the status quo, in spite all of Trump’s efforts to change it and abolish it,” the analyst noted.

“This also goes back to probably the similar moment in my life growing up which was the assassination of John F. Kennedy. What we saw there was the same thing what’s happening here. John F. Kennedy tried to end the Cold War. He was perceived by his own government, at least by the elements within the government, elements within the military-industrial complex, as a traitor. And as a result he was murdered,” he observed.

“This is the conflict that Trump is facing and maybe his (Kennedy’s) fate as well,” the commentator concluded.   

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