President Trump is so bellicose toward North Korea lately that the isolated nation, quite reasonably, isn’t totally clear if he’s declaring war or not. They even have made overtures to Republican groups to try to get them to translate Trump’s Tweets into actual, real American policy.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has been trying to keep the lines of communication with North Korea at least a little open. Over the weekend, visiting China, he told reporters that he was hoping for direct talks with North Korea.
But President Trump is still a thing, and even though he spent the weekend at a New Jersey golf course, he caught wind of Tillerson’s diplomatic overtures. Trump was quick to declare that Tillerson was “wasting his time trying to negotiate,” even though that’s literally the job of a Secretary of State.
Trump was finished there, either. Underscoring that he learned nothing from last week’s “declaration of war” fiasco, Trump followed the first comments up with a second Tweet saying “…Save your energy, Rex, we’ll do what has to be done!”
There’s been no response from North Korea yet, but given last week’s talk of them not being around much longer led to concerns about war, the vow to “do what has to be done,” which Trump has repeatedly suggested is total destruction, is likely to fuel similar comments from North Korea, who could reasonably see these as overt threats of war.
But perhaps even more importantly, because the president can’t go more than a few days without overt threats of war, is what this portends for his relationship with Rex Tillerson. This is the latest in a long line of moves Trump has made to undercut diplomatic efforts by his own Secretary of State. That Tillerson is overseas trying to soothe tensions only to get spurned by a Tweet from a golf course is particularly embarrassing, and makes the Secretary of State appear totally powerless to effect any diplomacy at all.
North Korea must renounce its nuclear and ICBM programs, or it will be handled. Their top brass must understand that they will, with 100% certitude, personally die on order by President Trump.
… Their top brass will, with 100 percent certitude, personally die IF THEY RENOUNCE NUCLEAR AND ICBM PROGRAMS, handled, just like SADDAM and GHADAFI before them. As well, most of the Korean Peninsua will be decimated, and millions of refugees flood China and surrounding region, creating a world political and economic crisis for generations to come, and the US as a pariah state beyond that which it already is in the eyes of the world (fixed that for you).
Or look at Iran. Still calling for regime change there even with the nuke deal.
Yeah, that’s more like it!! SUFFER AND DIE AT THE HANDS OF MIGHTY AMERICA AND ITS FEARLESS GOLFER/LEADER PRESIDENT TRUMP UNLESS YOU COMPLETELY SUBMIT! EVEN THOUGH YOU POSE EXTREMELY LITTLE THREAT WHATSOEVER TO THE USA!!!
Will be handled… how? Last time the US fought North Korea, it destroyed every single building. And the Koreans still held out. The US put 300,000 men on the ground- equivalent, pretty much, to the entire US ground forces right now. And the Koreans got a stalemate.
You can’t destroy missiles from the air. If they’re dug in or mobile, or both, you can’t get them. The Serbs showed it, the Iraqis showed it, Hezbollah showed it.
You can’t get the leadership from the air. Saddam hid for how long?
You have to invade. You have to go in on the ground.
Where are the troops for a ground attack going to come from? Pull every last American soldier out of Europe, the Middle East, and the United States and you still haven’t got enough.
Sure the air force can make a mess- but they can’t win.
So what on earth is the plan?
So, doesn’t Trump have any idea what Tillerson is doing? Did he just go on his own and decide to try some diplomacy? Trump is more of a joke with each passing day.
He is a clown…but what he’s doing is not a laughing matter. And he continues to prove that the joke is on those who voted for him.
North Korea is a danger and must be dealt with.
Kim Jong Un, like his father, is nuts.
He is not rational and has broken all sorts of agreements and done many strange things, like killing his 1/2 brother in a gruesome and bizarre way.
Therefore, we don’t know if he will go off the deep end and lob a nuke at the US some day even if it means his demise.
In any case, China has always been the country behind North Korea’s nuclear program, otherwise that program would never have been started.
Just because the US may be wrong in some ways does not mean that North Korea is right.
Knowingly or not, Trump is falling into the pattern here of good cop / bad cop.
Tillerson is left to say, “Guys, you’ve got to give me something to show him, so I can help you avoid crazy.”