North Korea has carried out its sixth nuclear test, this time claiming it to be a hydrogen bomb, representing a major advance in their capabilities. President Trump responded with a new round of threats, as well as new condemnations of diplomacy as a strategy that could be employed.
Again declaring North Korea “a rogue nation,” President Trump publicly faulted South Korea’s calls for diplomacy, labeling it “appeasement,” and insisting that North Korea “only understand one thing.”
Threats to attack North Korea have become so common in the Trump administration that if it really was the only thing North Korea understands, one would’ve figured it would’ve done something by now, other than bringing both sides to the brink of a major war, and one that all analysts agree is going to be disastrously bad for everyone.
When asked if the US was going to attack North Korea, President Trump offered a very unsatisfying “we’ll see,” leading to a flurry of concerns that Trump is not taking a war that would likely kill millions of people very seriously.
Whether or not North Korea really does have a hydrogen bomb now, the nation’s retaliatory capabilities to a US strike are vast, which has long been a deterrent to the US attacking. Ever worsening tensions, exacerbated by President Trump’s bellicosity and very public aversion of diplomacy, risks leading to a calamity.
But the risk of war, vast though it is, is only one concern. President Trump also took a shot at China, declaring it an “embarrassment” to them that they’d been unable to get North Korea to give in to US demands.
Beyond that, Trump and other officials threatened to cut off all US trade to any nation which has any trade with North Korea, a list that includes China, Russia, Pakistan, India, the Philippines, and Thailand, along with several smaller nations.
A trade war of this level risks doing massive damage to the US economy, of course, given how vital a trading partner China is. The threat to cut off all these major nations, however, risks pushing them all into a bloc together against the US.
The risks of the US going down this path are myriad, though the administration is explicitly setting it up as the only option they think is available to them, and going out of their way to dismiss out of hand any alternative that might reduce tensions.
“The threat to cut off all these major nations, however, risks pushing them all into a bloc together against the US.”
Sounds like a silver lining to me. The sooner the rest of the world grasps that we’re the f**king problem here, the better.
The story behind the story is the BRICS are threatening U.S. financial hegemony so they could really careless about threats of sanctions from the U.S.
The empire is dying.
US Presidents and official routinely say that “all options are on the table”. This is generally taken as a backhanded threat from the only country to ever use nuclear weapons to do so again. Its a way of saying ‘we once killed 200,000 civilians in the greatest terror attack of all time, and we might do it again to you.’
However, it is very clear that all options are not on the table. Here’s some options that have clearly been taken off the table ….
— Diplomacy. There is clearly no attempt to talk beyond barrages of threats back and forth.
— Suspending military drills held right on the borders of North Korea. Russia and China suggested this as a step towards mutual de-escalation of the crisis, and the Pentagon quickly rejected this relatively meaningless measure as completely unacceptable. Think about it, the under the proposal the Russians and Chinese jointly put forward, all the US had to do was to call off these massive manuevers. No chance was the answer. Clearly they prefer war if such a minor measure can’t be considered.
— Stopping other provacative actions like when they fly nuclear bombers at Korea and clearly threaten a holocaust, or not the US own missile tests of ICBM which was a big expenditure to ‘send a message’.
— Peace. Peace is clearly off the table everywhere. At no crisis in the world is the US persuing anything except war, war, and more war, and preferably war sooner than later. Peace is the one thing that is an option that the US has removed from its table.
I think Trump’s ego and narcissism is blocking any room for negotiation. I believe Trump wants to use Nukes so that he can pound on his chest to show how tough he is. I think if Kim would offer to allow a Trump tower in Pyongyang and a statue of dear leader Trump next to Kim’s dad, Trump would probably make peace.
This is the product of US higher education and reading of the “high brow” part of the MSM.
In college our population learns to consider everything from a psychological point of view, assuming very wrongly that psych is science or rests on it. Wrong on both counts.
Reading the HB MSM reinforces this empty psych view of the world.
The result. The nonsensical psychobabble above that serves as a substitute for genuine thought about the real political forces that are moving events. The psychobabble view of the world excuses one from analyzing the history, politics and economic and social forces that bring us to this pretty pass.
The result is not only complete ignorance about what is going on in the world – as evidenced in the comment above – but almost total vulnerability to having one’s opinion and “thought” manipulated by the MSM and its overlords.
Thus does the Empire crumble – and perhaps take the world down with it.
The simplest and most truthful way to describe the corporate-owned and controlled USA mainstream media is PROPAGANDA. The content is designed to shape people’s attitudes and feelings that go along with corporate agendas, including wars that make these corporations filthy rich at the expense and suffering of mankind.
This is the best news I’ve heard in awhile. Trump gets to sound tough on N Korea, without starting a nuclear WWIII. The US public gets to understand how little of what we now consume is produced here. Trump gets to live up to his rhetoric against “free trade” and for US jobs. The US gets better understood by the world as an arrogant, violent rogue nation, not “leader of the free world,” – harder to railroad Europe into Coalitions of the Willing To Kill.
So bring it on Trump, blockade anyone who won’t totally blockade N Korea.
There has been no mention of a blockade. If a country’s leadership would rather engage in commerce with North Korea than the U.S., that’s their prerogative, but the U.S. won’t do commerce with them.
Yeah because military attack will help the people
Are we surprised by any of this? We all knew Trump was a lunatic going in – not to mention the rest of the lunatics running the government.
They’ll eventually get us all killed.