The capitalist system is based upon a sick fragile basis, which is compromise. Its advocates seek to achieve the greatest material gains, and pleasures as possible, because happiness is purely material in their eyes, and they do not refrain from starving the people, robbing them of their livelihood, colonising their countries and looting their wealth.
Therefore, colonialism was the method of spreading this materialistic ideology. It resulted in devastating, destructive wars, such as the First and Second World Wars, and economic, political and military conflicts and crises. These days it is the so-called Korean crises. What is the reality of this crisis? What are its roots? What is its impact on international politics, especially among the larger states?
Before answering this, we say: all the conflicts that are taking place today between neighboring or distant countries are based upon and caused by colonialism resulting from the capitalist ideology. What happened before, and today, between the two Koreas, or what happened with the two parts of Vietnam, or between other conflicts -such as Iran and Iraq, or Turkey and Cyprus, is rooted in the same. Its cause was the ambitions of colonialism and its lowly policies, and what this colonialism concocts for the sake of material benefits and material interests.
As to the crisis of two Koreas, and what results from it in terms of international and regional conflicts: its roots are old. It extends back to the early 1940s during the conflict between the Soviet-led Eastern camp and the American-led Western camp. The conflict often flared up between the major powers (Russia, America, Britain and China) but has now settled in the present-day conflict between the two giants, China and America. After the demise of the Soviet Union, the crisis has arrived to where it is today with the threat to destroy North Korea; as took place in the United Nations a few days ago -from the mouth of the US President.
As for its impact on international politics, both America and China use and exploit this crisis to achieve their political goals and ambitions. It matters not if millions are killed, as happened in the early 1950s in the Korean War between South Korea and America on the one hand, China and North Korea on the other, where millions of people were killed and wounded.
With the heating up of the Korean crisis, America aims towards the objectives of:
1. deploying more military forces in the South China Sea, to strengthen its military forces and bases in neighboring countries;
2. working to tighten the ring around China, so that it remains within the regional circle and not exceed that;
3. demonstrating US military power and arrogance, delivering the message that it is capable of dominating the world militarily and politically, and that is by the use of force, and
4. economics, in the circle of its political objectives, by exhausting China through military spending and keeping it in a continued state of vigilance. In the book Political Concepts it states: “America will continue to stir the Korean issue. It will remain unsettled, with the condition that China is concerned about the problem, and it’s not a problem for America alone.”
China is working to exploit this crisis internationally and regionally through other goals, including:
1. damaging America’s prestige in front of the world, by dragging it into an unequal political conflict between a superpower and a minor;
2. engaging with the US in political and economic discussions, especially in matters of international trade, interest rates, exchange rates and other economic benefits;
3. inciting other countries against America’s economic policies and military threats, especially within the international system of the United Nations and the Security Council. This was clearly demonstrated at the meeting of the UN (20-Sept-2017), where it called Europe and Russia to not use the tone of threat and intimidation in resolving the Korean conflict, and to follow diplomatic channels, and warned that the use of military force to resolve this conflict will bring the world calamities, and America will bear the consequences of that;
4. transferring Chinese military forces in the vicinity of Korea for its protection; this already occurred on 15-Apr-2017 (China transferred thousands of troops and military equipment to the vicinity of the Korean border), and
5. exploiting the crisis. China has created an alliance against America and its threats outside the international system, especially with Russia and the European Union, and to some extent it succeeded in rousing them against the repeated threats of America by its president.
This is the nature of the conflict between the two giants, America and China, and its political influence on the surroundings, and on the big powers. To what extent can this crisis continue? Is it possible for military means to solve it?
This crisis is not intended, by either of the two giants, to be resolved in the near future, though they pretend that; whenever the fire seems to calm down, oil will be poured on it to re-ignite it. However, within the current international and regional events a military solution is unlikely.
There are many issues which make military conflicts (as a solution to the Korean crisis) unlikely. Some of them are that:
1. it is still within the circle of diplomacy. The crisis can be controlled through China and their common interests, through the international system (UN). America has been turning to China at times and to the international system at other times in order to tighten the blockade and curb North Korea. There has been a lack of an American response to the threats from North Korea, despite their repetition, and the emergence of a challenge to America by launching missiles and nuclear tests. It was also apparent from the easing of the international resolution more than once in the last sitting of the UN 12-Sept-2017, to obtain approval and non-objections. It shows that the military response is not in America’s current calculations;
2. the cost of this conflict will be enormous for America both militarily and economically. The US still has not recovered from financial and economic crises of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The US budget deficit for 2017 is about $50 billion, and
3. the nature of the Korean crisis does not pose a threat to US national security or its vital interests directly. This crisis can be dealt with through the international system, and political gains can also be made because of it, as long as the issue is burning. In his final speech as the President, Obama said: “America is not ready to go to war outside its territory, unless its national security is endangered, or its vital interests are endangered.”
For these and other reasons, the Korean crisis remains within the circle of diplomatic and political conflict through the international system. Within this, there are risks and consequences of mutual threats and dispatching of forces.
1. Economic crises: it is no secret that crises make economic conditions fraught; especially in the money markets, the stock exchanges, currencies and so on. America has used the weapon of raising interest rates against China and the European Union more than once this year, the latest in July 2017, raising them by 0.25 percent to exert economic pressure. The US has also threatened to tighten trade between the two countries (especially the customs tariffs); financial markets have also been shaken several times by the threat of the use of force by America on North Korea. The Reuters news agency reported on 11-Aug-2017, “The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 75.62 points, or 34 percent, as North Korea threatened to fire a missile upon the American island of Guam in the Pacific Ocean.”
2. The world remains in a state of constant tension and anticipation, especially in the areas surrounding or being directly affected by the crisis. Such crises keep people in a state of constant tension and anticipation, which in itself is a crisis due to the corruption of state policies and their ambitions.
3. There have been strong reactions from people located in the surrounding countries, especially Japan and South Korea -as they are on the frontline, in the event of any military conflict (although unlikely). There have already been demonstrations more than once in Japan and South Korea demanding a peaceful solution to the crisis. In Japan, thousands of demonstrators went out on 20-Jun-2016, demanding the transfer of US military bases from the island of Okinawa as a result of the threat of bombing North Korea. The South Korean president asked America on 17-Aug-2017 not to show any military appearance on its territory until after obtaining prior approval. The South Korean president said “The people of South Korea made a great effort to rebuild and raise the country after the Korean War, and it is not possible to redo what has been achieved in previous years.”
In conclusion, we say that such conflicts, which use lowly ideologies in the face of real crises, reveal their nakedness and their intellectual and moral decline. It places the world in front of the facts, including that:
1. these ideologies drag the world into calamities and wars, and economic and military crises; to achieve the desires of the capitalists in the major countries. There is no objection to the loss of the lives of millions;
2. the whole world, including the non-Muslims, are in need of a system of divine mercy -the system of Islam, which propagates its thought only to save the people, not for any other worldly interest. Allah says:
وَمَنْ أَحْسَنُ دِينًا مِمَّنْ أَسْلَمَ وَجْهَهُ لِلَّهِ وَهُوَ مُحْسِنٌ وَاتَّبَعَ مِلَّةَ إِبْرَاهِيمَ حَنِيفًا وَاتَّخَذَ اللَّهُ إِبْرَاهِيمَ خَلِيلًا
“And who is better in religion than one who submits himself to Allah while being a doer of good and follows the religion of Abraham, inclining toward truth? And Allah took Abraham as an intimate friend.” [An-Nisa:125]
3. conflicts accelerate the collapse of corrupt systems. Allah says
وَلَا يَزَالُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا تُصِيبُهُمْ بِمَا صَنَعُوا قَارِعَةٌ أَوْ تَحُلُّ قَرِيبًا مِنْ دَارِهِمْ حَتَّى يَأْتِيَ وَعْدُ اللَّهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُخْلِفُ الْمِيعَادَ
“And those who disbelieve do not cease to be struck, for what they have done, by calamity – or it will descend near their home – until there comes the promise of Allah. Indeed, Allah does not fail in [His] promise.” [Ar-Ra’d:31]
and He (swt) says:
قَدْ مَكَرَ الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ فَأَتَى اللَّهُ بُنْيَانَهُمْ مِنَ الْقَوَاعِدِ فَخَرَّ عَلَيْهِمُ السَّقْفُ مِنْ فَوْقِهِمْ وَأَتَاهُمُ الْعَذَابُ مِنْ حَيْثُ لَا يَشْعُرُونَ
“Those before them had already plotted, but Allah came at their building from the foundations, so the roof fell upon them from above them, and the punishment came to them from where they did not perceive.” [An-Nahl:26]
These verses push the dawah carrier to work change the corrupt reality; to urge taking steps in order to save humanity, and hasten the near victory by His (swt) permission. Especially so, since the world today is witnessing successive intellectual collapses, from socialism at the end of the last century, to capitalism in the beginning of this century.
We ask Allah to save mankind from the evils of these countries and their lowly policies, through the justice of Islam and its integrity and mercy, Allah says:
وَأَنِ احْكُمْ بَيْنَهُمْ بِمَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ وَلَا تَتَّبِعْ أَهْوَاءَهُمْ وَاحْذَرْهُمْ أَنْ يَفْتِنُوكَ عَنْ بَعْضِ مَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ إِلَيْكَ فَإِنْ تَوَلَّوْا فَاعْلَمْ أَنَّمَا يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ أَنْ يُصِيبَهُمْ بِبَعْضِ ذُنُوبِهِمْ وَإِنَّ كَثِيرًا مِنَ النَّاسِ لَفَاسِقُونَ
“And judge, (O Muhammad) between them by what Allah has revealed and do not follow their inclinations and beware of them, lest they tempt you away from some of what Allah has revealed to you. And if they turn away – then know that Allah only intends to afflict them with some of their (own) sins. And indeed, many among the people are defiantly disobedient.” [Al-Ma’idah:49]
أَفَحُكْمَ الْجَاهِلِيَّةِ يَبْغُونَ وَمَنْ أَحْسَنُ مِنَ اللَّهِ حُكْمًا لِقَوْمٍ يُوقِنُونَ
“Then is it the judgement of (the time of) ignorance they desire? But who is better than Allah in judgement for a people who are certain (in faith).” [Al-Ma’idah:50].