I’m still not sure if Donald Trump even believes half the stupid lies he tells.
And now of course, Trump has become a “madman with nuclear weapons“, threatening to unleash “fire and fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before” against North Korea.
Considering that the North Korean military already has nuclear weapons, and missiles that can send nukes raining down on even the US mainland (not to mention South Korea, Japan, Russia, and even China) is it time to bring back teaching “duck and cover” and building bomb shelters like we did during the height of the cold war? Or should we just laugh it all off?
By the way, did you know that Trump still hasn’t appointed a US Ambassador to South Korea?
13 Comments
What options do we have with North Korea? I can only think of three, perhaps someone more wiser and experienced can shed light.
1. Ignore/don’t care. Basically let them build nuclear capabilities, whatever they want to do, don’t worry about it, don’t talk about it, if Japanese and South Koreans complain, tell them North Korea will not dare attack anyone, let Chinese know, we don’t care about North Korea, or what it does, but if it attacks US, allies, stay clear.
2. Appease. I have seen in last 17 years, every few years North Korean leader feels like he needs money so he boosts some progress on missile or nuclear program, and threatens, and then world scrambles, after “tough” diplomacy he gets what he wants, and stops the progress temporarily. Then the cycle repeats. So this has been happening with no end in sight.
3. Preemptive strike and regime change.
Although I disagree on Trump on many things, but if he says or acts which makes option 2 obsolete, I am all for it. It has been useless practice of past administrations. My personal preference would be 1, with twist that let Japan and South Korea handle North Korea.
I don’t think option 1 would get us anywhere. He thrives on attention. In fact, both of them thrive on attention. If we ignore N. Korea, KJU will just up the ante.
Option 3 wouldn’t be good, either. China would blame us. Other countries would follow suit for it being either premature or an overreaction.
We have to play the game a while longer.
I think Trump really is exactly as ignorant as he sounds, that he actually believes what comes out of his mouth at any given time.
Yes, this is a man who is insecure enough to crave the attention and adoration of the least educated Americans BUT he deeply resents the fact that he does not have the support of a majority who can read above 5th-grade level and is trying really, REALLY HARD!
ANONYMOUS, how long we have to play the game, and what did we get in playing that game for last 17 years (that I know of)
Hassan, we avoid, at least for now, hundreds of thousands of deaths. For me, that’s a pretty good incentive to make nice as long as we can. Maybe at some point we can come up with a better solution.
I think this is a good synopsis of the situation and what to do about it. A good read — http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/07/24/how-to-take-down-kim-jong-un-215411
er, I was anonymous…
I’m not sure there is an out until someone blinks. It isn’t a choice to play.
Someone made a good point the other day that we took down the Soviets with them self imploding. If we wait things out, NK will probably do the same. Perhaps. Maybe.
The Soviets had relied on the high price of oil to sustain their economy, IIRC. When the price fell enough, they had to cut back on services which lead to unrest. We really didn’t do much except fuel the flames, although without that effort it’s difficult to say what would have happened.
N. Korea get a lot of their money from selling weapons to African governments and paramilitary organizations. They also have a lot of trade with China.
We aren’t going to be able to do much about their trade with China. Do we want to get involved in Africa?
It still, at this point, hurts nothing to wait and see. I’m not sure Trump, with his very fragile ego, is willing to do that. That’s why I posted in another thread that putting that balloon Trump chicken near the White House is a terrible idea. Wouldn’t it be tragic if WW 3 was started because his ego could not stand being taunted by a balloon chicken.
So Wildwood, you’re suggesting we all walk around on eggshells making sure we don’t bruise his fragile ego, because he might lash out blindly? Like he doesn’t do that already on a daily basis? What, his two a day Happy Reports aren’t enough for him?
Sorry, but he took this gig now and his stupid needs to be sung out, loud and clear. SUNG OUT!
If the choice is war or not egging him on, well then yes, that’s what I’m advocating. We need to out wait both of the Idiots in Chief. His lashing out, so far is just that. People in government are openly ignoring his demands, so his impact is conserably lessened. The timing of the chicken was poor. If it had not coincided with the NK threats, it would have been not only okay, but funny. Now if he feels that people perceive him as a coward he is going act out eve more and it is unknown whether his cortege of generals will either refuse his commands or go along with him. I’ve been around toddlers and you have to pick your battles and sometimes the best approach is to walk away and let them cool down or get distracted.
I just saw McMasters on Meet the Press. Now I’m frightened. Talk about an ass kisser. Either he is that or blind.