Prime Minister David Cameron is intent on continuing such practices. He chose an April 4 visit to Scotland to claim that it is a "fact" that North Korea has the technology to attack both the United States and the United Kingdom with a nuclear missile.
"How concerned am I about North Korea? Very concerned, it has extremely dangerous technologies in terms of nuclear and its weapons... The fact is, as I wrote in a newspaper article this morning, North Korea does now have missile technology that is able to reach, as they put it, the whole of the United States and if they're able to reach the whole of the United States they can reach Europe too. They can reach us too, so that is a real concern."
The claim is a flat-out lie, as many authoritative voices have pointed out. James Hardy, Asia Pacific Editor of Jane's Defence Weekly, commented, "From what we know of its existing inventory, North Korea has short and medium range missiles that could complicate a situation on the Korean Peninsula (and perhaps reach Japan), but we have not seen any evidence that it has long-range missiles that could strike the continental US, Guam or Hawaii."
Mark Fitzpatrick, Director of Nuclear Non-Proliferation and disarmament at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, baldly told ITV News, "North Korea does not have any missile capabilities that could hit Britain, and it is difficult to envision circumstances when North Korea ever would want to attack the UK even if they could."
Cameron's most immediate motivation for his "Big Lie" is the desire to preserve the ability of British imperialism to do what he accused Pyongyang of contemplating: delivering a nuclear strike against its enemies.
Speaking to an audience of defence workers in Scotland, he used the mythical threat from North Korea to argue for maintaining and then later replacing Britain's Trident submarine "nuclear deterrent." The ruling Conservatives are in favor of a Trident replacement system and are presently in conflict with their Liberal Democrat coalition partners about whether to maintain a continuous at-sea nuclear deterrent, given the costs associated with a new generation of submarines.
Cameron told his audience during a visit to one of the Royal Navy's Vanguard-class submarines, "I strongly believe we should replace [Trident] on a like-for-like basis. ... There are nuclear states and one cannot be sure how they will develop."
Elaborating on this theme, he made clear that his broader geostrategic political aim is to legitimize the on-going US aggression against North Korea, up to and including British support and participation in a war, should that be required.
"I think the question we need to ask ourselves in the context of this debate about a nuclear deterrent, is what will a country like North Korea be like in 10 years, 20 years, 30 years." He added, "To me, having that nuclear deterrent is quite simply the best insurance policy you can have that you will never be subject to nuclear blackmail."
This turns reality on its head. The main issue is not what Pyongyang might do in three decades, but the very real nuclear blackmail and warmongering of the United States and Britain today.
Cameron spoke even as Washington announced that it was moving an advanced missile defense system to Guam, its Pacific island territory, and a battalion equipped to fight chemical and biological attacks in South Korea. The annual US training exercise Foal Eagle was taking place over the border in South Korea, which includes the deploying of guided missile warships and nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers.
Once again the UK is providing the lies necessary to justify military aggression by US imperialism, as Washington pursues plans to secure its global dominance against its rivals.
The parallels with the claims made by the Labour government of Tony Blair in the run-up to the Iraq war in 2003 are all too obvious.
The intelligence dossier issued and presented to parliament on September 24, 2002 claimed that the Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD), including chemical and biological weapons, and had a reconstituted nuclear weapons program.
The most notorious lie it contained was the assertion made in its foreword by Blair, that "The document discloses that his military planning allows for some of the WMD to be ready within 45 minutes of an order to use them."
1
