Visiting Warsaw as part of a series of meetings in Europe this week, President Trump did nothing to dispel fears he is about to start a major war in eastern Asia by attacking North Korea, reiterating today that “something will have to be done” about North Korea’s “very, very bad behavior.”
As usual, Trump offered no details on what that would be, beyond saying that he is considering “some pretty severe things” he could do to North Korea. Last week, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster confirmed all options presented to Trump on North Korea involved attacking them militarily.
From the start of the annual military exercise with South Korea to the deployment of an “armada” of warships off the Korean coast, President Trump has been talking up the idea that the US might unilaterally attack North Korea, despite warnings from the major powers in the region it would have disastrous results.
North Korea tested an ICBM earlier this week, their first successful such test, and officials are now suggesting that the US attack could be imminent, with the top US commander in Korea declaring the lack of attacks as America’s “choice,” and that the US could change their minds whenever they want to.
Trump’s comments only add to the belief that might be about to happen, as he talks about dealing with North Korea “rapidly,” and takes every opportunity to excoriate the very notion of diplomacy as the failed policy of the past, whittling down America’s policy consideration to several variations on the same theme: a new Korean War.
Because we are still at war with NK the president does not need Congressional OK for a military attack. “Pretty severe” is meaningless unless it will be a huge bombardment by off-shore rockets and by planes flying in.
The US has never been at war with North Korea in any legal sense. The last time Congress declared war was World War II.
Kim’s choice.
All presented options are military…
This is insanity beyond the usual brinkmanship. This is some Fourth Reich level noise right here. President Buttholeface gave a speech Goebbels would be proud of.
What idiot thinks that starting a war with Korea would end without the use of nuclear weapons? Furthermore, does said idiot think that Russia and China would allow nukes to be used directly on their borders? Would Japan be cool with their breakout capability staying as such? Would anyone have the time to ponder these things for more than a few moments should someone start dropping nukes?
Military options are no longer viable in to-days world. The last two decades have shown us that in the ME and Afghanistan. Trump and most Americans are still living in the past. Trump will put American lives in South Korea in harms way. If however large numbers of Americans were going to be killed than a “positive” outcome will be that the American public will rise up against theire Establishment and prosecute the perpetrators of such a horrendous crime, including Trump himself for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Nuclear weapons are so large today that there will only be few survivors in the mountains. But this has happened before. See http://www.mcremo.com The oldest find is 2.8 billion years. Someone has made it ! How many times have “we” blown it all up ? 27 times-or more ? And how did we get here in the first place ? My surgeon in Tuluá, Colombia suggested all-out war Moon-Mars and the survivors settled here. But we don´t really know, do we ?
This is really dangerous rhetoric from Trump, that won’t be the least bit effective at influencing NK in a desired direction. With tensions so high, war could break out at any moment, and any finger-pointing about who started it would then be irrelevant. If “all the options presented to him” are military, what are the chances now that NK won’t see war as inevitable?