Ralph Peters: ‘China Will Never Decisively Help Us Against North Korea’

EXCERPT:

PETERS: "And one of the greatest obstacles, perhaps the greatest obstacle to making progress on the North Korea threat is group think in Washington that -- it’s accepted wisdom that the path of Pyongyang goes through Beijing. China is going to help us, we just have to figure out the right button to press. China will never decisively help us against North Korea, because China benefits in peacetime, North Korea keeps us occupied so we haven’t cracked down on the Chinese in trade or intellectual property issues. And in wartime North Korea would tie down enormous amounts of U.S. troops. But -- but let’s look at the -- the worst -- worse comes to worst, and the North Koreans explode a nuclear weapon in the air above Honolulu. Well it's not going to benefit North Korea because we would destroy the place. But China without firing a shot would have wrecked the pivot of our Pacific strategy. I mean, People aren’t thinking militarily on this. And the key North Korean target for their nukes would be Honolulu, 44,000 U.S. personnel, Pearl Harbor, the army bases, the air bases, San Diego, Seattle, Puget Sound and Fort Lewis. I mean, this -- this is a possibility for China to achieve its number one strategic dream, driving the U.S. from the Pacific without Beijing firing a shot."