This morning I found the following question in my inbox.
I was looking over the synopsis on your 3 book series. Hmmmmm. With all the stuff going on right now, whitehouse, storms, russia, north korea…. any of that mentioned (in part correctly) in your books? You know, news before it became news?
Russia and China play a critical part at the end of “Infinite Exposure” on into “Lesedi” but the storms and North Korea, no.
In truth, North Korea isn’t really a player. China has always used them as a thumb in the eye of the United States. They also kept the dude’s brother alive because the plan was to change the government overnight if little rocket man went too far off the rails. Little rocket man killed his own brother though, making the “soft coup” impossible.
Brother had quite a following in country _and_ he actually had more royal blood than little rocket man. As far as coups go it would be an easy sell. China held off on that because the brother would be even less under their control. Oh, he wasn’t psychotic like the current leader, he existed for drinking, gambling, and banging hot women. In short, he could have easily been a U.S. Senator. As soon as China put him in power, there would be an “international summit” held in Vegas, just off the strip.
Ultimately, China doesn’t want the United States right at its border. The coup would have had us there within 5 years provided the dude didn’t catch something fatal from a hooker.
While Trump is a loose cannon who talks out his ass repeatedly, he is not incorrect that we have no choice but to “glass” North Korea if the military option is chosen. There are too many weapons pointed at the south and too much chance of their long range stuff actually hitting something. If any of their missiles get damaged during takeoff there is a high probability some would veer into China. In short, even if China opts to sit this one out the country will still bleed. Let’s also not forget the fallout carried on the wind could blow China or Russia’s way.
Oddly enough Russia has gotten involved. While Russia is little rocket man’s only other trading partner and, most likely, where many of the scientists building the nuclear weapons got their training (some probably went to school here as well since we are a bit too free with educational visas), I found it quite odd they would step in and help tamp down little rocket man. Admittedly the Russians like to play chess and you cannot play a chess game when every third move chosen via dice toss, but . . .
Russia typically doesn’t care enough about its citizens to worry about an errant missile or radioactive fallout. (Remember Chernobyl?)
Russia also does not want the US right up next to it, but, if little rocket man slams into Japan or some other country with a “test” Putin will have to divert forces away from conquering the former Soviet Union to conquer North Korea. If they don’t China will be able to exploit all of the resources, the most important of which will be living space for its massive population.
One of the two of them will have to occupy the country or they will both have the U.S. holding a territory which shares a border with them.
The U.S. will also be stupid. We will spend countless trillions of dollars and thousands of lives, but, not put in place a 100 year occupation complete with a constitution and education system. Despite what people may say about the British occupation of India, the net result was good for the country. People speak English and there is a significant education system. India is now cranking out low wage, highly exploited IT workers in droves. There is still a massive amount of poverty, some of which is cultural, but, had India been left to itself it would not have went down this path and would _never_ have had a shot at becoming a second, or even first world country. Their caste system ensured that could never happen.
Ironically, I was never worried about the Russians nuking America. Despite what Wikipedia says, I remember Duck and Cover drills during my first few school years and I wasn’t born in the 1950s. Having spent over 3 decades in IT, I’ve met many former Soviet citizens who were some of the earliest exploited IT workers in this country, especially in IBM mainframe shops. We’ve all heard the expression “A long, hard winter” used when speaking of Russia. It doesn’t speak just of the Russian winter which stopped both Adolph Hitler and Napoleon, but of the continual suffering of the country. A large part of this suffering is caused by the insatiable greed of the Oligarchs who control everything much like the wealthy in this country.
No, I was never worried they would strike. Why? Insatiable greed is incredibly predictable. An all out nuclear war would, assuming it didn’t wipe out all life, leave huge chunks of the planet uninhabitable for generations. Both Russia and the U.S. are way past those two, now seemingly tiny, nukes which were dropped on Japan. (Odd that Japan embraced nuclear power later, thus letting a tsunami do it to them again.) There are now many stories that one or both countries possess “planet crackers.” Nukes which, if dropped into the bottom of a very deep oil well, produce enough of a blast and EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse) to, for at least a brief amount of time, cancel out the gravity holding the planet together. (Do a Web search for the “60 Minutes” piece Ed Bradley did about the nuke Russia used to try and reverse the flow of a river. It created a radioactive lake humans could still not approach when he did his on-site reporting.)
The only time Russia and the United States could have chosen to duke it out was immediately after WWII. Once both countries began space programs to hide in plain sight the research and construction of ICBMs (Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles) it was a no win for both sides. That didn’t stop certain people from believing “if we create one really big one and strike first . . .” but it was and still is the reality.
With North Korea, the chickens of Russia and China have come home to roost. They now have a mentally unstable leader with nuclear weapons in that country. One who appears to desire the “respect” empire building would give him. One willing to let all his people turn to ash in an instant to achieve such prominence.
The problem with chess games involving real people is based on a line you have all heard before.
A butterfly flapping its wings in the rain forest causes a hurricane . . .
Cold war chess games played in Afghanistan, Korea and other places spun out unforeseen problems such as terrorists and a mentally unstable leader with nuclear weapons. The misguided “good guy” policies which didn’t let us make a 100 year protectorate out of each country we had to deploy our military to also contributed to the current situation.
Both Russia and China have to sweep the problem in North Korea up. There is no way for their countries to sit on the sidelines because even if _everything_ goes perfectly with a U.S. (or other country) lead strike, both will receive a flood of refugees. They cannot head south because their leader will attack the south first.
