B-1B

Authored by Pepe Escobar via Asia Times,

While the US-backed 'Hunger Games' in South Korea plow on, a 'new strategy' for Afghanistan is really all about business. But China is already there...

There are more parallels between an unfinished 1950s war in Northeast Asia and an ongoing 16-year-old war in the crossroads between Central and South Asia than meet the eye.

Let’s start with North Korea.

Once again the US/South Korea Hunger Games plow on. It didn’t have to be this way.

Since unlike Donald Trump he does not have access to twitter, we can only assume that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is probably fuming this morning after US and Japanese fighter jets conducted joint “air maneuvers” southwest of the Korean peninsula, according to Reuters. The exercises threaten to reignite tensions between the US and the North after Kim Jong Un reportedly told his generals on Tuesday to shelve a plan to strike Guam with an ICBM.

It appears things are starting to move fast...

Pacific Air Forces Public Affairs reports from Joint Base Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

Two U.S. Air Force B-1B bombers, under the command of U.S. Pacific Air Forces, joined their counterparts from the Republic of Korea and Japanese air forces in sequenced bilateral missions, August 7.

With Gen. John Kelly set to be sworn in as Trump's new Chief of Staff, just days after the latest and most advanced North Korean ICBM test yet, one which can reportedly reach as much as half the major metro areas on the continental US, President Trump on Monday pledged to "handle" North Korea's provocative belligerence, without specifying exactly how he would do so as he faces rising tensions and limited options.

Two days after President Donald Trump tweeted he was "very disappointed" in China
following Pyongyang's latest missile test adding that "we will no longer allow this to continue", Beijing has hit back at Trump on Monday, saying the problem did not
arise in China and that all sides need to work for a solution, according to a statement sent to Reuters by China's Foreign Ministry.