Why the West ignores North Korea’s abuses and backs Israel
The West backs Israel, ignores North Korea’s death camps, and bombs weaker rivals—because it’s never been about freedom. It’s always been about control.
When I wrote Civil War, I didn’t have to dig into ancient history for inspiration. I just looked at what’s happening today in North Korea.
Show trials, forced labor, generational punishment, and brutal psychological abuse. These aren’t relics of some fallen dictatorship; they’re the current playbook of the North Korean regime and much of the world shrugs. There’s no sanctions blitz, no threats of regime change, or no widespread media coverage. Just silence.
Not that I’m advocating for sanctions or another regime-change war – we’ve tried both in the past and neither seems to work well. But that’s a topic for another discussion.
Now ask yourself this: Why does the West constantly posture for war with Iran, Russia, and (to a lesser degree) China, while ignoring North Korea’s literal death camps or the apartheid state Israel runs in broad daylight?
Let’s break it down.
The tyrants we tolerate
The West—led by the U.S.—claims to be the global defender of democracy and human rights. That’s the excuse for every intervention, drone strike, and economic sanction campaign. We’re told it’s about “liberating people from tyranny.” Yeah, right…
That narrative falls apart under the slightest scrutiny if you care to look.
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Iran gets slammed with sanctions for alleged human rights violations and “destabilizing the region.”
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Russia is a permanent target thanks to its resistance to U.S.-NATO expansion and resource independence.
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China, while guilty of many things, mainly gets heat because it dares to challenge American hegemony.
And yet…
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North Korea runs a gulag system that rivals Stalin’s worst atrocities. Estimated 80,000–120,000 people languish in secret camps. Children born in the camps are condemned to live and die there. Public executions, mass starvation, and forced labor are normal. But we do nothing. Again, not advocating.
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Israel has turned the Gaza Strip into an open-air prison, where entire families are wiped out in airstrikes. In the past, they’ve targeted journalists, blocked aid, starved civilians, and killed children. But we call it “self-defense.” I call it an air-raid offense.
It’s not about freedom. It’s about who serves the empire—and who doesn’t.
Realpolitik and the profit motive
Here’s the ugly truth no cable news panel will say out loud: Foreign policy isn’t about morality and never has been. It’s about control.
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Russia and Iran threaten U.S. geopolitical interests in energy, currency, and regional influence.
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China threatens U.S. dominance in trade and tech.
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North Korea? It’s broke. There’s no oil to seize, no pipelines to control, and it poses no economic threat.
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Israel? It’s America’s permanent beachhead in the Middle East—heavily subsidized, deeply embedded, and protected by bipartisan consensus and a powerful lobby.
That’s why some tyrannies get bombed and others get blank checks.
The tyranny we want you to see
In Civil War, the fictional Bastille Empire stages show trials, imprisons entire families and hides the truth behind layers of propaganda. Sound familiar?
The prison system in that book was modeled indirectly on what defectors from North Korea described. Shackled cells, tongue removals, and torture disguised as rehabilitation. Not because I wanted to shock readers, but because this horror is already happening.
And yet no one talks about it. There are no calls for justice and no UN invasions.
Why?
And once again, I’m not advocating for another armed conflict.
Anyway, it’s because North Korea isn’t a strategic threat. If anything, it’s a strategic prop. A fearmonger’s dream. The perfect boogeyman to justify military budgets and nuclear build-up without the burden of moral follow-through.
And as for Israel—well, criticizing it too harshly in polite circles gets you branded antisemitic. That’s how effective its PR shield is, even when it’s bulldozing homes, bombing hospitals, and locking up children.
Want the receipts? Read Enough Already by Scott Horton
If you think I’m just venting, take it up with Scott Horton. His book Enough Already: Time to End the War on Terrorism lays out—chapter by chapter—how U.S. foreign policy has nothing to do with “fighting evil” and everything to do with lies, blowback, and power projection.
He doesn’t pull punches. He names names, and he shows you how the same people who pretended to care about human rights in Iraq, Syria, and Libya are the ones turning a blind eye to real, ongoing atrocities in North Korea and Israel.
Civil War and the Renegades Epic Shared Universe: Fiction built on facts
Civil War is fiction. But it’s fiction built on facts no one wants to talk about.
The same way Bastille manipulates its citizens with fear, surveillance, and manufactured enemies, so does the West. We pick and choose our tyrants, we bomb the ones who disobey, and bankroll the ones who fall in line.
If you’re tired of selective outrage and moral theater, you’re not alone. And if you want to read a story that shows you what that world really looks like when taken to its logical extreme—well, Civil War is waiting.
