For a good chunk of our recent history the US was allied with Saddam Hussein BTW. Also, Irans nuclear program was started by the Shah of Iran. See
attached document here.
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Re China. China became communist because of the US mistake in supporting the incredibly corrupt admittedly fascist Nationalist government which because of the US educated and articulate Madame Chiang Kai Shek got a sympathetic ear in Washington it didnt deserve - meanwhile most of the aid we sent them was getting siphoned off. They were almost as brutal as the Japanese.
The fall of the Qing Dynasty led to a three way power struggle between the Japanese who were most successful in northeastern part of China/Manchuria and an uncomfortable coalition between Nationalists and Communists and after the Japanese fell all out civil war, that civil war represented just the latest century of many millennia of nothing that could be called prosperity, and many incredibly hard times, and we need to realize that the inequality we complain about in Western nations is luxury compared to the extremes of Asia and Africa where life has been cheap, rulers incredibly corrupt, for a long long time. This is the situation that western countries made themselves wealthy by exploiting, forming alliances between the elites in those countries and themselves to divide the spoils that persist to this day.
I'm afraid that rapprochement between the US and North Korea could lead to some particularly bad alliances. We dont want to offshore our prisoners to North Korea, for example. But that could happen if they join the WTO. Comparative Advantage, look it up.
The stateless
children of terrified North Korean women in China have had it bad also.
We should look back in time to the so called Yalta Percentages Agreement, when the fate of Eastern Europe was sketched out ona cocktail napkin, the spirit of which led to the partitions of both Korea and Vietnam as well as Europe, and resolve never to do it again.
Also, Operation Keelhaul, resulted in the deaths of millions of refugees from Russia when they were 'repatriated' back to Stalin who killed them. A history which remains largely unknown. We cant do that with North Korea.
As we can see Asia and Africa remain a place of extremes in a world of extremism. The only way to fix that is just to do it, to lose the greed and just do it. We can afford to. We have to STFU and dump the greed.
The conditions many (the vast majority) of people lived (and in most cases still live under) was extreme bone-grinding poverty.
Read about
colonialism in Africa under King Leopold of Belgium in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. In order to force Africans to work in the rubber trade they would enslave villages and if anybody resisted they were mercilessly slaughtered and their hands cut off to show that they had been killed. These hands were used as proof.
People in the US and Europe don't realize how hard the past has been - how hard many Asian and African and American countries had it under colonialism. And still do with Western countries (like the US) largely propping up the governments that are the most compliant in looting them. Thats the deal. Democracy is not what they want. Far from it. They want a compliant ruling class that helps them skim off the wealth and give back as little as possible. High returns on investments. Why invest domestically why educate when you can exploit? We're returning to that today. We force credit on them, but make sure it goes to the most corrupt compliant people. Anybody tries to start a union, we support repression. I'm being quite kind in my use of terms here. The real descriptive term is death related. This has happened again and again. Basically they are looted by their rich and our rich.
Building up huge debts that countries cant ever repay. When the people chafe under these debts, we send in the troops, or the CIA.
William Blum wrote a book, Killing Hope that enumerates the history of these US interventions. An old version of it is on the web. Its a must read. But, the most recent interventions arent covered.
In 1995 we shifted to a new method of hegemony, the IMF, WTO and World Bank.
In part it was because they want to continue the looting even under a so called rule of law.
Now expecting their repayment out of the taxpayers hard earned money, never from the globe-trotting aristocracy which loots them again and again. They want to trade away the middle classes jobs, robbing Peter to pay Paul. To keep the Global South oligarchs in power.
A modern standard of living is a fairly recent development in Asia. Oligarchs in the US and Europe unfortunately now want their countries to support them like their friends in India, China etc live.
They are tired of having a middle class. What can we look forward to?
Famines were not infrequent and killed huge numbers, often millions of people. Tropical countries are known for tropical diseases, many of those diseases, chronic diseases basically created lives of pain and illness. Now those diseases are diversifying geographically, northward and southward, while illnesses are being made profitable again.
Also grinding hunger, vulnerable to the variations in climate cause failure of crops and then large numbers of people died. Also many people made lots of money.
Under colonial Europe's influence, India and China would export and convert land to grow various cash crops, not always food people needed, (then they could import food and sell that making two profits) even as people starved by the millions.
Thats the real free market system. Seriously. Many people are still very poor. Even in cities.
Example.
Various forms of slavery are still common.
To understand how we got where we are today we must read some history.