War with North Korea seems inevitable. I firmly believe that war is never the answer and will never be the answer to our conflicts. I say this, of course, with a caveat. If our country is attacked then yes I would favor war. This happened on 9/11 when al Qaeda attacked the United States. Unfortunately, President Bush ordered wars in two countries that had no direct ties to those attacks.
Having said that, from this point forward, banging the war drums every time a foreign head of state says something negative about this country will never solve anything. Whether or not Republicans want to admit it, talking does work. Sadly we now have a man in the White House who bombs first and then expects to be celebrated.
Today’s wars answer questions never asked
There is one simple reason why Trump has ordered missile attacks in Syria and the dropping of MOAB in Pakistan. He needed a polling boost. And he got a small one from both. What is worse is that the media fell over themselves congratulating him for being presidential. He was not acting presidential, he was acting childish.
The last thing this country needs in today’s world is a grown man acting like a child with other countries. He famously hung up on the Australian Prime Minister because he was not getting his way on a treaty that had previously been signed. Trump, now says that the treaty is a fair one and hopes that everyone forgets that he acted on impulse.
He is acting the same way with Syria, Iran, and North Korea. All three countries are lead by regimes that do not like the United States. President Obama did a serviceable job keeping all three in check during his eight years as president.
Threatening Despots will not work
For the past few weeks Trump, for whatever reason he has invented in his head, has continuously poked the bear that is North Korea. There is no reason to believe that they are capable of getting a missile anywhere near the United States, let alone into it.
When you look at a satellite of the world at night you always see the utter darkness over North Korea. But do not let that fool you. People with their backs up against the wall fight harder and fiercer than expected. Kim Jong-un has already convinced his people that America is a bully and is going to attack them. It will get nasty for us very quickly.
Attacking other countries, especially those led by despots, for made up reasons never work and will bite us bigly. Look at Afghanistan and Iraq. Look at Vietnam and the Koreas. There were no legitimate reasons to get involved in any of those countries and yet we did. We did and lost the lives of thousands of our troops for the personal glory of a president.
We are headed in the same direction
Now we have a new president that at best is impulsive and at worst is a danger to himself. A North Korean leader has been lobbing threats and insults at the American government since the end of the Korean War. Yet, Trump treats them seriously. Serious enough that he sent an aircraft carrier to the Korean Peninsula, once they found it.
So we are in a stand off with the North Korean government. The fact that both countries are led by adult babies it is safe to assume that something will happen, sooner rather than later. Trump will say that right thing every now and then as he did when he said that China was going to need to reign in North Korea. I say it is the right thing to say because that takes the onus of ownership off the United States.
Why did the White House brief the entire Senate
We do not know exactly what the briefing entailed on 4/26, but it had something to do with North Korea. A lot of the Senators that came out of the briefing seemed not at all impressed with the presentation or confused at what exactly the point was.
But then he did an interview with Reuters in which he said that a “major, major conflict with North Korea” was possible. He also went on to say that he hoped to solve the issues with continued economic pressure. Why even put conflict on the table if your plan is to continue economic sanctions?
There is only one reason to hint at major conflict and that is because that is your primary goal. We know from history that throwing threats at North Korea does not rattle their cages so that is the only thing I am left to conclude.
At the end of the day, Trump needs a major bump in his polls and nothing boosts polls like a war. I hope that cooler heads will prevail and keep us out of an unneeded and pointless war. But I am not sure that there are any cool heads at the White House these days.
Several points concerning your essay, as regards North Korea:
1. Inasmuch as the North Korean nuclear arms and missile programs have continued to advance during the Obama administration (and during the Bush and Clinton administrations as well), there’s no way you can make the claim Obama kept the North Koreans “in check.”
2. There was a reason why we toppled the Taliban regime in Afghanistan: they were hosting Al Qaeda, the author of the 9-11 attack.
3. “There is no reason to believe that they are capable of getting a missile anywhere near the United States, let alone into it.” I doubt you have the expertise to make such an assertion. Certainly, they aim for that capability, and continue to test and advance their missile technology, as well to working on miniaturizing nuclear bombs for use as missile warheads.
Like you, I’m not happy that we have the execrable Cheeto as the “decider” in this situation. And contrary to the false claims about Iraq’s nuclear program, it’s quite clear that North Korea has mastered nuclear bomb technology. Frankly, I just hope Trump gets and takes good advice. It’s scary and ironic that we hear more sensible and nuanced statements from our military people than from Trump.