Mattis: US Army Must Be Ready to ‘Confront’ North Korea

Says Options Need to Be Ready If Trump Gives the Order

Defense Secretary James Mattis warned Monday that the US Army needs to “stand ready” for put into action its various options for attacking North Korea, saying “neither you nor I can say” what the future holds, and that it’s purely up to President Trump.

Mattis presented the preparations to attack North Korea as necessary because of “continued provocations” by Pyongyang, despite North Korea not having said much of anything in recent weeks, other than being concerned that Trump has declared war during the many, many times he’s talked about destroying North Korea.

While Trump has largely been driving the North Korea war hysteria for months on end, he’s been virtually the sole instigator of such talks lately, condemning diplomacy on a near-daily basis,and insisting that “only one thing will work” against them, ominously threatening to show us all what that is “pretty soon.”

Repeated threats to “totally destroy” North Korea have been among his most favored talking points on any subject since the UN General Assembly. Mattis’ talk of keeping the Army ready to carry out that threat only adds to concern that the US could start a massive war at any moment.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.