..for all the blather about global terrorism, the only country sick enough to use such a weapon will likely be the US, just as it was the last time, when the United States obliterated hundreds of thousands of civilians in two gratuitous acts of mass murder.
You know war is coming when the ships both military and civilian start moving towards other coordinates not specified.
CNN, FOXnews and Reuters will be the last informed.
You know war is coming when the astronauts from the Space Station start swearing and they don't care if they can be heard.
Otto Warmbier
Everyone should familiarize themselves with this story.
They didnt just kill him. They tortured him beyond what you can imagine leaving him howling in pain a sound his parents described as inhuman.
What do you think Kim will do next? Can we really practice strategic patience with Kim?
2
The entire set of exchanges is Shakespearian:
A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing.
1
Northern Virgins. What country had north Korea attacked? None. Which countries have we attacked? Many, including Korea.
We are the aggressors, not North Korea. We are running military exercises off their border, not the other way around. We have enough nuclear weapons to end civilization, and have actually used them, not North Korea.
Aggression is not defense. It's aggression.. Chinese martial arts teach that you do not make the first attack. You let the enemy attack, and then your defense is also your attack. Bruce Lee called it the intercepting fist.
China manages to do business all around the world without projecting military force into foreign countries.
The U.S. is a big bully, and that is why we keep getting out noose bloodied by much smaller weaker countries.
You are powerful in your own personal space. Once you extend yourself into some one else's space, you have left yourself open.
The right-wing chicken hawks that keep starting wars, really have no understanding of how they work, which is why they keep losing them.
4
Does this mean NK has the right to defend itself preemptively? Who knew US and Israel aren't the only ones who can claim self-defense or pre-emptive warfare.
2
North Korea is wrong. The USA did not declare war on them.
The toddler in the White House did perform in the UN his usually "blabla" show.
North Korea should just laugh about this clown. The embarrassment of the USA is slowly getting tired of winning.
Just out of curiosity:
Which country was the only one which dropped nukes on civilians?
It is the "U S ...". You want to buy a vocal? I offer "A" "E" "I" "O" "U".
It is your chance to find the correct country.
"Mr. Ri, who is well connected to the country’s top leadership, also said last week that the North was considering conducting an atmospheric nuclear test in response to Mr. Trump’s threats..."
Please don't do this--conduct an atmospheric nuclear test. This would the same as dumping a bucket of poison over both our heads.
US citizens know that we have a very strange man as president. We are all focused on retraining him.
You may not understand just how strange Trump is: one day he talks about grabbing women by their crotches, the next he glances at the hurricane devastation in Puerto Rico, next he starts a childish argument with a bunch of football players, then he hawks one of his silly brand-name products (sometimes manufactured in China), and then he talks about America first. He has a childish, television mind. Please help us to calm him down, and we will keep doing our best to do the same.
Please, please, let's not cause the death of millions of Koreans (for sadly, they would die first and in greatest numbers) for the sake of a child-man who is at the head of our state for a short while. We have checks and balances, and we will keep him from doing anything truly crazy. We recognize and respect the strength of North Korea--but at this time in the planet's history, every nation can be destroyed. No one can win.
4
Hillary has a bad haircut too.
Let me spell it out for you: C H I N A.
China has a huge military, good hackers, and a nuclear arsenal, and they are not going to sit in their hands while you invade their neighbor and buffer against US attack.
Attacking NK pretty much automatically starts WWIII.
Again all of the big talking American bullies, are really easily panicked over minute threats, and think the world will be safer if they kill all of the other inhabitants.
You are delusional.
1
I have doubts that NK has the capability to shoot down one of our planes. If it did we don't need nukes to flatten them. Hate to see it come to blows though. Last thing we need is another unfunded war with anyone while the GOP is still trying to cut taxes for the rich.
Bush got loans from countries like China (which we still pay on) but given that NK is an ally of China don't count on them to help us fund their "destruction". Much of the rest of the world is not very fond of Trump so I guess that would leave Trump begging for cash from...oh let's say...Russia?
http://joethevoter.org
1
I totally agree with Sarah Huckabee's claim that “it’s never appropriate to shoot down another country’s aircraft when it’s flying over international waters". It would be equally inappropriate to shoot down a North Korean missile, as many people are cheering on the US to do, while it's traveling in the international airspace, i.e.100km above Japanese territory and land outside any country's territorial waters, i.e.12 nautical miles from the coast line. Any country have the right to test any missile using such international space and Japan has no claims to the 500km the last Korean missile was traveling
through over its territory.
1
It is time for a strong third party to intervene. China could do more than call for calm. She could station some of her naval forces in an extended line of the DMZ with the capacity to warn off any aircraft approaching within one hundred miles from either direction, and to warn North Korea that atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons is forbidden because it endangers all life on the planet..and such testing would result in a complete and immediate cessation of all aid from China. China should approach NK and the US with such an understanding...It could result in the much needed calm she called for.
1
Don't forget that NK hacked Sony, because they didn't like a film they made about him.
They have technology too, and we have critical infrastructure that is connected to the internet. (Don't know why we would do that...). Maybe we should stay on our side of the planet and let China deal with them?
Kim Jong Un and his military may be operating on the assumption that before any pre-emptive strike by the United States would actually occur that an evacuation of all non-essential American personnel in South Korea, Japan, and Guam would begin.
Is this what they're thinking? Is this the signal they need to end the bravado and come to the negotiating table to work out a deal?
What's the environmental/wildlife fall-out of all these tests?
There needs to be a definitive, long-term solution -- the world can't continue to walk on eggshells and essentially coddle a country so clearly immature in its handling of existential destruction. Kim with nukes is akin to a toddler with fire. Another toddler just threw a match on the fire.
We can't revert to appeasement, or cosmetic "deals" during which N. Korea expands its motherload and delivery. We can't sit by as two immature men taunt one another. That leaves a few, obvious solutions.
1
The Trump Administration represents a clear and present danger to the American people and the world. For all our safety, lock them up.
2
Unfortunately, as crazy as Trump is, the rest of the foreign policy establishment is not much saner. We have been trading threats of annihilation with NK for fifty years.
I heard an interview with Leon Panetta, Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff, last week, and he was almost as belligerent as Trump.
Everyone assumes that the Iraq War wouldn't have happened under All Gore, until you read the speech he made a year before the invasion, where he called it necessary.
Trump takes everything to the extreme, but our foreign policy is extremely aggressive, no matter who is in office.
Bush own ISIS in Iraq because he created the power vacuum they filled,, but Obama and Hillary own Libya, because they created that power vacuum.
The establishment "center" operates for the benefit of global corporations not the American People.
1
If you want to avoid a war, be careful with your communication. If you want to start a war, resort to name calling and demonizing your opposite as insane. Wars are unintended consequence machines. If you want a good example look at, well, the Korean War 50-53. It was never intended to be a 3-year slog with millions killed. No, MacArthur said everyone would be home by Xmas ‘50. The unintended consequence that prevented that? China’s decision to get into the war. Today we have a President who either thinks he can talk without resulting in war, wants a war, or thinks that foreign policy is just another outlet for his social-media habits. But in any case, he is deluded. And he’s getting no help from his minions, especially Ms Haley. The problem here is that we already know the unintended consequences: the destruction of Seoul, mushroom clouds and war (again) with China. I would say the administration could look at Korea’s history and realize the danger and idiocy of their statements and threats. But I think maybe they see threatening N Korea as a winning issue and are beyond arrogant when it comes to their belief they can control what happens. Millions could die. It terrifies me to my core.
4
I don't know why so many people seek to equate Kim Jong-un with Donald Trump. We know from our own experience that Mr. Trump is a problematic leader but we don't know anything about Mr. Kim except what our own hostile media chooses to report or what South Korean Intelligence informs us of. What we do know is diplomacy has failed because President Bush called it off and the US hasn't moved to restart it and if the US bullies and threatens North Korea the way it has Panama, Libya, and other countries that Mr. Kim won't be bullied. This whole crisis was the doing of US misleadership.
1
I don't see how anyone wins in this confrontation. Bottom line: We cannot tolerate N Korea having ICBMS that can hit the USA. N Korea is militarily very strong but economically very weak. N Korea wants these ICBMS so that once they are militarily strong enough they will invade South Korea. The ICBMS facing the USA is their insurance that they can bully South Korea and Japan while discouraging our intervention. At a minimum they wish to invade and take over South Korea to give them the economic powerhouse that S Korea has without having to create one for themselves. We need China's assistance in helping N Korea become economically independent without invading S Korea. With prosperity N Korea will have less need for nuclear weapons, or military strength for that matter.. China is the key to deescalating this insanity. The last thing China wants millions of fleeing N Koreans coming to their shores and they certainly want to prevent radioactive fallout killing and sickening their own population. A treaty assisting N Korea with economic development and security as long as they denuclearize is the only answer.
I believe Plato or Socrates said: "If you want peace, prepare for war."
All Kim Jong-un is doing is self-preservation for his country. Why shouldn't NK have nukes? Who decides which country deserves to have Nukes or not? India has it; Pakistan has it. And the world never ended.
Before China acquired the nukes, Europeans treated her like a houseboy. Today, they treat her like equals. That's just what North Korea wants. And who the dickens are we to tell her she can't have it?
1
Just curious. For all you Trump-bashers.
Why don't you try this. Put yourself in Trump's shoes. What would you do?
There parameters are:
1) An enslaved and impoverished North Korean people
2) The Kim dynasty developing ever more powerful weapons. H-bombs, ICBMs, cyber warfare, shipping nukes to other countries
3) The Kim dynasty demonstrating no respect for international law,
4) Working with Russia hampered by sanctions passed by Congress
5) Look at those top generals and officials at Kim jung-il's funeral. The only one left is Kim Jung-un
Strategic patience and containment have failed. So has appeasement.
"What would you do?"
I would call the North Korean leader schoolyard names and turn my attention to the imminent danger of the NFL.
Really, James, Trump and Kim are two fat peas in a pod, both planning their attacks on the American people.
2
Is there any way out of this escalation? Do Putin and Trump really win? They must have some sort of survival plan the reduces world population while leaving the spoils to them.
Looks like a very nasty war is on the near horizon. Take time for yourself and your family today.
1
Why American warplanes alone ? In its current state of seriously impaired sanity the country can shoot down any plane of any country !
1
It seems then it's in our power to avoid a war simply by not flying airplanes anywhere where NK can shoot them down. Seems pretty simple. It's a big sky for us to fly in everywhere else. Who'd have thought avoiding the Apocalypse could be so easy? Assuming we even want to.
1
Just as DJT sets his base up for the firing of Mueller or other ridiculous, anti-American actions, Kim does the same. Remember, China will assist Kim if he is attacked by the United States. The last time China contributed to a land war involving the United States, it was called the Vietnam War. We all know the outcome of that debacle. If China defends North Korea against the United States, which out countries might throw into this mess to assist Kim? Such a scenario takes a concept of ugly and deadly to a brand new level.
The majority of folks don't remember or have read about the Korean War which ended in a cease fire, not a treaty. Again, the issue in the Korean War included China's land grab. Will China skip a golden opportunity to grab all of Korea thanks to DJT's lack of understanding of anything relevant other than the fear mongering Fox News or his own television education. A cease fire can rapidly ignite, given the stupidity of DJT.
Real education, history and experience are always necessary and critical in deciphering motives and the action of opposition countries. DJT incredibly doesn't possess the experience of Kim, although neither are 'rocket scientists'. Well, that's the horror. Now what will Congress do to reign in our mistake. . .aka DJT?
1
The doomsday clock was moved to 2 1/2 minutes before midnight last January when Our Great Leader took office - the closest to midnight since the beginning of the cold war in the early 50’s. I hope Donald does not start a nuclear war. I’m planning to retire soon, and a nuclear holocaust would really hurt my 401k.
If the tables were turned, you could bet your last dollar that our current pResident would be doing more than this. What we must do is get real with an honest plan to ELIMINATE nuclear weapons entirely. This plan must begin with the United Nations. And the United Nations MUST include EVERY nation, even those who are not in agreement with us. We must walk the walk if we are going to talk the talk. We need our politicians to do their jobs OPENLY and certainly that means to eliminate money from their incentives. Truth be told, nuclear weapons are the devils right hand. They are indiscriminate, create mass distrust and certainly give non-nuclear adversaries no option but to also seek their own nuclear program. We must have open and frequent televised forums and begin to finally be honest with the people. It is no secret that WAR and or the threat of war is big business. Step one: Get money OUT of politics.
1
Here we go. Thanks Donald, we look real strong now.
How many hundreds of thousands will die because this so called president wants to deflect attention from the Mueller investigation?
1
Concur w/ NK. Any US Military jets anywhere near NK amounts to provocation. How are they wrong? Insane Clown President is wrong wrong wrong.
1
Has anyone in the White House read "The Guns of August" by Barbara Tuckman?
I hope the well educated military would have. The president less likely so, but somehow it should be communicated to him, so he'll understand how wars can be triggered by many smaller, less considered actions.
3
What happens if someone in the chain of command refuses to fire a nuclear weapon commanded by Trump? Does our government go into chaos or do we forcefully remove Trump from office? Either scenario is as frightening as going into a nuclear war with NK.
1
It's pretty clear the trump never read "The Guns of August" by Barbara Tuchman.
1
I wonder what would have happened if JFK was as childish and ignorant with his rhetoric, as Donald Trump is during the Cuban Missile Crisis?
I think someone needs to tell General H.R. McMasters who seem to become a Trump apologist publicly for his stupidity, this isn't a schoolyard bullying session or shoving match, there is huge chance for a full all out war over Donald Trump's ignorance, irresponsibility and instability.
If you, General McMasters, John Kelly, or James Mattis can't control this neophyte from igniting a possible nuclear exchange or full out war over his ego, what good are you all?
1
As Mueller gets closer, he is going nuts. Anything to distract, and to stay in the limelight...even a war. After all, war presidents don't get impeached, do they?
4
Presidents are completely beyond the reach of the law. Everyone knows that, particularly, Mueller.
I wonder what would have happened if JFK was as childish and ignorant with his rhetoric, as Donald Trump is during the Cuban Missile Crisis?
I think someone needs to tell General H.R. McMasters who seem to become a Trump apologist publicly for his stupidity, this isn't a school bullying session or shoving match, there is huge chance for a full all out war over Donald Trump's ignorance, irresponsibility and instability.
If you, General McMasters, John Kelly, or James Mattis can't control this neophyte from igniting a possible nuclear exchange or full out war over his ego, what good are you all?
2
Is defense the only industry in North Korea? Their desire for "war" is unprecedented in American history. We have to ask ourselves if they think their motivations are based in economics; stimulating their economy by producing more spending on missiles. It could be considered "economic warfare" on other nations who do not desire to overspend on defense capabilities.
While our elected government ponders the deaths of multiple millions, Americans are debating about the NFL? Trump is a master at controlling the media, but the American people must wake-up and recognize that we are quickly approaching a cataclysmic event.
Trump is backing Kim into a corner where war is his only alternative. History will not be kind.
4
Mr. Trumps threat against the leaders of North Korea was reckless and immature. Now the level of tension is so high that a simple accident could escalate into a war. Someone in the Trump administration, perhaps Lt.Gen. H.R. McMaster, needs to tell him how to behave.
2
This crisis is moving beyond a clash of personalities and is assuming military logic. This is when one side feels that it has no alternative but to attack. Waiting would just ensure defeat. The logic of nuclear war leaves little time to ponder the military situation or enemy intentions. That's why the US fly by was so dangerous. It leaves almost no time to deconflict if NK perceives a future, closer fly by as not a threat but the initiation of war. That explains NK going to a hair trigger.
This could either force Trump and his generals to avoid further provocations (good) or tempt them into provoking NK to attack a plane and use that as the reason to start total war (bad). Not our fault!
Is this the military option we hear about?
1
NK is correct.
There is no inviolate international agreement/law that allows one sovereign nation to prohibit another sovereign nation from developing its military capacities. PERIOD.
There are, however, many inducements at hand.
Stumpy, however, seemingly itching for a confrontation, has decided to go the route of the barbarian....
Since he doesn't have to do the fighting and he and his family are likely safe, his willingness to sacrifice others (both 'them' and 'us') for his psychological needs and flaws is even more reprehensible.
Any 'first use' should be a war crime. IMPEACH, please.
3
To all the people that voted for Trump: Can you honestly say that you are still proud of voting for him and that you would stay proud even if we wind up in a nuclear war?
4
Can someone put a muzzle on Trump?
2
Time for the UN, or ATM least other European world powers, to step in and condemn the US (that's you, Pres, for provoking a nuclear war without good reason.
2
Sarah Huckabee Sanders claims as absurd the North Korean belief that Trump's mindless bluster is a declaration of war. Who really cares what she thinks? She is a mindless drone speaking for an uninformed, childish warmonger.
What really matters is what North Korea believes that he means, and they have clearly stated that they view it as a declaration of war. It is pretty hard for anyone to not see a threat to have your country annihilated by nuclear weapons in that way.
2
Well, who said anything about annihilating them with nuclear weapons? We totally destroyed Germany in WWII using conventional weapons 75 years ago. And it would hardly be nesessary to use nukes, anyway, considering the invincibility and our far superior air force and nearby navy. Nukes could only come into the picture is if Jong Un is crazy enough to send one in our direction. You condemn your own government, but Jong Un is the war monger in this situation. Should he choose war, his country could be totally destroyed - entirely without resorting to nuclear weapons, and the only one in this picture crazy enough to use them is Kim Jong Un.
1
If you want a Hyundai or Kia, better act soon?
1
"The war is not meant to be won. It is meant to be continued."
1
What madness from what was a great beacon of democracy!
You should be ashamed that you have elected a tax cheat and liar to the position of president only for him to trash everything that was honourable and respectable about the office of the President.
Having been to Japan and Korea at least 20-30 times and having spent 13 years of life in Asia my basic understanding is that its better to talk tough behind closed doors and avoid megaphone diplomacy or warmongering.
There are tens of millions of people who will be affected by the words and actions and miscalculations of two megalomaniacs. Have you no shame.
America show you worth and get ride of this bully and impostor as a president.
The damage you are doing to the world and your long term reputation as a nation is profound. Wake up before it's too late.
4
What more could Putin want than us in a war? How many people and allies would be lost if Trump got an itchy finger?
I would suggest our do-nothing GOP-led Congress legislate some safeguards like other countries have to prevent one elected official from initiating a holocaust. I bet they could get bi-partisan support for it, and actually pass something good.
3
As much as I hold the current Commander-in-Chief in contempt for his infantile posturing and goading, a North Korean attack on US aircraft operating in international airspace would be a grave miscalculation which would bring about equally grave consequences.
The recklessness of Trump is stunning; it's as if he is actually trying to start a nuclear confrontation. Is he thinking that if we are at war, we would be in no position to impeach/prosecute him? He's either a sociopath willing to sacrifice millions of lives to save his bacon or a moron. Wait! He's both!
3
Yes, that's what he's thinking, as he drives America toward a militarized, fascist, authoritarian state. A war is the shortest path between our current sorry situation and one that's even worse. Let's make some phone calls to our wonderful legislators.
2
Trump to Kim: "Go ahead, punk. Make by day!"
2
Where is duct tape when we need it?Send 50-rolls to Ivanka, hurry!!Only she can !
2
Congress no longer declares wars but still the Pentagon and CIA fight them. The Kurds, Iran, Iraq, Russia, China and many in Europe no longer believe they can rely on what the US government says. How would North Korea know what the US intends except to watch, listen, and interpret actions? America's Word is not good. From that all else follows.
14
With all fusses between the US and North Korea and missile alarms sent off by the government here most of the people (and actually the lawmakers preparing for a snap election themselves) do not seem to take the situation seriously as well as mass media in Japan. We seem to underestimate the will of Kim Jong-un and trust the conscientiousness of the US government as a whole (if not of the president). Or probably the series of deranged government decisions a few decades ago are just like natural disasters in our memory and this one is more like a natural phenomenon we do not have no control of. (Behold Kim and Trump; they are phenomena rather than reasonable persons one can talk with.)
2
"Mr. Ri’s reference to the declaration of war appeared to refer to Mr. Trump’s assertion in a Twitter message over the weekend that the North Korean leadership may not “be around much longer” if it continues its threats."
Isn't it more likely to be 'totally destroy North Korea" which does sound like a declaration of war?
2
Trump and his MAGA supporters are no long just a worldwide joke but a serious threat. It is time for Republicans to exercise their Constitutional responsibility and remove Trump from office before his mental derangement causes a catastrophic event resulting in the deaths of millions!
11
Every single one of them is crazier than Trump. Thats what you dont get.
2
Why is anyone surprised? What is there to write about? It's the same stuff week end and week out. Nothing surprises me anymore. I stated and posted on this paper the day after our last presidential elections, "Four years of controversy". and that is what he has given us.
4
The phrase you're trying to use is 'week in and week out'.
'Week end and week out' is the working title for Weekend at Bernie's 3 I believe...
And Chief of Staff, General John Kelly - the supposed adult in the room - has done what exactly to prevent our madman from causing a calamity?
6
How many Americans are in South Korea? How many military? How many military families?
Mr. Trump is willing to sacrifice them for what?
I take this personally.
My daughter and son-in-law are retired military now serving with Red Cross in South Korea. Are they to be victims of the big mouth little brain nutsy twins.
Unlike Mr. Trump the rest of us have something to lose. Our families.
13
I live and work inside the presumed nuclear fireball and blast zone around the US Capitol. I'm not worried about war with N.Korea, I am worried that we won't go to war with them and that that will give them breathing room to create nuclear weapons that actually threaten mainland USA.
New line for 45: "I could stand in the middle of Korean DMZ and kill 20 million people and I wouldn't lose voters,"
11
I never thought I could be sympathetic to the NK crazy. But frankly, Trump is such a big mouth bully that I am.
6
Every posting here in some way reflects exactly how I feel about a petulant child in the White House that doesn't have a fundamental understanding of what that office even means to the country and the world. But we're all looking at the short term scenario. Remove the idiot from office and replace him with someone who understands the ramifications of a military event on the Korean peninsula. That would make us and the world feel better but still leaves the sociopath in North Korea to continue his nuclear ambitions and at some point possess an ICBM that could reach the continental United States. I'm not real comfortable with that and no one should be here in the US or anywhere else. As a liberal democrat who served in the last years of the Viet Nam war, but thankfully not in country, I deplore the loss of life in any unnecessary war. However this potential conflict with North Korea will at some point become necessary. So do we wait until Kim can take out Seattle with his new toy or do we act now to contain what could be a much worse situation with incalculable loss of life? Conventional warfare is bad enough but once the nuke line is crossed, we may in fact be talking about WWIII. No one with all his senses wants a war, but there are degrees of war that have to be considered. Kim will NEVER give up his nukes. So do we wait or do we contain the threat before nukes can be used? My point is that all things have to be considered here even without good options.
3
Umm, you do know that the Korean Police Action was before the Vietnam Conflict?
The armistice was signed in 1953.
Our country is the only country, in the world, to have used an atomic weapon against a foe. So, who should we fear the most? North Korea, led by autocratic paranoid. Or, the United States, led by a mentally ill paranoid, with poor impulse control?
One mistake on either side can be disastrous. We desperately need Generals Kelly, Mattis, and McMaster to keep us from World War III.
ps. It wouldn't hurt if President Xi could rein in NK.
1
Finally! We’ve all been waiting for this! Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un are in complete agreement!
Trump: “The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.”
Kim: “Now that Trump has denied the existence of and insulted me and my country in front of the eyes of the world and made the most ferocious declaration of a war in history that he would destroy [North Korea], we will consider with seriousness exercising of a corresponding, highest level of hardline countermeasure in history,”
And the agreement?
“It’s YOUR fault that we’re going to kill you.”
1
I am from Japan and all of my family live in Japan. My sister there said she got the J-Alert texts on her iPhone. So you know how I feel. I cannot imagine how the people feel on Korean Peninsula. Trump! I seriously question this country's democracy.
5
It's funny (in a terrifying way) that our "president" is such an idiot that he makes Kim appear to be the grownup in the room.
What an embarrassment...
7
Both Kelly and McMaster have shown their real strength which is zero. Trump is not to be controlled by common sense maturity of equals thus being a madman. Very dangerous.
6
Donald Trump is an imbecile. His comments re North Korea were absolutely a declaration of war, and came from a self-styled "tough guy" who dodged the draft repeatedly. Trump seems to think the presidency is some sort of children's game, and if it ends in nuclear fireballs, he wins.
Are there no sensible adults remaining in the Republican Party? Will we have to imprison Trump to keep our nation whole, or is it already too late to undo the astounding amount of damage the chronic liar Trump has already wreaked on us?
You installed this useless idiot, GOP, with help from America's most determined enemy. What are you going to do about it?
9
Isn't this what the 25th Amendment is for? To stop an unstable President from taking action that could result in unnecessary war? Trump is itching to have a nuclear conflagration with NK. There is no other way to interpret Trump's reckless behavior.
Where are the Generals who are supposed to be keeping an eye on our nutjob president? Why aren't they restraining him?
General Kelly?
General Mattis?
General McMaster?
Go talk to Mike Pence about agreeing to invoke the 25th Amendment and get Trump out of the White House!
What the hell are you waiting for?
7
Trump. Voldemont. The name that will never be allowed to be spoken in the United State after a nuclear war. History won't support the name of any President that starts Armageddon.
1
Are any of the former presidents willing to go to the White House and tell Donald Trump he must resign - as Barry Goldwater did with Nixon - for the good of the country? So millions of people aren't killed?
Bill Clinton, George Bush and Barack Obama are in good enough health to make this trip together right now. What's it going to take? Congress is not going to do anything. Won't you help us?
4
Don't know how or why the Command Center in Pyongyang hasn't been or can't be taken out quickly so that we and benevolent South Korea can take over the country and its poor indigents.
Your POTUS (where 'you' is 33%) and The POTUS (which unfortunately means 100% of Americans) has been played, very quickly and easily outsmarted by NK.
Trump's thin skin and unchecked mouth that knows not the slightest bit about diplomacy has backed himself into a corner.
2
trump wants a war to make him more historic. His bunker awaits him.
5
The slightest mistake could lead to war. Then, possibly even nuclear war, as third parties get involved. Get Trump out NOW, Congress, before it is too late. Pass H.R. 669, restricting presidential first use of nuclear weapons. And beg the world for forgiveness that we ever elected such an awful person as Donald J. Trump.
6
When I place as little faith in the United States to act reasonable with respect to North Korea, then I cannot blame them for upping the ante in this absolutely crazy nuclear chicken contest. Two idiotic despots, Kim Jong Un and Trump, are playing a dangerous chess match with millions of peoples lives being used as pawns. What is it about men with idiotic haircuts that make them so insane? Maybe that is the telltale sign. Never elect a bad haircut? In Kim's case, the North Koreans had no choice. He was not chosen by the people. The United States, on the other hand, had a most decisive choice. They could have picked a tried and true experienced woman, or an incompetent unstable crackpot with no experience. Enough people voted for Trump to bring in that outdated loophole the Founders put in the supposedly immaculate Constitution and flipped the election to the least qualified person ever to have held the office. Well, there you have it. Who is to blame for this mess? The Americans who voted for Trump. They will live with that mistake the rest of their lives, which from the looks of it, may not be that far away.
DD
Manhattan
4
Great.
Both countries are looking for excuses to start a war.
Will the countries run by more mature and intelligent leaders please step up and restrain these two.
2
The Kim's use the U.S.as a distraction to keep their population untied under them in the face of economic deprivation.The more aggressive we are, the longer they will be in power.
At the same time, when we are aggressive enough to scare them, they accelerate their nuclear program. It wasn't under Obama that they tested their first hydrogen bomb, but after numerous threats by Trump.
Trump is probably also trying to use the threat from North Korea to unite us under his "leadership," but many of us are more worried about what Trump will do than NK.
Does Trump understand that any attack on NK would likely bring us to war with China, which means WWIII, or that any launching of nuclear missiles at a country five hundred miles (the distance from NY to Carolina) would cause the Chinese to launch nuclear missiles leading to global thermal nuclear war?
We attacked Korea. We have refused to sign a peace treaty. We have had 105 of atmospheric nuclear tests in the Pacific. We used nuclear missiles in war. We have hundreds of missiles aimed around the world. We have the world's biggest and most aggressive military, regularly attacking countries around the world. Pyongyang has mostly fear.
We are bullying weak state, who see Khaddafi dead after giving up his nukes, and Trump trying to cancel the Iran deal..
Let's declare victory and back off. Offer a peace treaty. Leave China to worry about the nuclear program. Take away the U.S. Bogey man that keeps the Kims in power.
5
Scares me to read comments that instead of analyse the facts not only the present ones but the past ones related to North Korea and instead keep attacking the president, what we have is a rogue state threatening neighbour states that in some way have the way of life we have and are considered friends. Today what we have in the UNITED states is a lot of agendas, we have the African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Latino-Americans and Muslim-Americans, so whatever happen to the "just Americans", and all of that divisiveness increased by a media that sees only narrowly the all picture. Who are the states benefiting from all that divisiveness? Very simple, the same states that do not share our way of life, you name it.
3
Trump is an opportunity for rationality to reign in foreign affairs.
Surrounding one self with generals is not a formula to be a cool military genius purely by association.The US Navy in the western Pacific has issues with resources at the cost of lives.I am confident that the Commander in Chief will listen to his military colleagues about reality.
Sensitive issues preoccupy the Pacific such as an NK missile hitting Taiwan.
Taiwan is a more obvious target than Guam.
China and the US would be checkmated for obvious reasons.
Kim is very shrewd but not invincible.
Obviously he is open to a bribe like most transient dictators who have no the end game or care for their citizens.
He has crippled his nation economically.
Like Stalin and the current leadership of China, he is scared of being deposed.
I am sure that some bent government would give him domicile for cash such as Idi Amin.
Hitler, Gadaffi, Sadam and Mussolini came to inglorious deaths.
Reason will prevail.
The ambiguity of the scenario would be an obvious game play of NK.
NK is an astute manipulator of news fed by a once in a generation US president like Trump.
2
Not one shot has to be fired; but a serious commitment to peace is required. This foolish bravado from our President is unnecessary. This foolish language is needlessly endangering millions of people. If our President was committed to a peaceful solution; it could happen in a few days by introducing economic sanctions severe enough to force China , who supports this madman, to choose between supporting Kim Jung Un and free trade in the United States. Yet Mr Trump would rather un danger millions of people with a Nuclear conflict than endanger our economy with an economic backlash from the Chinese. Lincoln once said "that none of us can escape history."
4
A stupid and not directly related question maybe, but is there anything this president of yours is actually good at?
I mean even as a con man he is terrible, and I am really awfully concerned that as much as something between a third and almost half of your country's population has not have the intelligence and/or common sense to see him for what he is.
If anything positive can ever be learned out of this Trump era please make it be that:
- how on earth could so many people in an advanced western country be so easily manipulated or convinced or blinded by that failure of a man and fraud of a stateman?
10
Answer: only some of us are advanced. Others can't find their way beyond the end of their driveway. They are little children who when caught being unreasonable, illogical or naughty can only offer "But did that.." Sad.
This all started in 1900 when America and other empire-building countries invaded China, and Peking was overrun and looted, national treasures stolen, cities destroyed, thousands of women raped and tens of thousands massacred. This insult and humiliation has never been forgotten. So since the end of its 1940s civil war, China has cultivated anti-American states around it, and entered into the 1950 Korean War, to keep the American barbarians from setting up tank and bomber bases on its borders. If America attacks North Korea, China will defend it, and if in consequence Trump orders a nuclear attack on China, the nuclear warheads that cripple your major cities and industrial areas could come from Chinese submarines (or shipping containers). In the aftermath, a devastated and leaderless America would end up with warring ethnic factions similar to Iraq post-Bush.
5
There is only one play left.
The Chinese need to engineer a coup, and get Kim out.
Soon.
2
And the next play after that is the invocation of the 25th Amendment.
1
If N Korea detonates a nuclear (?) bomb above ground/water in the western Pacific, will radiation not soon after saturate US air currents from Alaska down to L.A. and then across the nation?
4
Mostly by following the newspapers I have been under the assumption that America and NATO are in possession of a rocket defence system.
Clearly I am mistaken here. I.e if this was the case these rockets would be shot down over NC or shortly after leaving it's borders taking the tools away from this destructive little boy.
1
Kimchi has shown the world he ought to be treated in the same personal way he had treated his own close family.
5
Let's just get it over with....
Get our Tweeting Trump and Rocketman into a ring with boxing gloves and let them have a go at each other..
3
A domestic terrorist is threatening the world with an act that will make 9/11 look like a playground spat. He happens to be our president.
7
Um, the foreign North Korea Minister to the U.N. is not entirely wrong.
Come within our airspace without previous notice you will be shot down.
The mantra of every sovereign nation.
9
did you even read the first sentence of the article?
"shoot down American warplanes even if they were
NOT in the country’s airspace"
One comment that is made over and over is everyone knew who Trump was at the time of the election. Nothing he does now should be a surprise. As far as I'm concerned I agree. I remember arguing with my uncle in October of last year stating Hilary Clinton was the hands down choice based solely on North Korea. Unfortunately I was right. Donald Trump is a narcissistic mess. He is not going to change or mature. I agree with the North Koreans. I think Trump wants to bomb North Korea into submission. He is close to getting his wish.
Make no mistake. Donald Trump cares nothing about the men, women, and children living in Japan, South Korea, or North Korea. He sees people as a means to an end. Does he ever mention the woman run over by a car in Charlottesville? No. He doesn't care. Her death means nothing to him because it had nothing to do with his own goals and desires.
I think people in the U.S. think of Kim Jong Un as being on the other side of the world in a little, backward country. Well that's true. But it's also true he could detonate a nuclear weapon most anywhere in the atmosphere of the U.S. and at the very least take out most or all of our power grid. North Korea can strike anywhere in the U.S. within one hour. We might shoot it down and we might not.
Wake up Republican Congress. You can remove him from office or watch millions of lives destroyed. If there is another election after a nuclear attack your party will be a hard sell.
3
The most popular comment
"One slip, one radar operator's miss judgement, one artillery shell could plunge the region into war. The Supreme Leader of the North is not like Trump. He has killed before. He won't hesitate to kill."
If so
Then
Better act now since the US is not
YET
Under threat of annhliation but soon WILL be by on by one who, let me borrow the words,
Won't. Hesitate. To. Kill.
But thinking about what one says is just not enjoyable. Let us talk about Trump. More fun.
3
If DPRK has said all what Trump uttered at the UN and their plane was even flying towards the US what would our military do?
That is the reason stupid ignorants like Trump are told to choose their words carefully. Particularly when we have forces around the world and are involved in at least 7 open warfare.
If our planes are in their air space and North Korea shoots at it, how can anyone blame them but Trump.
This loss of one plane would be enough to impeach him.
5
Trump is a joke of a president. But it's no laughing matter.
We need to take our country back from the lunatic and his sychophants.
3
I'd just call the NYT the Pyongyang Express nowadays the way you crazies look at the world!
I'm done. My subscription is gone.. So long!
4
North Koreans have made tremendous sacrifices to build up KIm Jong-un's vaunted weapons systems. A world leader would have to be very naive, to think that such a nation - an isolated and paranoid land - could be bluffed out of using the very same weapons that they have, year after year, starved for.
Do we know a "world leader" who is very naive? And suppose that leader had a "mean streak" a mile wide, running down his back, as well?
Expect bad things. Very bad things - as our own "great leader" transitions from Klu Klux Klan friendly Police Brutality denier, to full blooded Holocaust supplier.
4
remove trump by any means possible.
3
War is not the answer. Never was the answer. Trump is a bully that can't take being ignored for all his bluster he might do the nation a disservice by tweeting us into a war with someone that is willing to kill their neighbors if poked to much. There is a way around this, but trump is too much of a bully to think down that road. Offer to let them keep the nukes they made, just welcome them to the table. Stop treating them like kids you never liked. It saves them face, and you act like an adult.
2
Why is anybody at all surprised?
The GOP needs this war, to distract from every recent (and imminent) failure. They probably hope that war will further stimulate the economy and unite their quickly-fragmenting, anti-world, pro-conflict, conservative base. Remember that a nation at war suddenly implements curfews and racial profiling, etc. Then quickly we're lifting Arctic drilling bans for more oil to fuel bombers...
As we know by now, Trump only "wins" by insults, chaos and conflict. Kim is a really easy character to engage for someone as incompetent as Trump -- chest-beating, name-calling. It's an easy-bake war with only a few ingredients (conventional, single nation vs. single nation, clear strategic target selection of either population centers for effect or military bases, etc.) Of course, Kim is a full generation younger, and much smarter than Trump, but, no one seems to have brought that up yet...
I dare Trump to touch our ongoing war in the Middle East. He wouldn't last 20 minutes with any of that. You can't Tweet your way through religious genocide and guerrilla warfare with IEDs. Trump and the GOP crumple in place when confronted with a real challenge. Dismantling, obstructing and insulting, though? Carry on, please. I'll get my SPAM and head underground.
3
Kim has been studying Trump for a long time and knows exactly how to press his buttons. The gargoyle spewing president is getting played. Trouble is said gargoyle is all about ratings and image and not about strategic de-escalation of this pathetic war of words.
NK however belligerent they are just want to run their country their way. This might include millions in poverty and oppression. These facts should not color western judgements on how to deal with the stand off. Trump is fanning the flames and should be silenced. Let diplomats handle this. Rhetoric damped down, cooler heads are essential. His very presence in the conflict undermines all chance of peace and reconciliation.
5
this does not look good - no republican president has ever won a war.
1
If they do shoot down a US plane, they will be totally destroyed. I know progressives prefer an Obama-style policy of bowing down to other world leaders, but that won't work with NK.
2
N. Korea will not be destroyed without a significant loss of American and S. Korean lives.
Are you ok with that too?
3
"Completely Destroyed?" So that means, 25 million Nnorth Koreans, plus most of Seoul destroyed by NK. Let's be conservative and assume the loss of 30 million totally and not count the millions lost to cancer caused by nuclear fallout.
And Americans are being distracted by the President's focus on the NFL? Yes history is going to judge us well, as we run toward the greatest catastrophe in human history.
2
I seen to recall Trump bowing down so that the Saudi King could put a tacky gold necklace in him in return for $120 billion in arms sales, even though 17 of the 9/11 highjackers were Saudi.
Much nonsense has been made of this bowing, because authoritarians think like pack animals and think dominance is physically asserted, when in reality basic diplomatic protocol requires these niceties from civilized people.
1
Trump blames this ridiculous feud on past diplomatic efforts, saying that the menace of Kim Jong-un has not been "handled" before. That is exactly why this nuclear brinkmanship has not happened prior to Trump's need to stir the hornet's nest; because we HAD handled the North Korean leader in keeping his lunacy at bay. If Trump's current war-mongering is "handling" this dangerous leader, then i'd say let's stop handling this immediately.
18
I hate the idea of war and the consequences to the innocent people in that region and sincerely hope it can still be avoided....my best guess is by real intervention by China.
But how can you possibly say we've handled NK and kept his lunacy at bay? For years they have worked on developing serious nuclear capabilities and seem to be in striking distance of achieving this aim, all the while declaring their hatred of the US and their wish to wipe us off the face of the earth. NOTHING has been done to keep his lunacy at bay while it was still possible without horrendous consequences....and here we are. His lunacy will soon have unthinkable capabilities and all because it has been consistently ignored. I'm sorry but you sound like one of those people who believe we could have negotiated with Hitler to avoid WWII....only this time, a small insane dictator will have almost limitless power to do far more damage than Hitler would have dreamed possible. It hasn't been handled at all....and soon it will be too late....and the majority of the posts here seem to blame everyone but the real cause of this evil....and its not the US!
Does President Trump realise that he is terrifying people across the globe with his words on Twitter? My daughter and her husband have just moved Japan to work as international scientists, for the good of mankind. I wake up every morning in the UK frightened about what your president is now saying in his tone of goading provation to North Korea. Please can someone advise him of the damage this is doing across the world? Words like this on Twitter are no joke.
9
Someone like Trump would truly enjoy that he is terrifying people and show no concern for them. It's because of his personality. And in the political system in the United States, it's hard to stop the President. That's the reality.
This is pretty concerning. But perhaps not too much more so than all of the little steps that lead up to it.
3
This tit for tat is getting way out of hand, where is the sense of reality when so many lives are at stake now, the limit to any peaceful solution is no longer available nor willing to be discussed at the table, this has to stop now before it's too late.
Congress should do it's job ASAP, convene and put order when several minds are no longer willing to listen to each other and their ""advice / suggestions / threats"" are leading to hostilities and imply WWIII.
4
In all of this rhetorical escalation, I can't quite believe that China is not really the force behind this. I have no doubt that they wouldn't want a nuclear war on the peninsula, but conventional one? One which destroys South Korea's industrial might? I'm not so sure. I do know that South Korean based Samsung is a mighty competitor to China's Huawei. And there are other examples.
It's just a sneaking suspicion, but wouldn't it be a big global market opening for China's state-controlled mega-corps to step into if, South Korea went down in flames? Seems like a case of China getting none of the blame but all of the reward. It's just really hard for me to believe that China couldn't shut down Kim Jong Un, if they actually wanted to.
4
I would be surprised if China didn't already control NK. It was the Chinese military that stopped us at the 38th parallel. They must have had control over the NK government. They must have left agents there. They control 90% of NK's trade. That almost definitely includes their computers, which would bugged."
Not only are we a puppet in Kim's domestic theatre, but the Chinese are probably playing us too.
By the way, why us is the Chinese can protect their interests around the world, without projecting military force almost anywhere?
2
It should be noted that the US warplanes were never in NK "sovereign territory" but in international air space about 500km from the NK coast. This was intended as a show of US military readiness in response to NK's firing of a missile over the territory of Japan a few days earlier in defiance of all international treaty agreements.
While putting aside the question of whether Trump's bombast is part of a larger more effective strategy of dealing with a rogue regime that has shown itself impervious to every other form of "rational" diplomacy, I'm also not certain that all the hand-wringing (unwitting?) apologists on behalf of a brutal authoritarian regime that has for all of its existence continued to threaten its neighbors and the rest of the world with armed destruction is helping to clarify the policies that need to be undertaken now.
1
Despite Republican rhetoric, Obama was not easy on North Korea. He directly attacked their program with hackers. They responded by accelerating their missiles tests.
Now Trump is talking about destroying the entire country, so they tested their first hydrogen bomb. Pyongyang is five hundred miles from Beijing. They should be China's problem. Yes we have allies there, but we are not doing them any favors by bullying NK.
We are the aggressors. We attacked NK. We have the world's largely military that has attacked numerous counties.
Bullying weak states might make US bullies feel better, but it is not making us safer.
Bullying weak states in the Middle East has not made us safer either. 9/11 was a direct response to decades of U.S.aggression in the region.
Those of you who think you can stride around the world using force to install governments that we like (mostly for the benefit of global corporations) need to start taking responsibility for the blowback.
For example there were no Muslim terrorists in Iraq until the Bush administration created a massive power vacuum there, leaving space for Al Queda to move in, morphing into ISIS, and also for Iran to grow its influence. Obama and Clinton can take credit for giving them a foothold in Libya.
Bullying is not a more effective foreign policy. It is pathetic and dangerous.
Just like there is no sanitized "region" in which nuclear damage could be contained on the other side of the Pacific, so, too, there is no border or wall on this side to block or neutralize the destruction aimed at the U.S. Is it too much to ask of those of you who are hasty to conclude that this will never come to real blows to consider those of us north of the 49th parallel - and those south of the Rio Grande - who, especially on the West Coast, would be closer to any target zone than New York? This is not a video game.
2
Once I wrongly thought (and many people in Iran still think) that the American government don's say a word without thinking about its repercussions before; yet, today we see a president in the wealthiest and most powerful country spewing forth words that even a novice politician may never say. Yes, Kim also speaks recklessly, but he is the president of a country that doesn't compare at all with the US. I am sorry for the America, as I see it in a downfall, both its democracy and maybe later its economy.
5
War is now pending. Nuclear war hovers.
In the surreal air of Washington Senator Lindsay Graham blithely saying they'll die only over there is allowed as a passing remark and not the betrayal of the mindless inhumanity that it is.
In the television age we often look back at pieces of history, astonished at the vastness of slaughter and the turning moments that became irreversible momentum. There were people alive at those critical and deciding moments who saw what they were. They were alive to what was underway.
In this same television age, disaster is what most of us experience by edited photography, briefly. In the marketing age, words are for effect not truth. The roots to reality are frayed.
The president who has paid little personal price for a lifetime of taunting and baiting words, lives in a self inflated balloon. He cannot grasp what consequences outside it can be.
They will come in an instant.
5
Should these two countries and/or others actually go to war. It should be considered as a major failure by US leadership and the same goes for the leaders of the other countries in the region. They need to be reminded that NOBODY wins in war.
Trump says past administrations have failed in containing North Korea. I would rather have that sort of 'failure' than a war which will cost human lives.
4
"But the threat reinforced a fear that Pyongyang and Washington are hurtling toward a possible armed conflict, even an unintended one."
The President's language and rhetoric are as bombastic - no pun intended - as Kim's. If we consider Kim unstable, what then does it say about our President?
6
Yes the only argument we had that was not hypocritical, was that the Kims were too crazy to have the bomb. Now that argument is also hypocritical.
We have no moral standing to threaten NK.
Trump should use all this bluster as cover to claim he is a matter negotiator, sign a peace treaty, and leave the nuke problem to China.
We have seen similar tensions between the U.S. and North Koreans even before. But this time, things are turning serious. Being the sole super power, I expect America to act little reasonably. Mr.Trump does not seem to think twice before speaking. His speech in the U.N. about "totally destroying North Korea" is in bad taste. (His speech about Iran nuclear deal was also in the same manner). Naturally, North Koreans would like to respond in the same vein.
War is not at all a solution. Instead of making such noises, America should take the services of China and Russia, and bring North Koreans to the negotiating table. Being an impoverished country, ordinary North Koreans should not be allowed to suffer because of insane acts of its leader. A permanent and longlasting solution lies only in the negotiating table and not in the battle field.
5
Why are the voices of Republican foreign policy opinion leaders like Frum, Kristol, Krauthammer, Podhoretz, Rubin and Will not speaking out loudly and clearly and in unison now that the GOP and the American people need more than a vote for Clinton or McMulllen, a strong big partisan voice for measured leadership through this gravest and most unnecessarily exacerbated crisis?
1
Shouldn't everyone who supported the Iraq war be disqualified from policy making, since it should have been obvious to anyone acquainted with the facts at the time that the war was based on lies?
The most glaring lie was that Saddam was allied with Muslim terrorists. He was Stalinist from subsidized necessities to brutal secret police to his mustache. He outlawed beards to get rid of the religious, who he considered a threat.
The Bush administration had to change their justification for war numerous times.
British intelligence visited the Bush administration nine months before the war and write the Downing Street Memo, which said the Bush administration had already decided to attack Iraq and the intelligence was being "fixed around that decision."
Twenty five million protesters from every continent knew the war was based on lies. The professionals who got it wrong or lied need to find a new line of work.
1
I think its high time somebody called North Korea's bluff. They are really over-stepping the line now and need to be slapped down. The problem is, I don't think Trump's administration is up to the task. He's too much of a loose cannon. Now Obama on the other hand...
How do you call their bluff? Invade? Is China also bluffing? Will China just watch as you invade NK, 500 miles from Beijing?
Nuke them? Once nukes start flying 500 miles from Beijing, a hundred miles from Dangdon, the Chinese have to launch their arsenal at us, that goes over Russia which also launches. The end of civilization.
The real way to call their bluff is to stop worrying about their threats. Declare peace and pull back. Be prepared to defend South Korea and Japan, but stop engaging in the mutual taunting that keeps their people United in fear of the US.
A crazy homeless guy in a wheel chair is screaming threats as you walk by. Do you scream back and beat him up if he makes a move? Do you just keep walking and leave the pathetic guy to his insanity? Do you get him help?
Those that answer beat him up, are even more pathetic bullies, unable to see the big picture, unable to see that engaging is to risk disaster for no good reason.
1
N Korea may have a case in shooting down US bombers flying in the vicinity.
Waiting for official war declaration is silly. The fact of the matter is US may suddenly turn into Pacman and attack, especially with tactical nuke bombers.
The criteria for Kim to preemptively attack US air assets is the quantity of perceived tactical nukes carrying jets.
China may give valuable intel to N Korea to forestall a US preemptive attack. This by itself could trigger a N Korean preemption on US air assets if she sense a decisive advantage.
So, extremely dangerous for US to send too many bombers just outside N K EEZ. They are hostile behaviors and even though US have legal rights Freedom of Navigation FON, N Korea's missiles also have Freedom of Navigation FON in international air space. A collision in international air space can be ruled 'accidental' as the US jets are supposed to take evasive actions to stay safe.
US may not shoot missiles, drop bombs inside N Korea's territorial space. This is war initiated by US, if it happen. It infringe on sovereignty whereas encounters outside territorial space is just 'accidental'.
Both are hostile to each other, US again induce, bait for war, like Gulf Of Tonkin Incident.
Make no mistake, US is the source of war if it do break out based on US baiting NK forced to do preemption.
3
Kim Jong-un may be right about Trump, being a "dotard". If Trump is too thin-skinned and hotheaded to keep a cool head, the least John Kelly and HR McMaster can do is to keep him away from incendiary tweets. Trump's handling of the crisis is a far cry from how JFK managed the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.
Like Kim, Nikita Krushchev tested his young American counterpart's mental strength to the limits. But JFK did not respond with bluster - he simply ignored Khrushchev’s threats, and cleverly made his Soviet counterpart believe he was a rational leader negotiating for parity in world affairs. Thanks to his acumen, the two defused tensions.
10
Mr. Trump, gee President Trump. Who wrote this article? President Trump needs unity with all Americans. Time for this foolish separation to end. Grow up people. United we stand and divided we fall. If you don't like the president, then get out and vote next term. But now you need to support this man.
3
It's not the job of Americans to support the president, but rather the other way around.
Trump does not represent or support most Americans. In fact, he has positioned himself as their enemy.
The main task of Americans is to throw him out.
5
No, I really don't. Supporting the guy isn't going to magically make him competent.
5
Not really, there is no need or obligation to stand behind the proclivities of a crass, compulsively insulting, terrible role model, self centered, race "dog whistling" and, increasingly emerging to be, truly dangerous person. Where was this sense of duty you espouse when President Obama was in office? Most Americans respect and honor the institution of presidency, which many believe is being damaged and even dishonored by this unpresidential behavior and inappropriate personality. Protest is American, not subservience, in such a situation.
1
yes, DPRK has proven not to be a rational political actor -- but I suspect neither would you if you were menaced by the specter of annihilation for the past 50 years at the hands of the nation that refuses to sign a no strings attached peace treaty and is considered the greatest military super power the world has known. You would not be rational if you were sanctioned into extreme poverty and put on a constant defensive posture by a super power, would you?
the idea that they should not be allowed to seek and defend themselves with the exact same weapons that other countries have is the epitome of hypocrisy.
Here is a quote from Dan Coats, President Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence: An Islamic Republic of Iran with nuclear weapons capability would be strategically untenable,” Coats said, because it would possess a “deterrent” against U.S. attack. And to prevent Iran from acquiring the ability to deter us, he explained, we might have to attack them.
There you have the crux of the matter: America cannot allow "lesser" countries to acquire defensive nuclear capabilities because it would then hamper America's ability to impose it's will on these countries. Now if you were a leader of one of these "lesser" countries and you read those quotes, how would you feel? Now imagine that you are the sworn enemy of the country that produced those quotes........ what do you do?
18
Gee -- if I was the leader of North Korea, the first thing I would do is make sure my people had enough to eat.
The DPRK is a failing regime. It's never been rational from the beginning and relies solely on propaganda to further its agenda. It's created a lot of its own problems. All of this saber rattling aside, the government will probably collapse internally.
DPRK's self-proclaimed territorial airspace extending 40 miles from its shores must be challenged immediately. No country is above International law, which sets it at 12 miles. Permitting DPRK to flaunt international law now sets the stage for disaster later.
7
The US violates international law with impunity, because it is strong enough to be a bully.
When it does so, hundreds of thousands of people die.
NK has not in the past 60-odd years invaded anyone or been responsible for such a massive loss of life.
BTW, the word you meant was "flout," not "flaunt."
"Flaunt" international law indeed. I think the commenter intended to say "flout" but "flaunting international law" is a closer description of what North Korea is doing.
At Nuremberg, the US established that the greatest war crime is a war of aggression. US authorities have been constantly flouting (yes, flouting is the correct word there) that Nuremberg doctrine, in attacking countries that had done nothing to the United States. Vietnam comes to mind. Korea, Dominican Republic, Lebanon, Panama, we lose count.
And now Trump is now threatening to wipe out 25 million people, in the worst war crime in history.
US authorities, armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons, are outraged that another country is acquiring them as a deterrent to US aggression. The whole world can see what the US did to Iraq and Libya when they gave up their WMD deterrents. They were invaded, the leaders killed, and the countries destroyed in mass bombing and never-ending civil wars. Iraq and Libya were dictatorships, but they had highways, hospitals, schools, a pretty good standard of living. You think North Korea can't see what happened? We all can.
Lol the U.S.thinks it's above international law. Trump thinks he's above U.S.law.
1
Forget for a moment that Trump is President, if you can. North Korea is nominally nuclear. They do not and will not have the technology to reach US soil. The North Korean military is woefully unprepared, underfunded, undersupplied and obsolete. The chances of them shooting down a US plane, especially after issuing a warning, is nil, zip, zilch and nada. It ain't happening. The only way we are getting dragged into this is if NK decided to invade South Korea. Even then, they only have reserves for 48-72 hours of combat. Consider that the US would have already nullified their command and control with cruise missiles. This is a dying regime, the worse the situation gets, the louder the saber rattling. NK is a huge problem for the Pacific Rim, eventually they will have to be delt with, and likely the Chinese, South Koreans and Japanese will do so. This will happen regardless of who the US president is.
7
NK. knows it cannot win a war. There internal propaganda used the U.S.as a threat to keep them in power. We have nothing to gain by poking north Korea, as you say.
Threats of war will increase to change the subject from how a criminal oligarchy chose our next president in spite of losing the popular vote and the systematic attack on traditional American values and the inquiry into his Trump's finances and decrease when the need to change the subject is less pressing. When Meuller turns up the heat in Washington, Trump turns up the heat in Korea.
american
17
I'm wondering how things are progressing with Mr. Mueller. It's been kind of quiet.
Well Nan, last week Mueller subpoenaed many documents from the white house including documents in the meeting between trump and the Russian intelligent service where he gave them classified information.
It's not that quiet.
What are the concrete steps to derail Trump and a possible catastrophe?
We all write pleas but to no avail!
This is getting close to the fire. The republicans arent going to do anything.
Dems?.... the public......?
3
A hundred million people in the streets demanding impeachment would probably sway even the Republicans.
I don't understand why so many people are so furious and offended at President Trump over this. Have we forgotten that Kim Jong-Un is a dictator? Or that his nation is home to 25mil people who are starving to death while he leads a life of luxury? He is an evil person to be able to treat his own people so horribly. Yet the United Nations, who is supposed to be a humanitarian, peace keeping society, stands by while people are treated so inhumanely and a crazy man who constantly threatens war builds up a nuclear arsenal. Why is anyone okay with Kim? Is it alright for other people to starve, suffer, and die as long as it's not our people? It infuriates me the injustice that those poor people face everyday with no way out, while the rest of the world stands by and slanders one of the few world leaders brave enough to stand against it.
Regardless of your opinions on Trump, we should all rally behind an effort to see innocent people freed from the supreme dictatorship of Kim Jong-Un. It is our place to help them, because we can, and we are not excused from doing what's right if it comes at a cost.
The whole world sat by and watched as Hitler built up his army and began captured Poland, not wanting to ruffle the feathers of a powerful dictator. That led to the bloodiest war in human history. Why don't we learn from the past, and do what it takes to stop this evil before it has the chance to grow anymore? If we can without firing a shot, then let's do; but if we must, then we must.
11
Trump, the GOP, and the other warmongers in the US government have not been talking about "freeing" the people of North Korea, but of obliterating them with nuclear weapons.
Besides, when the US tries to supposedly "free" people, it kills many of them and makes the situation worse for the remainder.
The US government and many Americans have learned nothing from the debacles in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
4
The US has no moral right. It considers itself the policeman of the world and that is the problem. In so doing it bullies and denies sovereign countries rights the US assumes of itself. The world knows this and states are even more wary under Trump.
The excuse of a war based on Twitter rants is no argument at all for the annihilation of millions. This is treading the same well worn path used in all the 20th century military engagements the US has inserted itself into. Millions of civilians killed, displaced and cultures destroyed. Time the US backed off the rhetoric and Trump concentrated on his domestic problems.
2
Trump and the Republicans are trying to deprive more American people of healthcare than the whole of the population of North Korea. Think about that for a minute.
1
Of course it has a right to shoot down threatening planes or drones, or whatever.
Doen´t Israel does the same, even on other countries air space ? Would´t the US do the same if it felt itself threatened ? Of course it would .
Stop provoking. All those yearly "war Games" are the reason why N. Korea has obtained nuclear weapons, and then you are surprised !! Really.
11
In the 70s or early 80s Israel destroyed one of our American warships in the Mediterranean, knowing full well it was ours!
1
Evan Osnos, a New Yorker correspondent, has recently returned from the DPRK with the conclusion the both countries are attempting to avoid war while awaiting optimal conditions for offers of negations, a heartening conclusion. Hear his views at . https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/political-scene/evan-osnos-talks-to-da...
1
As I type this - American fighter jets are ripping the sky apart on their way north to the border and dmz from osan air base.
Trillions of dollars worth of the worlds most advanced american military hardware parked on the border on North Korea.
Quick question to anyone living in america right now: Can you hear North Korean fighter jets tearing up the sky along your border right now?
Who is really the aggressor here?
To those who say their is no way to stop a military intervention --- how about america offer a no string attached peace treaty? How about do that and stop sanctioning NK into oblivion? How about not constantly posturing for war along the NK border? We might be amazed to see them act with a little less paranoia if america did those things....
18
I don't hear them off the coast of Florida because they don't have the range to get here.
Also, they'd be taken apart soon after takeoff.
Also, we aren't lobbing bombs into the air every week trying to scare other nations.
My message to you is, be thankful we are there. We're the only thing standing between you becoming northern Korean.......
The Noth Korean leaders are dangerous and seem willing to push their luck. An American military aircraft was shot down killing 31 people during the Nixon administration. They are now threatening to shoot down another military plane because Donald Trump declared war against them. With two of the most ignorant and impulsive leaders war seems eminent
4
North Korea isn't Russia or China (on which, vis-à-vis the South China Sea, see https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2017-06-13/course-correction). When Russia said it would shoot down American jets in Syria, the threat was hard to credit. But when the DPRK threatens to target our jets, it may not be mere rhetoric, because this regime thinks in ways we don't understand. It seems suicidal for Kim to get into a conflict with America, but he mayn't see it that way. It isn't that Kim may be crazy; it's that we can so easily misperceive his analysis.
This situation was entirely predictable, and the American people should've thought about this (though that's too much to ask of them) when they chose to put a man with the intellect and impulse control of a teenager in the Oval Office. And the socialists who said Hillary Clinton was a war hawk who would get us into World War 3 with the Russians (whose interference in the election they denied) should be ashamed of themselves. This man, the fool in the White House, sees diplomacy as something for weaklings (note his budget).
Sanders (who would cede spheres of influence both to Russia in Eastern Europe and to China in East Asia and beyond) and Trump were always going to be terrible foreign policy presidents, though in different ways. If President Trump tears up the JCPOA, we will have a second nuclear crisis on our hands. His words have gone from embarrassing to a threat to American and global security. What was foreseen is upon us.
9
The reason why Kim is so bold because he knows the American people are not united behind Trump, unlike his people who are united behind him. No one dares to mock or ridicule Kim in his country. This is the pitfall of a democratic country which enjoys so much freedom as compared to a communist, socialist or totalitarian regimes. Yet one American comedian wanted to trade Trump for Kim.
3
Koreans are the victims of starvation and violent repression enacted by Kim. If you consider being held hostage by a madman to be unity, you might want to move to N. Korea and join in.
1
When we loose the right to mock and ridicule someone like Donald Trump in this country, we might as well be living in North Korea. NO, thanks.
I hate to say it, but this war has been inevitable since the North Koreans insisted on developing nuclear weapons and missiles. This is not a leadership which can be allowed to possess weapons of mass destruction. Say prayers for the thousands of Koreans and Americans who will die before the evil regime in the North is finally terminated. But if they aren't eliminated sooner rather than later that figure will inflate to millions.
5
This is exactly what Trump wants.
Trump may not have any friends, but he loves his enemies.
A nuclear outcome lowers the bar of restraint, and changes, Everything.
2
I want to hear talk of congress taking back the right to wage war.
2
I once again remind everyone the war with North Horea can be incredibly brief. One thousand nuclear weapons can lay waste its entire war making capability, including the artillery aimed at Seoul. Thirty minutes, and there is no longer a Kim dynasty; one five megaton device and there is no more Pyongyang parade grounds. Most of the people imprisoned in the country side will awake to freedom, while Rocket Man drowns in a lake of fire he so often promised others.
"one five megaton device"
Where do you live, diogenes? I wouldn't want that radioactive cloud wafting over me. I'm having enough trouble with pollen this year.
You get that the fallout in the atmosphere is going to blow somewhere, right?
And how are all these happy people who emerge unscathed from the North Korean countryside after the big blast going to politically organize themselves? You're dreaming.
The detonation of one thousand nuclear weapons would likely leave 30 million imprisoned people lying as corpses that will never awake to anything and kill many times that number by contaminating the entire planet radiation. What would prove brief is the history of the human race.
In the horrific holocaust you imagine, millions of innocent North Koreans would not be freed, but dead.
And South Korea would also be devastated. The time it takes for missiles to arrive would give North Korea plenty of time to attack the South.
A little thought is required before making such an irresponsible suggestion.
Perhaps Kim Jung Un is not a lunatic. I can't tell. But I am sure our President is a lunatic and what I want most in the world is for him to be removed from office while we are all still alive! Where are you Republicans? Don't you want to live, too?
All this belly bumping of leaders is way too out of hand. Many of us are scared!
10
“In their first and only meeting, President Obama explicitly warned Donald Trump days after the election about the urgency of North Korea’s nuclear weapons threat.”
Obama reiterated to Trump on parting “North Korea is your most pressing problem.”
So Trump calls Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen out of the blue for HIS advice.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-warned-trump-on-north-kore...
Trump is bloviating his way into nuclear war. Trump doesn’t even know the meaning of bloviate, hubris, or bellicose and NOT ONE of Trump’s advisors will be able to explain this to a guy who says “I have the best brain and have the best words.”
Much more than “Sad!”
21
Everyone call your representatives in Congress. Pass the word to those that you know to do the same thing. It's all we have left at this point.
11
Your advice would be more constructive if you suggested something to actually say to our "representatives in Congress".
Should we be advocating a massive nuclear first-strike by the US, or something less aggressive, such as a conventional cruise missile attack on a building in Pyongyang?
Many commentators have highlighted the immediate detrimental results of going to war with North Korea (the 20-30 million lives lost). I think another longer term item that needs to be considered is what the rest of the world will think. If the US solely attacks NK and 20-30 million South Korean lives are lost, our other allies (I think) would begin to question their alliance with us. In fact, I think the possibility is that the rest of the world would turn on us and blame us for the fallout. Yes, we can fight North Korea and win, but the whole world? I think the only military option would be to involve South Korea, Japan and China...because they really have more at stake than we do.
10
Unfortunately, China and Russia like the North Koreans having these weapons - their protests are mere acting. We have run out of options. The sanctions do not work, and never will. This regime can't be trusted to possess weapons of mass destruction and delivery systems. Unfortunately, because previous administrations dithered and never presented a credible deterrent to prevent this, we must bid goodbye to the Korean peninsula as we know it. And make no mistake about it - Russia and especially China share blame in this by enabling an evil North Korean government.
I hate, hate, HATE to say this, but I see where Kim Jon Un is coming from; Trump has repeatedly been making serious threats and insults (Rocket Man isn't funny and never was), and Un, a man who maintains his power through fear, must respond with a show of invulnerability.
And for Trump's people to now say they didn't make threats of war is nonsense. Trump rattled his sabres in front of the UN itself, which was shocked at his juvenile, bullying attitude. Un knows that whatever the UN tries through trade, in his warmongering, Trump stands alone.
There are ways of dealing with NK, and these lie mainly through persuading China that SK, despite being allied with America, isn't such a bad country after all. Sadly, Trump isn't much of a next-door neighbour himself.
The peaceful approach isn't doing so well but you can't just drop nukes on people. NK is full of people who live in abject fear and slavery. Not that Trump will let their lives trouble his conscience.
25
You make some really good points. Sounds like this Un guy isn't someone you can joke around with.
The North Korean people are our sworn enemies. As long as they back their leader, the American people see them as the enemy. I don't care what their lives look like. When it comes down to us or them, you can bet we'll choose them and we won't lose much sleep over it.
IMHO, the best way to deescalate is to announce the suspension of joint US/SK exercises, which NK has always seen as a prelude to invasion. The Joint Chiefs would have to sidestep Trump (if that's even possible) as his ego is too big to allow such a conciliatory move.
Despite the quasi-editorials in the news media, Trump has taken a conventional line in his negotiation with North Korea. We do not accept threats from them. Any nuclear strike by North Korea against US territory or Allied territory would be an instant death sentence for the North Korean regime. This is not news. Reports that it is news are utter fabrications by news reporters and editors. The purpose for these false reports being filed is unclear.
North Korea is not a peer of the USA. As such, we are telling them with unknown consequences that we would really like them to not have nuclear weapons. But, we have NOT threatened to strike them for having nuclear weapons. It is merely our preference that they not have them. And if they dare use them first strike, obviously, it is a tragic suicide by them. We all pray they don't embark on such a craven criminal action.
5
Comments about "Rocket Man" in front of the UN and tweets that Un "...won't be around much longer..." are helping the situation are they? You would call this a "conventional line"??
9
A second grader with his thumb in his mouth has a better chance against sixth graders with knives, brass knuckles, and baseball bats. However, the US needs to exert its energy on China and others to work with NK. Any "negotiations" with Korea are non-starters when both countries have crazies at the helm, so that is a waste of time and energy. If we think inside the box, then, indeed, we have to support Trump and his effort to eradicate the world of one madman and possibly his millions of innocent civilians. If we can just think a little more creatively, perhaps we can bring in a third party to put an end to these two madmen. It sure would be nice if China would flex some regional muscle in the interest of saving a big chunk of the world.
3
It's not crazy for Kim to want to protect his regime from US incursions.
He's a despotic tyrant, but he's acting as any leader would who feels constantly threatened by enemy military exercises in his backyard.
1
It is hard to believe in such a short amount of time the imbecile in the Whitehouse who loves to tweet like 9 year old Grammar school bully, could actually bring us to the brink of some kind of nuclear action or full out war with North Korea over his ignorance and stupidity.
I think for the sake of the Nation and safety of our country the Republican Congress should stop with the nonsense and deal with the real problem, Donald Trump, even if it means John Kelly needs to have a military intervention to take away any cell phones and limit his ability to make a phone call to anyone.
Trump is more dangerous than I could have ever imagined.
27
As I understand the U.S. Constitution only the Legislature can commit the United States to war. The Executive can bloviate, spew bombastic comments, and rattle his sabre all he wishes to please his domestic following but cannot Constitutionally commit the country to war. Should he wish to do so the Legislature has the Constitutional power of refusing to fund such an illegal action. One must assume that the Legislature would not shirk its’ Constitutionally mandated responsibilities or prerogatives.
6
We totally ignore that provision in the Constitution down here Lewis. The last president that felt compelled to get a declaration of war was FDR yet we're always fighting somewhere.
12
Alas, one cannot assume that.
Both parties have continued to grant the president unconstitutional war powers.
Alas, the warmaking power isn't clear. While Congress has the power to declare war, the president is commander-in-chief and can order forces into action. Morever, the War Powers Act authorizes the president to commit forces to action for certain periods without a war declaration. The act's limitations on the president have been ignored by every president since its passage in 1973 as an unconstitutional infringement of his powers. The U.S. Supreme Court has not heard a challenge to the law or to presidents' refusal to follow it.
Is this a good time for Japan to shoot a missile across NK?
just a little test practice.
China can track the incoming, tell us how accurate it is.
one thing for a country to have a nuke.
another thing to have missiles to deliver nukes.
NK crossed the line when it shot missiles across Japan.
Japan and South Korea restraint is admirable.
I have no doubt China or Russia or India or Pakistan would treat it as an act of war to perform ICBM flight tests across their countries.
7
MD,
Many who read here feel the same as you do -
But the time for our missiles to fly over Japan. Or the pacific at large, will be when we shoot their aggression down..
Japan airspace doesn't ascend forever. NK's missile was almost in space.
Article I of the Constitution grants Congress the power to declare war.
Why are we allowing a President to declare war with a Tweet?
13
Or worse yet, the leader of North Korea!
Simply put, there are nearly 26 million residents in Seoul, which is similar to population of New York, and Seoul is just an hour drive from DMZ (you would be surprised to see how close DMZ is from Seoul).
There is simply no military option that will ensure complete safety to all South Korean people. None.
Unless Mr. Trump is willing to build a mile-high wall to protect 26 million people from incoming artillery from NK, he should stop his childish game of finger pointing and let 60 years hard-fought geopolitical balance to re-settle itself. Let NK march to its own demise.
17
Jongsoo, I'm guessing that you are South Korean. Your opinion -- and those of your fellow South Koreans -- should weigh more heavily with Americans than their own, usually ill-informed, opinions, but many of us have our heads so firmly stuck up our collective hindquarters that reason is unlikely to prevail. Too bad for us, but it's really too bad -- a tragedy in fact -- for you. As an American, I apologize to you.
3
Which is why we must evacuate the American population now.....
We of course want to avoid a shooting war. That said, I think that the US could get China and Russia on board with a policy of the US using its ground and destroyer-based systems to knock out North Korean missiles after launch. This would prevent Kim from learning how to perfect his delivery to the US, and it would give us a lot of target practice (which we need). The risk is that a frustrated Kim could commit aggressions on South Korea or Japan, but he may be rational enough to understand that such action would bring about his demise. Had we started this policy years ago, Kim would not have his present capability. Also: please tone down the rhetoric, Mr. Trump.
1
"a policy of the US using its ground and destroyer-based systems to knock out North Korean missiles after launch."
The US doesn't have this capability. No one likes to tell us that, but the US doesn't really have the ability to shoot down ICBMs. It is trying, but that is a very difficult policy to follow. If you have followed the testing of these missiles you know that they don't work very well. I am sure North Korea knows that, too.
1
It always seemed to me that living through a world war was so far-fetched and it was only in history books that I never thought I could potentially be living through this. But with everything now that is going on, and the president being as he is, I'm not sure what our future holds now. I hope that we can find a peaceful way out of this, millions of lives can be saved if only reason can prevail. I'm all for protecting America but playing with fire in a nuclear ERA with other countries is not a game that we need to engage in.
4
Correction: North Korea Says It Has the Right to Shoot Down U.S. Bombers Flying Near Its Airspace Because Trump Has Threatened War
The headline to this article (and on other Western media) is, alas, why even people who don't care for President Trump understand why he calls the news "fake".
The amount of news we see each day that is deliberately spun with the intention of scaring, misleading, and transfixing the American public solely for the purpose of making money is appalling.
Every news agency out there ought to be ashamed. We have two nations, North Korea and the United States, who both plan to defend themselves in the event that they are attacked. Oh, big whoop! A nation that will defend itself if attacked! OMG. What is the world coming to when nations that are attacked will defend themselves?!
Yes, the state of limbo that exists between the two halves of what was once a single Korea is a big problem. Kim Jong Un has no idea how to get out of the mad world that he was born into and now perpetuates.
But the existence of this permanent crisis is in large part due to the selfishness of the former Soviet Union and the United States, who took the Korean nation between their teeth like two dogs pulling at either end of a bone, and tore it into two unhappy countries.
We, the US, helped to instigate this whole mess. Let's not re-destroy the Koreas out of arrogance, cowardice, and a desire for high media ratings.
4
This is the kind of headline you read when you have a mentally unhinged sociopath, being advised by spoiled, feckless kids, wall street scam artists, bibe banging hypocrites, and an MIA Secy of State wuth no govt experience.
Kelly, please, send a special envoy of pros to bejing and Seoul and start dialogue . Now. And keep Trump in the playpen and let him continue to tweet away aboit the NFL.
11
Honest attempts by Russia and China can put common sense into North Korea.
3
Does all this remind you of the Gulf of Tonkin?
2
It's been stated by others before but I want to throw my support:
Words matter Mr. Trump.
You have boxed yourself and our nation into a corner. Your words of “totally destroy” 'North Korea if it continued to threaten the US or its allies' are basically a declaration of war against another country. World wars have been started with less direct threats than this. You have clumsily raised the stakes of accidentally stumbling into war.
Now you have to either put up or shut up. If you don't follow through with military action, then Kim Jong Un correctly assess that you are a paper tiger with no backing to your threats. If you do follow through with military action, then you condemn the US, South Korea and the world economy to devastation of your own making. Thousands, including many Americans will die because of your bellicosity.
Please note, an ICBM is not the only way to deliver a nuclear weapon. A nuclear device can be delivered to an American harbor city, such as San Francisco by an innocent looking private boat.
8
After the United States' monstrous destruction in Viet Nam not only to the people of that country but also to the American people, we have absolutely no business threatening North Korea or anyone else. The corporate defense establishment is dirty, corrupt and what America stands for, but not peace. Just money and power.
5
To calm this incredibly unstable and dangerous situation, Trump needs to stop the rhetoric, show more restraint and signal a willingness for dialogue. To have placed so many millions of people in such direct danger is unconscionably reckless. Each day the region moves closer to nuclear disaster. The time for games and chest thumping is over. Are the people of South Korea and Japan genuine allies of the US or simply human shields who are now expendable given the North Korean ability to reach further towards US shores? It is Trump's cavalier and vainglorious narcissism that has amplified this situation into such a precarious position, jeopardising millions of lives. Trump is the greatest threat to world peace, not North Korea. Even the greatest idiot must surely see how the threat of war feeds into not simply Trump's needy egotism but, perhaps more importantly, his desperate need to distract the media and the American public from the disgrace that is his imploding presidency. This is terrifying. Make no mistake, the world will blame America, not just its president, for any calamity arising from this situation.
11
KJU nailed it this time and I have to agree with him! Calling for the total destruction of another country and promising the leader of that country that he will not be around for long, is definitely a declaration of war. Trump will destroy America just to prove a point and to satisfy his ego, the longer he continues to be at the helm of the nation, the more our country will be in danger. He is an embarrassment and presents a clear and present danger to our nation.
14
Trump's blowhard militaristic bombast serves no purpose whatsoever except to satisfy his personal sense of outrage at being personally insulted by a Third World bully. Mr. Trump has none of the required instincts to serve as a world leader, to say nothing of the leader of the United States.
The disgusting thing about the whole affair is that members of his staff are at least mature enough to recognize the damage he is doing in ratcheting up the insults to a shooting war. But they are sitting with their heads in their hands doing nothing. Mattis, Kelley, and McMaster either do something or step down. Doing nothing is, in essence, in full support of Trump's dangerous rhetoric -- every much as if they had said it themselves. Supposedly Trump is speaking for America when he Tweets or makes a speech. It is 100% fair to assume that his advisers are in full agreement with his actions. They may not be -- I hope and pray that they are not -- but you couldn't tell from the results. So Trump will get his war. Millions will die. And three mature generals will be left standing with their thumbs in their mouths, possibly with the excuse that they were just obeying their Commander in Chief. Remember, WWII generals were executed or jailed for war crimes in which their excuse was just to follow their commander.
11
Article1, Section 8, Clause 11 of the US Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war. I would expect an Ambassador to the United States of any country to know that and to not feed the frenzy by making irresponsible comments that a President has done something that only Congress can do even when responding to other irresponsible comments.
1
Think a precision military strike can take out the fool-boy dictator and his closest cohorts without actually going to war?
That said, who would be the participants in a war? Probably we're not going over there and they are certainly not getting over here. Is it all going to be missiles? I see North Korea attacking South Korea and Japan, America's surrogates in their warped mind, but to what end?
3
North Korea shot down Lockheed EC-121 Warning Star 1969 killing 31 airmen. United States Air Force Airborne early warning and control radar surveillance aircraft.
In this situation, I wouldn't call their bluff. Kim won't give Trump what he wants.
Trump is looking for some kind of 2020 major presidential legacy leap into stardom. But he is playing a fools game in his attempt to get that recognition.
4
Many of us would like to know where HR and John Kelly are in the war talk begun by Trump. It is disgusting and so dangerous to make certainly "un-presidential" comments like "little rocket man"..much like his taunting of Senator Rubio for the "little hands" comments during the TV debates.
Not only is is disgusting..but, like many, I am ashamed this man is our President.
I cannot understand how those like HR and Kelly cannot somehow bring balance, judgment and logic to the conversation on all the issues facing Americans today. We have a dysfunctional government at the executive level; we have a dysfunctional Congress pitted against the Republican against the Democrats.
Only Congress can make war...a declaration thereof. But, with Trump's rhetoric and really what appears are mental issues..the likelihood of some arms confrontation is very probable.
Remember the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. ..or..the mobile labs with Iraqi poison gas remarked by Coln Powell at the UN..or the weapons of mass destruction asserted by George W. All false..but, led to thousands of lives lost and trillions spent by the American people. Just sayin'..
4
I am a Navy veteran (Fire Control Technician Gunnery 3rd class) of the of the Vietnam War ('65-'69) and a retired federal prosecuting attorney.
Since the record evidence demonstrates that #45 is a pathological liar, we must assume that he will lie to us in all of his responses to North Korea. That said, I will not be shocked when he provides the country with his 2017 version of the 1964 Tonkin Gulf "Incident." However this time it will come with a simpleton as president who is oblivious to the cataclysmic consequences for the planet. If there is a God, I hope she helps us.
Finally, I would argue that Messrs, Mattis, and McMaster, Kelly have disgraced their respective uniforms by: (1) working for an individual who has demonstrated nothing but contempt for all veterans (including the famous one-liner at the beginning of his campaign that his high school JROTC classes gave him training "as good as, or better than" us real veterans ) and (2) refusing to resign their positions both for the good of our country and the planet and for the oath we all took to defend the Constitution and no the president.
19
Clearly, no one has the guts to talk sense to North Korea's leader. Is there anyone prepared to talk sense to Trump - or at least rein him in on the personal insults? At this point, it's not hard to imagine an "accidental" war that kills tens of millions of people. Frightening.
5
Donald Trump needs to stop with the useless tweeting. North Korea is not a country to take lightly and this issue should defiantly not be over twitter. I feel like we are close to a war at this point and North Korea has shown over and over that is is not afraid to kill a few people. As our president Trump should take this into consideration and try finding a peaceful solution. I do not feel like it is to late for that but little threats on twitter are not doing us any good and we should recognize this and try to help.
3
Trump's provocative speech was on target. Only a war can save Trump. He knows it and the GOP knows it. Some of us know it too, that's why many of us are terrified. War is good for Republican business. They make a mess and someone else has to clean it up. Same old, same old. Trump supporters will fall for it -pun intended.
8
Spot on. The only way for the GOP to distract the population from decades of lies they have told about healthcare, taxes, jobs and the rest of it now coming home to roost is to start a major war.
Only problem this time is that it would probably be nuclear and they don't know where it will end, although it is certain to kill millions.
1
At this point with Trump still thinking he is the only one that can fix things!
The entire world needs to take a Knee!
Pray to whatever higher power they believe in. That our government will comes its senses and removes him power before it is too late.
9
You have me considering praying, and I'm an atheist.
8
Yes, everyone knows that the US has more military might than North Korea.
It's important to consider, however, what would happen to South Korea and Japan in case of a conflict. Imagine if NYC was shelled intermittently for months on end. A missile here, a missile there. Who knows, maybe even a nuclear bomb.
This is a reality for the millions living in Seoul and Tokyo, and yet that majority doesn't have any say in the matter. We (I use this as a resident of South Korea) can only sit and wait, and see what Kim and Trump decide for us.
8
Everybody relax. North Korea has always been this way. Rarely has it ever followed through with anything, and Kim Jong Un is not a fool or insane.
.
The Clown will back down just like he always does, occasionally rearing his numb skull just long enough to bark. But he has no bite. He's just a fearful, angry old white man. Archie Bunker in the White House.
4
You must not be old enough to remember how war starts. Shame on you and your "relax it will be fine" rhetoric
7
Since the armistice ending the korean War North Korea has been the bully on the Korean peninsula with such provocative actions as shooting down an an unarmed United States Lockheed EC-121 spy plane, firing artillery shells at a South Korean island, firing on South Korean fishing vessels, torpedoing a South Korean ship killing 46 seamen, and terrorist attacks committed by armed Noth Korean agents who have infiltrated into South Korea.
North Korea is now using Trump's propensity for hyperbole as reason to step up its threats against the US and the North's neighbors with such provocative actions as shooting ballistic missiles over Japan and, most recently, threatening to set off an H-bomb explosion in the air over the Pacific. Imagine all the radioactive fallout that America's west coast (where I live) will receive from such an explosion!
Unfortunately, China is unwilling to reign in its neighbor although it has the means to do so simply by stopping all trade with the North. So the U.S., as the only other country with the means to take effective action against the North, must do so before the situation gets out of hand. For example, the US could halt all trade with China and other countries that trade with the North and it could take military actions to degrade the North's nuclear and ICBM programs.
4
"Little Hands Trump" vs "Little Rocket Man". What a crazy world, assuming it lasts that long.
6
We may be beyond the stage where logic will save us and the rest of the world from a nuclear catastrophe. Sane logic died on Inauguration Day in this country and it may not have ever existed in the other one man show that is North Korea. Somewhere deep in the twisted psyche that of our misbegotten President, Trump may be debating war with North Korea as the lesser of two evils. On one hand, Trump may be considering what is to him, the inconceivable disgrace of impeachment, a possibly public criminal trial and the exposure of the house of cards that is his life. Gripped in his other hand Trump potentially holds his escape route, along with the lives of millions, a world economy toppled by the chaos of a cascading world war and the labeling of the United States of America as one of the most villainous regimes in world history. In which scenario, I wonder, would our narcissistic President believe he loses more?
13
Logic?
Since WW2 how many countries has the US invaded and demolished without declaring war?
Can we blame North Korea if it decides not to wait for Congress before taking what it deems defensive measures?
3
When struck, Donald Trump will always strike back. It may be his most defining characteristic. He will never want it said that he didn't fight back. His life is defined by fighting back and he will never, of his own accord, stop fighting back. So there is no way that Trump will hold up in his fight with Kim Jong-un. Trump has made it clear that he will not stop short of war. So the only way to stop a war is to stop Trump.
5
"North Korea says it can shoot down us aircraft".
That would be an extremely poor decision Mr Ri. Also, we're wondering if this threat is any different from the previous 37 threats to annihilate the united states with nuclear weapons?
Just wondering eh?
8
Remarkably odd that no one with any sense of responsibility in the cabinet, in congress, or in the military has not come forward to tell #45 to shut up. And keep his trap shut. It just might save the planet!
14
Why are you assuming. that " no one with any sense of responsibility.in the cabinet, congress or military has come forward to tell #45 to shut up. And keep his trap shut." ?
Do you believe that Trump would LISTEN ?
Since we're all so into sports metaphors right now, think of it this way. If you're pretty sure you're going to get called out anyway, no matter what the pitch is, why wouldn't you go out swinging?
Pine-tar Trump is throwing wild pitches. The catcher on the Washington Congressmen can't dig them out of the dirt. But Kim Jong-un at bat knows he's going to get called out by Ump USA no matter how far outside they land.
Why wouldn't he swing?
(I'm just thinking about this like it's a game. You know, like Mr. Trump thinks. I'm actually really upset, because I have a fourteen year old grandson that I'd just as soon not see drafted in four years. And I also have a baby granddaughter whose hair I'd rather not see fall out from radiation poisoning. But, you know, just let this guy keep tweeting til somebody drops the big one. Think of the ratings, if your TV doesn't melt.)
2
I just want to feel proud of my country again, not embarrassed and ashamed of our president. Is that too much to ask? What happened to us?
15
What happened?
Disregard for the rule of law?
I think it is an impeachable offense for a president to talk without ever thinking first. Or being able to think.
8
Prepare yourselves for the return of the draft!
3
Now that women are in combat roles, not excluding 51% of the population from the draft makes sense and could help sway public opinion away from cavalier use of our troops.
1
There aren't enough able bodied young to draft and make a difference. A dirth of cannon fodder given our aging demographics.
But don't worry -- no one named Trump or Kushner will serve...
2
NK is right: Trump has declared war. This should be interesting. I wish him luck. The sovereign nation-state of Trump, armed with the trusty driver (with which
the great warrior vanquished crooked Hillary) facing off against NK all by himself. It will be a awful battle, insults will fly, tweets aplenty, Elton John quotes lying dead everywhere and endless groping. We will all be so awestruck that for a few minutes we may even forget global warming, wealth inequality, health care, PR and the Virgin Islands.
2
I have no doubt about the North Korean's resolve to shoot down U.S Bombers. My concern is what the U.S under Trump will do by way of retaliation. But what concerns me is that we are antagonizing the North Korean's into thinking that we are about to sneak attack them with B52 nuclear bombers.
After the North Korean's have shot down those Bombers I'm sure Mr. Trump will insist that the U.S was just looking out for its own best interests. In this case is what? Instigating an act of WAR?
3
Goading an unstable dictator into war via Twitter and endangering the safety and security of the nation out of personal pique and a desire to distract from the Russia investigation need to be seen for what they are: impeachable offenses. Congress must censure this president and Gens. Mattis and Kelly need to persuade him to stop the war of words with North Korea NOW. If he will not take advice from his advisers on this matter of life and death, that should be grounds to invoke the 25th Amendment as he is demonstrating incapacity to exert sufficient judgment to lead the country and is placing us all in imminent danger.
13
No worry. Jared, the secretary of *Everything* will fix that. And that won't cost us a dime. You are welcome.
6
Almost forgot about Jared! Is he done fixing the Middle East yet?
2
It's not US that declared war, it was just Trump. This is between Trump and North Korea.
Unnecessarily putting us and rest of the world in danger should alone be grounds for impeachment.
8
Is radiation poisoning considered a pre-existing condition under the proposed healthcare law?
8
Something seems wrong with our Constitution, when a simple majority (that is, of the electoral college) can place an individual in the office of the president—
Yet a steep two-thirds (requiring 19 Republicans in the Senate) is required to remove someone like Trump from office by impeachment and conviction.
Other advanced nations can respond much more quickly and easily—for instance by calling new elections, as in Britain.
22
HRC said this would happen. The republicans didn't care because they thought they were electing a republican. HRC said much of what has come to pass would occur. But every day, it's actually worse than predicted.
WE will be nuked and the trumpsters and the black house deserve it. The majority of us, however, who will also be killed didn't vote for the deranged things (I can't tell the difference in sayings between our dictator in diapers an NK's dictator) who's going to get us all killed. So, what's OUR next step? Logically, it would be to remove our child but the enablers who enable our dictator apparently have their hands tied by the rich.
So, we lose because the republican donors and oligarchs are taking over America. Money counts. 99% of the republicans are traitors. America dies. History will tell the story of how democracy and the world were killed by two children in mentally-deranged bodies.
31
Profound pessimism here.
And when you talk about venality and money—surely you must include what you refer to as "HRC".
3
Will Trump provoke an incident, or will something be seen as a provocation, and how grave would the provocation have to be for NK to react?
What would the reaction be? And the reaction.
B-1 bombers can be 90 miles offshore and launch dozens of cruise missiles with a 500 mile range.
90 miles is a 4 minute Mig 29 ride, or 12 minute missile flight.
Two men, drunk on power, cross juggling nuclear hand grenades.
Whoops.
11
If Kim knows the history of his country at all, he knows starting a war with the USA, (which shooting our of our planes would certainly do) would be disasterous for N Korea and his regime. The last time N Korea tangled with us, in the '50's, they needed China to save them. I doubt China would do that now.
Trump is so profoundly ignorant I'm not even sure he knows where N Korea is located. In this 'meeting of two crazies', we have to depend on the crazy in N Korea. Ours is too busy attacking football players.
14
Actually Kim does know that he can get away with shooting down our aircraft, (1969 EC-121 shoot down incident), seizing our ships, (USS Pueblo) and sinking allied ships, (ROKS Cheonan).
None of these incidents started a war, an all bolstered his gang's prestige,
2
Remind me how the Vietnam war started?
Does the Gulf of Tonkin mean anything to anyone alive today?
22
This is way worse.
5
Hmmmm... Would WE shoot down a North Korean fighter jet that came within, say, ten miles of US airspace? You betcha we would. It's a dangerous game.
7
Fighter jet? No! A type of tactical B61 nuclear bomb, in all probability, yes! Just like they are promising to do at his moment in time.
I don't think North Korea is bluffing. I do think that Trump is a fool for testing North Korea's resolve and if the Trump administration doesn't have the diplomatic skills in dealing with North Korea, which it has shown clearly not to have, cease and desist in any further verbal and now military provocations that will lead the U.S into a costly and unforgiving war.
10
This is a fine mess you've got us in, Mr. Trump.
Where does it stop? Does it stop with North Korea? Does it stop with Iran? Do you really believe when push comes to shove that China will not defend North Korea?
Kim doesn't get that you don't have the ability to pick and choose your battles. He takes you seriously. He doesn't see that you blast your "fire and fury," toward athletes of color who defy your inane pronouncements or anyone else you decide is disloyal to you.
Kim doesn't care about your belief that climate change is a hoax, that there "were very fine people," on both sides, that you think Obama wiretapped your campaign or that three million more people voted for Clinton than they did for you. None of that matters to him. Not one bit.
What matters to someone like Kim is when you talk about attacking North Korea. What matters to him is when you call him names. Because, if you've read anything about the hermit kingdom, you would know that in his country Kim IS North Korea.
So please know that it is time to stop fooling around with this war of words, before it turns into a war that cannot be deterred.
Where does it stop? Does it stop with North Korea? Does it stop with Iran? Do you really believe when push comes to shove that China will not defend North Korea?
Kim doesn't get that you don't have the ability to pick and choose your battles. He takes you seriously. He doesn't see that you blast your "fire and fury," toward athletes of color who defy your inane pronouncements or anyone else you decide is disloyal to you.
Kim doesn't care about your belief that climate change is a hoax, that there "were very fine people," on both sides, that you think Obama wiretapped your campaign or that three million more people voted for Clinton than they did for you. None of that matters to him. Not one bit.
What matters to someone like Kim is when you talk about attacking North Korea. What matters to him is when you call him names. Because, if you've read anything about the hermit kingdom, you would know that in his country Kim IS North Korea.
So please know that it is time to stop fooling around with this war of words, before it turns into a war that cannot be deterred.
11
Message to our American friends: life is fine in the great white north and we love living here and hope that you come and visit Canada so you can enjoy it, too. But we're worried. The planet we all occupy is a small place and if you engage in a nuclear war we are all going to die, including your President. Maybe let him know that. Thanks.
28
JFR- First of all, I have visited Canada and enjoyed it. Both my brothers-in-law are Canadian. My nieces and nephews have dual citizenship.
We in the U.S. are quite worried. How do you propose that we get through to Trump? It's not as if we have not tried.I'd had better luck getting though to my then 2 year old nephew when he was bopping his baby brother in the head.( at least until I was out of sight.)
The difference between Aiden and Donald was that Aiden's behavior was perfectly normal for a 2 year old who has been displaced by a baby brother. ,and Aiden was too young to understand that he could harm the baby. Trump is old enough to know
better ,but apparently does not.
Also, Baby Noah did not have nuclear weapons, or any defense system in place at the time. In time, he developed not only a defense, but an offense. and began biting Aiden.
Fortunately,neither one of them had nuclear weapons.
1
Doesnt anyone realse this rhetoric is intended for the North Korean public even if it takes place in the UN etc? It has no meaning at all in reality.
There is no way that NK is going to have its nation wiped out by the USA particularly when,NK is actually doingwell. It obviously has a very successful educational system , good housing .and increasing use of cell phones etc
NK is however worried the the US might attack it and destroy its socialist nation on some excuse or other so it wants to show that it could retaliate .There is no real from NK in my opinion and I believe most of Americans recognise this The NK leader is taken far too seriously as a demon by the West.
And can we stop using South Korean intelligence agencies to do the translations of these statements. They are all designed to sound both terrifying and absurd with their absurd exaggerations And lets always remember ..if there was a nuclear confrontation it would mean the destruction of most of South Korea(including 40000 US troops stationed there possibly Taiwan (meaning its return to China) and also severe damage and loss of life to Japan . The US would as usual escape unharmed.
For those reasons there is no way South Korea Taiwan or Japan would allow the matter to get out of hand
All that is really needed is Trump to go to NK and tell Kim that the US has no desire to change the regime in NK and will lift ALL sanctions if NK stops or suspends its nuclear program
There is no way that NK is going to have its nation wiped out by the USA particularly when,NK is actually doingwell. It obviously has a very successful educational system , good housing .and increasing use of cell phones etc
NK is however worried the the US might attack it and destroy its socialist nation on some excuse or other so it wants to show that it could retaliate .There is no real from NK in my opinion and I believe most of Americans recognise this The NK leader is taken far too seriously as a demon by the West.
And can we stop using South Korean intelligence agencies to do the translations of these statements. They are all designed to sound both terrifying and absurd with their absurd exaggerations And lets always remember ..if there was a nuclear confrontation it would mean the destruction of most of South Korea(including 40000 US troops stationed there possibly Taiwan (meaning its return to China) and also severe damage and loss of life to Japan . The US would as usual escape unharmed.
For those reasons there is no way South Korea Taiwan or Japan would allow the matter to get out of hand
All that is really needed is Trump to go to NK and tell Kim that the US has no desire to change the regime in NK and will lift ALL sanctions if NK stops or suspends its nuclear program
2
It has been surmised for some time that President Trump, in an effort to divert attention from the Russia investigation and his domestic failings, would start a war. I agree with others who have implored Congress to step in and take whatever measures are necessary to contain a President whose so blatantly unstable and dangerous.
5
We are in an emergency of incompetence.
And the 25th Amendment can at least quickly disconnect Trump from power—
AT LEAST TEMPORARILY, but that would be a welcome reprieve.
[Unfortunately it would still take lots of Republicans, with two-thirds of BOTH Houses required to permanently remove him under the 25th Amendment.]
And the 25th Amendment can at least quickly disconnect Trump from power—
AT LEAST TEMPORARILY, but that would be a welcome reprieve.
[Unfortunately it would still take lots of Republicans, with two-thirds of BOTH Houses required to permanently remove him under the 25th Amendment.]
4
It would be so nice if Donald Trump simply resigned. Instead, he's taking us to an expensive, unnecessary, complicated and dangerous war.
The outcome of this potential war could destabilize Mr. Kim's horrible government, which would be a good thing, but millions of innocent lives are threatened in South Korea and even in Japan right now. Here at home we're stressed and upset.
People should really think twice before they vote. Trump's campaigning was so much about threat and violence. The world doesn't need threats, all we need is love and peace.
5
Trump thinks he can deal with Kim like he does with Colin K. They're just pieces on his Battleship game.
4
It does not happen often, but North Korea is correct on this. Our petulant child president basically declared war. God help us.
4
That's what I've been saying... NK is correct. Our dictator is shooting for a literal end game. There are many fools out there (trumpsters) who don't believe it. We won't be here to ram it down their throats...
3
I guess to Kim in North Korea, threatening to fire missiles at US bases in Guam is not considered an act of war!
4
Maybe the North Koreans watched episodes of the TV series on the Vietnam War currently showing nightly. Johnson lied about how well the US was doing against the NVA and VC right up until he fired his Secretary of Defense and made him head of the World Bank and fired the Army General in charge in Vietnam and made him head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. A month or so later, Johnson accepted the fact that the US was not winning that war and announced in March he would not seek re-election that November. Etc, etc, etc.
3
Well, in theory, they do. The Russians periodically fly bombers towards America where they are intercepted by our fighters before they get to American airspace. Those bombers are practicing bombing runs - they are practicing attacking the US, and they are probing our air defense capabilities. If they were to send dozens of bombers towards us, all at once, we would have no choice but to shoot them down even if they had yet to violate our airspace since bombers are capable of launching their cruise missiles well before they get to a target's airspace. Of course, an incident like this would start world war III. Or, more accurately, signal the start of world war III because if the Russians sent 50 bombers at us, all at once, the war would have started right then.
North Korea is simply stating the obvious: if we send bombers towards them in sufficient number that it looks like we are going to attack, then they will probably try to shoot them down. The message they appear to be trying to convey is that if provoked far enough they will attempt to defend themselves, which is not all that crazy.
Short of war, the only way we might be able to convince the North Koreans to give up their nukes is if we are able to convince Russia and China to cut off their fuel. If we can't do that and if the South Koreans insist that we don't start a war then the only option left open to us is to develop and deploy a missile shield capable of stopping an attack. Such a system is long overdue.
1
That isn't what they stated.
They did not say if they are being attacked.
They stated they would shoot down a plane that was flying near their border.
No mention of an attack or how many planes were flying near their borders.
My guess the only time they would shoot down one of our planes is if they have more planes than we do in the area.
They know there is no way they can successfully shoot a American plane down if there were more than one of our planes in the air.
My extended family includes multiple members on active duty, multiples in the reserves and many more that served in combat. We just had a reunion. Not a one has any confidence in this despot. I'm not talking about leader of Korea.
17
An honest question: did any of your military family members vote for him? In other words, do they regret their vote at this point?
Some members of my family that voted for him have expressed regret. Many other Trump supporters in my busy life are finding fewer and fewer reasons to keep backing him. The fact that this person will get the nation, along with much of Asia entangled in another major war a huge factor. Many people are watching Ken Burn's Vietnam War series right now. They see too may parallels.
I have faith there are a few good people in power still around who have the world's best interests at heart and dozens of secret back-channels are buzzing and the nuclear codes have been changed. If not at least I will die an optimist to the last.
4
Hypocrites claim to be oppose fascism yet serve here as apologists for a violent and oppressive regime whose stated goals entail the violent conquest of our friend and ally, South Korea.
8
Expecting the president of the United States to show some maturity in his judgement and temperament is not "apologizing" for a violent and repressive regime. Trump's childish rants are at best pointless, and at worst will cost people their lives.
9
Your current actions will result in your "friend and ally" being blown up.
4
“It is the men who have not fought in war who most often seek it out” quote from PBS Special "Vietnam."
42
The North Koreans are easy prey for Trump. They will be goaded into doing something stupid that will allow the US to launch a massive attack against them. The idea that this will be a war is nonsensical, the U.S. military in an all out attack will vaporize the North Koreans before they know what hit them.
3
it won't stop there once started – mutually assured destruction
3
That's a rather juvenile assumption.
North Korea has the ability to reduce South Korea to dust before any US response.
North Korea also has 25 million people who through no fault of their own are under the thumb of a ruthless dictatorship.
An adult would think twice before making the inhuman suggestion that they deserve to be "vaporized."
North Korea has the ability to reduce South Korea to dust before any US response.
North Korea also has 25 million people who through no fault of their own are under the thumb of a ruthless dictatorship.
An adult would think twice before making the inhuman suggestion that they deserve to be "vaporized."
7
So all he has to do is launch nukes to wipe out millions of innocent people and somehow the nuclear fallout will magically also just stay in NK? Do you honestly think that is an option?
1
Why doesn't trump and Bannon try reason for once~! Accept NK into the league of nations and back off the rhetoric, accept the N.Koreans as people, give them rice, wheat and fuel, save a little American egg on our faces and in 3 years NK will be our best friend!
2
This is insanity. "Don't listen to his words..." is a totally inept and irresponsible response by a Trump official. Trump's words, not to mention his Twitters are so inflammatory, obnoxious and threatening, I am certain countries... many of them our allies... not to mention North Korea's oppressive regime are on high alert. Is anyone sane within the Trump Administration? It is time for Congress and the Senate to step in. It is likely that Mr. Trump himself is the largest threat to the American People. It is time for him and his entire administration to step down.
23
When are the Democrats going to start standing up to Trump ?!! They owe it to this country to loudly challenge him and speak up .. Trump is destroying everything this country has achieved over the last hundred years! And nobody is really doing anything about it. Unbelievable !
20
I believe the minority is doing what they can. After last year, nothing is unbelievable. Donors are blackmailing the republicans. The illegitimate
pres. is an idiot and this was predicted. Remember - he likes attention - especially negative attention and the only thing that's going to stop the 2 year old is having a heart attack or NK rightfully attacking us for tweets. Just wish they could aim accurately to take down the responsible party ...
pres. is an idiot and this was predicted. Remember - he likes attention - especially negative attention and the only thing that's going to stop the 2 year old is having a heart attack or NK rightfully attacking us for tweets. Just wish they could aim accurately to take down the responsible party ...
3
I absolutely agree with N. Korea. If anyone threatened to destroy me and then approached me with a weapon, I am well within my rights to defend myself. The 'show of force' by U.S. bombers close to N. Korea, after what Trump said, is pure provocation. The bullies are at it as usual.
11
In 2010, the North Koreans shelled the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong, killing four and wounding 19. In response, South Korea aggressively repositioned its military. North Korea responded with a threat display, launching its fighters. Several of its fighter aircraft crashed just doing normal flights, obviously due to a lack of maintenance and training.
Should the North Korean air force be so foolish as to tangle with state of the art, well maintained, and well trained US air forces, they will be authoritatively defeated. Hundreds of USAF pilots would volunteer, hoping to become aces. For them, it would be like shooting skeet.
North Korea is a paper tiger. Defectors report that soldiers do not eat enough to do a full hour of physical exercise. This month, North Korean soldiers were given permission to raid nearby farms to feed themselves. Defectors from North Korea report many army trucks with heavily patched tires and many of those broken down by the side of the road. North Korea is armed with junk that can not hold its own with modern weapons. It's doubtful much of that junk is functional.
All North Korea has is nukes and nonsense threats. There will be no war. North Korea knows it will lose decisively. But they can't think of anything else that will work besides threats. Such threats have been useful to shake down their neighbors for food and fuel oil in the past, but it is played out now.
Should the North Korean air force be so foolish as to tangle with state of the art, well maintained, and well trained US air forces, they will be authoritatively defeated. Hundreds of USAF pilots would volunteer, hoping to become aces. For them, it would be like shooting skeet.
North Korea is a paper tiger. Defectors report that soldiers do not eat enough to do a full hour of physical exercise. This month, North Korean soldiers were given permission to raid nearby farms to feed themselves. Defectors from North Korea report many army trucks with heavily patched tires and many of those broken down by the side of the road. North Korea is armed with junk that can not hold its own with modern weapons. It's doubtful much of that junk is functional.
All North Korea has is nukes and nonsense threats. There will be no war. North Korea knows it will lose decisively. But they can't think of anything else that will work besides threats. Such threats have been useful to shake down their neighbors for food and fuel oil in the past, but it is played out now.
12
Everybody, and first of all the U.S., should stop and take a deep breath. China should also stop sitting on the sideline and watching the show. All concerned (and that should be the entire world and the UN) should open a broad discussion, as impartial as is possible under the circumstances, about this crisis and the instability in the world in general. Everybody should take a deep breath before taking any action.
9
"North Korea Says It Has the Right to Shoot Down U.S. Warplanes"
Well, they can try, and then, they will also have the right to have their entire air-force to be destroyed on the ground if they go that way.
Well, they can try, and then, they will also have the right to have their entire air-force to be destroyed on the ground if they go that way.
11
Trump should have to send a family member to each major city on the west coast, HI, Alaska, Guam, Japan, & So Korea as hostages until he shuts up and lets the diplomats work out a non-lethal, non-nuclear solution. Good article in BillMoyers.com about the background to Korea, in which they point out that we killed one third of NK's population in the Korean war. No wonder they might believe we'd want to do them in.
6
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a tweet.
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a tweet.
13
Brilliant, although I fear that no Trump suppoerter EVER would know what this is and who wrote it.
1
Well, this who our electoral college elected as president. No looking back now, especially with our current bankrupt political climate. 45 knows how weak his party is, and he is a master of "divide and conquer."
Brace yourselves.
Brace yourselves.
8
This is not news. This is a publication of North Korean propaganda. Since July 1953 the United Nations/U.S. has been in a cease-fire agreement with North Korea until a final peaceful settlement with the North is agreed to. That has never happened. Of course North Korea can shoot down U.S. planes over its airspace or other airspace if it wants to -- it will be its choice to breach the cease-fire agreement if it wishes to.
Meanwhile, and critically, China watches carefully at the proceedings and needs to decide how much it really wants to preserve its capitalist economy.
Meanwhile, and critically, China watches carefully at the proceedings and needs to decide how much it really wants to preserve its capitalist economy.
3
I always found disturbing how personality traits play an underestimated role in these potentially catastrophic verbal exchanges between political leaders. I've always thought that this kind of verbiage were only a camouflage to the real economic and military interests involved, to the hard-core geopolitics, that the Pentagon and its North Korean counterpart would now be at their military strategy table analyzing exhaustively all variables involved in all imaginable scenarios, calculating costs and benefits and possible consequences of going further or retreating at any given point in time. But one cannot ignore that losing face is something that worries the kind of boyish, ill-tempered people that both leaders are. If Trump backs off, of course Kim will trumpet that as a victory, with his characteristic ridiculous rhetoric, which serves his internal political agenda, but would this make the United States any less capable of destroying North Korea whenever this were really, really, really, and I mean it, really necessary, for solid national and international security reasons? Would it make Kim think "Well, now that Trump proved to be a coward, we know we can push harder, let's invade South Korea!". Call me naive, but I doubt he would do so.
3
We have a president who is ignorant of national relations and instead has infantile responses with no authentic strategy apart from feeding his own narcissism. It's terrifying to have a "leader" unwilling to seek advice from actual experts and who has surrounded himself with people who lack the expertise needed to navigate these challenges. Diplomacy means understanding where your counterparts are coming from and making wise suggestions, not imitating your foes and escalating to the point of no return. War at this scale is unthinkable - it would be devastating for the planet and humankind would incur unimaginable suffering. Where are the grownups?
6
I'm confused. Are they angry about what exactly? This is like when Pete said "mine is bigger" and Joe said "no, mine is MUCH bigger".
3
If my grandmother had wings and wheels, she'd be a 747, but she doesn't.
What Kim says and what Kim can do is dictated by reality, not his desires or hyperbolic proclamations.
The last 2 Kim's step very close to the line as policy, and rarely go over.
I do not think they will with Trump, for it is user death, just as my grandmother is Earth-bound.
What Kim says and what Kim can do is dictated by reality, not his desires or hyperbolic proclamations.
The last 2 Kim's step very close to the line as policy, and rarely go over.
I do not think they will with Trump, for it is user death, just as my grandmother is Earth-bound.
2
The North Korean Government is clearly not only unstable, having to threaten their own citizens but the world as well to maintain power, but delusional to think that it can hope to match the military might of the United States of America. The U.S. Navy alone could overpower the North with a fleet of their coast. The North Korean military may be large but they are very underfunded and using outdated cold war era technology. The U.S. needs to do something a little stronger than sanctioning the North Korean people.
5
The American government is also unstable and delusional. They support Trump.
1
Given that the Constitution's War Powers clause and the War Powers Act of 1973 indicate that it is up to Congress to declare war, shouldn't they be discussing this before we stumble into a nuclear confrontation. I understand that there are no big donors holding up bribery payments over this, but turning a center of much of our international trade and financing into a war zone is not good for business. And then there is that radiation and all the dying, of course. Very messy. Might be worth squeezing in a discussion in between the latest attempts to strip millions of Americans of health care coverage and protections, huh?
1
Put Trump, Price and Pruitt on that plane and give them a free ride at taxpayer expense!
13
Quandry for Presdent.
3
Bruce Rozenblit for president.
5
No thanks. I'd rather have as president someone who opts to exercise leadership.
1
Frank Haydn Esq.,
And you call what Donald Trump does 'exercising leadership?' I'm heading for the fallout shelter.
(You're not our old friend 'DC Barrister' are you?)
3
At least we can take some solace in Donald Trump having enjoyed some chocolate cake before he brought the world to its end.
8
North Korean leader feels threatened by USA and finding no way out, invents justifications and pulls the trigger!
United States leader feels threatened by Mueller, and finding no way out, invents justifications and and pulls the trigger!
United States leader feels threatened by Mueller, and finding no way out, invents justifications and and pulls the trigger!
21
Trump's bluster and blather is going to get us all killed. He's the dim-witted school bully who doesn't know went to shut up but whose taunts and sneers will one day get him into danger and bring him down. That the American president mocks and derides a foreign head of state, gives him an insulting nickname then dares him to fight back is disgraceful. He deserves an immediate time-out, one that lasts until the of his term.
23
Right, because we should pamper the little fat man like the US has been doing for 30 years, how has that been working out?
Would you want to go to war for Donald Trump? I know I wouldn't.
25
ABSOLUTELY! I would go to war for him, except I have these bone spurs on my feet...
4
Donald will get a deferment so he won't be going, so why should you?
2
And North Korea is right to do so. Donald Trump is an incompetent. They know it. We know it. China knows it and the rest of the world knows it.
His rhetoric and bellicose attitude are inflaming tensions. The genie is out of the bottle and we cannot endanger the lives of tens of millions of south Koreans and Japanese because our president thinks his is bigger than Kim Jung Un's. Who cares!?!?!?!? Now let's get some adults in the room and get down to business.
His rhetoric and bellicose attitude are inflaming tensions. The genie is out of the bottle and we cannot endanger the lives of tens of millions of south Koreans and Japanese because our president thinks his is bigger than Kim Jung Un's. Who cares!?!?!?!? Now let's get some adults in the room and get down to business.
15
Just like Viet Nam, war with Korea would be a huge mistake. Some people never learn.
10
What would Trump know about Vietnam? He spent the whole time devising ways to dodge the draft.
5
What will it take for Congress to take the needed steps for Trump's impeachment and removal?
Newspaper headlines that Los Angeles has been incinerated?
18
It’s time for a “time out”.
But who can call it? China is trying to.
3
How long do we need to tolerate this before Congress acts? I call, write, tweet and nothing. 45 needs to be restrained, condemned and removed NOW! Then can we look at impeaching Congress?
14
Thank you republicans in congress for backing a man completely unprepared and unfit for the office. Thank you deplorables. What you have wrought upon us is incredibly deplorable.
25
The US needs, desperately, a third political party!
5
North Korea has the military capability of causing a bioterrorist pandemic with a highly contagious lethal bioweapon. Just ask South Korea. In other words, an all out war with North Korea could reasonably be said to endanger over half of the human population on Earth, since such a pandemic could reasonably kill that many people.
The fundamental question is are we willing to live with North Korea mass producing H-bomb tipped ICBMs like sausages. Franky, I am surprised China or Russia are. Of course South Korea and Japan will both have to go nuclear too.
6
Mr. Trump is running scared as the Muller investigation gets closer to exposing him and those that surround him. He believes going to war will save his presidency. It is time to through the "bum" out!
16
Given the threatening stance of the US military, the comments from their commander in chief, and the increasingly unstable performance of the US president in his own country...I'd say Un would be well within his rights of self-preservation.
Imagine if you were threatened by a co-worker with increasing violence for a month...then suddenly she shows up at your door with a gun. Would any jury really bat an eye if you shot her in the face? Even if the gun is unloaded, shooting her in the face is a perfectly understandable action given the history of threats, the sudden appearance, and the carrying of a weapon.
Un does not have time to determine if the planes are carrying ordnance. Un does not have time to determine if this is just a posturing fly-by.
I say shoot them down. Otherwise you will answer the door and that co-worker will kill you in front of your kids.
Imagine if you were threatened by a co-worker with increasing violence for a month...then suddenly she shows up at your door with a gun. Would any jury really bat an eye if you shot her in the face? Even if the gun is unloaded, shooting her in the face is a perfectly understandable action given the history of threats, the sudden appearance, and the carrying of a weapon.
Un does not have time to determine if the planes are carrying ordnance. Un does not have time to determine if this is just a posturing fly-by.
I say shoot them down. Otherwise you will answer the door and that co-worker will kill you in front of your kids.
4
Trump is going to get us all killed, and all for his nine year old ego
My God Man! How do we get into these situations with fringe candidates?
9
Theodore Roosevelt said “Speak softly, and carry a Big Stick”, attributed to a West African proverb; absent intelligent forethought, obviously Trump ‘Speaks Loudly carrying his Little Stick’
6
Our canary can sing but he can't fly.
2
Absolutely avoidable nonsense! Wars are not children's toy games!
5
It's a horrible time for us to not have a President.
15
What do you call a leader with no brain and a governing body with no spine. The United States government.
Who, I ask? Who is going to put an end to this? Who will save us from this madness?
Who, I ask? Who is going to put an end to this? Who will save us from this madness?
8
Where is the Republican Congress in all this? They need to step in and restrain the infant Trump before he throws his toys at the other child in the playpen, and things get dangerously out of hand.
5
I am going to Guam for the holidays and, if the escalations continue, I may not come back. I would rather be there with family should the worst happen. There are already massive deployments to South Korea planned for American military in the next few months. This is partially war escalation and partially protection for the Seoul Olympics in February 2018. Hang on to your hats, it's going to get worse unless SK decapitates the government in Pyongyang soon.
5
NK says it has right to shoot down US warplanes. At same time, Trump argues about the right to fire athletes who won't stand during National Anthem. Our country has truly gone insane.
8
I have now come to the conclusion that we should wait until NK nukes one or more of our cities.
We will see where the attitudes lie then. Apparently the only person people here are actually listening to is trump. NK can threaten to bomb us all they want.
No, I am not antrump supporter. Just a realist who has lived with NK and their dictators all of my long life.
As far as people in NK dying if there is a war. Ask the Kurds how important freedom is. They are willing to sacrifice millions of their lives to become free.
People here take their freedom for granted and have no clue what life is like on the inside of a dictatorship.
3
Everyone who saw this coming from day one of Trump's Presidency please raise your hand. I see we have a majority! A majority who will standing right alongside the minority, that voted for, and continue to support the man who is very likely to get us all killed.
Too bad this isn't a Democracy. A real Democracy would have saved us from the W. Bush and Trump Administrations. And now, it a very real possibility that the entire human race will pay for that fact that we aren't.
7
It's news like this that keeps me up at night and worries me throughout the day. Holy mackerel people - we need to keep our eyes on the prize and not be allowed to become distracted with "news" like ball players taking a knee and not respecting the US flag or the national anthem. The same goes for Donald Trump. How about some honest to goodness diplomacy and discussions instead of inflammatory rhetoric?
8
Trump should go to Pyongyang for face-to-face meetings with Kim Jong-il. Trump should have a personal GPS tracker. The US should target the meeting with a non-nuclear cruise missile. Both of our problems would be solved. Trump could even be said to have died as a hero.
5
With his tweets and speeches Trump is provoking a possible nuclear war in the global stage, and a divisive cultural/racial war in the U.S. But, oh, his base, they love it, so they must be fed more red meat.
5
This is what Putin wanted, higher oil prices from Trump playing playground bully with North Korea and Iran.
4
Turn off his twitter account. Stop putting microphones in front of his face. He belongs in a room with soft walls and a schedule for medications, food, and short walks. Think about how you'd feel if you were walking past someone on the street in Manhattan who was acting like him, talking like him. That applies here.
9
i am pretty sure USA is following the same playbook from the spanish american war in 1898. Ratchet up the tensions and then find some pretext to attack. Only in this case Kim is walking straight into it.
2
A Tonkin Gulf episode
What a shrewd and clever tactician Donald Trump is to bring us to the brink of war with North Korea. Bravo. If you have read Donald Trumps book, The Art Of The Deal, you know he is a fake. This is not an Atlantic city casino where you can stiff your contractors and get Russian oligarchs to bail you out. Donald is way out of his depth and we have to hope that there are a few intelligent people around him who can step in to fix this.
7
This is going in the direction of The Mouse That Roared, and it is difficult to tell whether it is Kim Jon-un or Donald who is the unrestrained nut that Peter Sellers played so well. The problem of North Korea could have and should have been addressed more seriously much earlier, but it is bonkers to play brinksmanship with a misguided dictator who is backed by a million soldiers and proceeding apace to demonstrate unrestrained ability to deploy nuclear weaponry. If there are diplomatic opportunities, there is no evidence that they are being seized or would be reciprocated, It is silly to think that financial pressure to restrict the import of luxury goods, for example, will alter the direction of hydrogen bomb development. And the prospects become increasingly limited with every childish provocation Donald offers while Tillerson, already a non-entity, strives to make the State Department impotent by slashing its capabilities. Neither Donald nor Rex have the skill set to defuse this high-risk moment. Bring in the clowns? They're already here.
2
The blind partisanship some people's comments display, making Trump responsible for a situation NK's progress in its military nuclear program has made untenable, would be amusing if the situation weren't so serious. Uninformed comments such as these, reminiscent of the power of the narrative of Soviet propaganda, are quite ironic, given that they pertain to the supposedly shared responsibilities between our president, and the dictator leading the last Stalin-inspired regime standing.
4
Perhaps the best we can hope for is a made-for-tv movie of the Trump Administration. At a minimum, that will mean he failed and the world won
The only choice left is the military option. Trump isn't going to put up with threats for 3 more years.
2
The really big concern is
whether we can put up w/Trump
for 3 more years.
Frightening turn of events. This takes us a step closer to nuclear warfare. Do President Trump know what he is doing?
1
This is how it all begins. We elect a child as President of the United States and North Korea sees and opening and begins to make noises that none of us want to hear. How did we get to this point? This is very, very scary. Trump has no idea what he is doing and we are going to pay for his ignorance in ways none of us can really imagine. I pray that level heads prevail, but I doubt it.
Peace.
2
Has anyone considered that China doesn't mind at all how this is playing out? That the long game for China is to let NK develop nuclear weapons, knowing that the US would never use our own in any way? Pull back and take a historical look at this. As Steve Bannon said, "They got us. There's nothing we can do." China then moves in and slowly takes the Korea's and perhaps Japan. Trump (or anyone else) is not going to doom Seoul. Years from now we'll be writing of how the US made everything and sold it to the rest of the world. Now we don't. Everyone makes things and sells them to each other. China is using NK as a wedge to get back the concept of East and West. All they have to do right now is... nothing. just sit back and wait. Why assume they want to do anything?
1
Definitely not.
Only the US tweets it's foreign policy, plans and insults don't expect to find out what other countries are thinking or doing in 140 characters.
Un threatens to shoot down U.S. plane in international airspace, and people are angry with Trump? Do people no longer believe in international law?
It seems that DPRK is now an established nuclear power, so it's better to simply live with that fact, de-escalating in the short term and and in the long term probably arming Japan and South Korea with nuclear weapons to maintain deterrence without a U.S. nuclear umbrella.
Yet I cannot criticize Trump or the U.S. military for flying in international airspace any more than I would criticize them for sailing in China's make-believe exclusive zone in the Pacific.
3
Once again why is Congress not discussing this openly and actively? The War Powers Act and other legal mechanisms permitting the president to "declare war" without Congressional authority must be reviewed and brought in line with the times. The commander in chief ought to be able to order a measured response to an attack; but not overtly provoke an attack in order to justify a military response, such as is now occurring. Furthermore, the use of nuclear weapons ought to require authorization by three individuals, for example, the President, Speaker of the House and a member of the Joint Chiefs temporarily authorized to act based on his own assessment.
I can't for the life of me understand why we continue to be so naive about China.
Who do you think supplies North Korea? And has backed them up all the way to and including the Korean War?
Have you seen the exact knock-off of our latest fighter, built from stolen plans?
What is the definition of an enemy if not this?
2
I'm surprised at so many comments questioning who will win this confrontation.
If we are able to, and under Trump I think we will, use the full force of all of our weapons, this will be one of the fastest and most historically destructive wars we've ever taken part in.
Don't think for a moment that we haven't already mapped this out and are already to go, this was probably done a year ago. A conventional war will not win it and it's not one we can afford to fight, unfortunately.
Our president might be crazy, but theirs is suicidal, truly....
1
I don't think NK will be the only country sending nukes our way if we attack.
1
No one wins a nuclear war.
1
We should avert the impending disaster.
We should focus on what got us here and "how" to avert disaster, rather than dwelling on who is responsible for the current predicament (several nations and leaders are responsible but neither naming nor name-calling them is unlikely to help with a resolution.)
What got us here is our collective distractions and our collective failure to recognize the large-scale dangers of the proliferation of nuclear weapons among failing states (North Korea, Pakistan and Iran).
We (the citizens, military leaders and political leaders) must shelve and put away all other issues for now. Tax reform can wait. Infrastructure can wait. Brexit negotiations can wait. Trade treaties can wait. Climate change issues can wait.
We must set aside all those matters and focus on how to get China's help to denuclearize North Korea, get International Atomic Energy Agency to step up closer monitoring of Pakistan's and Iran's nuclear programs to contain and freeze them.
All other matters can wait.
The failing state with the most nuclear weapons is the world's bully, the United States.
It's difficult to describe exactly how this unraveling story makes me feel. Something like being at the top of the roller coast, only not quite. I'm always confident I'll survive a roller coaster. I'm not so sure I'll get through this boondoggle in one piece or, more to the point, in any pieces at all.
2
If it comes to war, I think the American People have a right to know how much profit Trump and his family stand to make. Let's have a look at those income tax returns for a start.
6
In defense of President Trump, it is North Korea that declared war. When North Korea fires its rockets across the Japanese airspace in violation of its airspace, a country with which we have an agreement to defend it if it is attacked. The Trump speech simply states that either the United States or its allies are attacked, that United States will destroy North Korea or any other country for that matter. Escalation through personal insults has a benefit in the sense that it forced China to take the matter seriously, otherwise may not act and keep promoting useless talks. It also forces China to rethink about aiding and abetting rogue nations such as North Korea and Pakistan.
2
NK's missiles went far above Japan's airspace.
A country's airspace does not extend to the moon.
We have forgotten that from 1994 until 2002, under the Clinotn-Era "Agreed Framework", the North Korean nuclear weapons program was frozen, the plutonium production facilities were disassembled, and inspectors were in place. Then George W. Bush decided it was more important to pound his chest and call North Korea part of the Axis of Evil. He terminated the agreement. Naturally North Korea withdrew from the Nonproliferation Treaty and resumed its weapons program, finally leading us to the present dead end.
There is a difference between empty threats and effective diplomacy. Kim would have to be irrational to give up his weapons now. He has only to look to Ghaddaffi and Saddam to see what would happen if he did.
6
From reading the comments here I have to conclude that a lot of people are totally ok with a wholly unnecessary pre-emptive war that would likely result in million of casualties and might pull other nations into the mess. This is reality, and if we pull the trigger first, we will be the war criminals. Do we really want to be that nation?
3
Wow, this is turning almost as nasty as the Republican presidential debates.
3
North Korea Says It Has the Right to Shoot Down U.S. Warplanes - and then a woman slapped his face and said, "Quiet, little boy."
6
FOLLOWING SENT TO CORNYN, CRUZ, AND FLORES ON 24 SEP 2017: Trump is not fit to be our president - it is almost as he believes that not only can he control our lives including when to speak just as they do in North Korea, but also humiliate and threaten world leaders whenever he feels like it. He is presently threatening North Korea with his stupid Twitter comments and embarrassing speech at the United Nations - where are you when this imposter threatens our national security by acting as a mentally-challenged child while supposedly representing us? How does he have the right to put our nation at risk by his illiterate verbal attacks on our enemies? Trump needs to go back to putting his name on Russian-built hotels and condominiums. We need your help - it is time to stand up for America. Impeach Trump NOW.
34
Liberals want to wait until NK hits Japan, SK, or Guam before we stop them. Then The Times and other communist traitors of this country will throw fits that Trump should have stopped them and he's unfit.
Liberals are bigger threats to the USA than any Trump or North Korea.
They would have us lay down our weapons and open our arms to people who want to kill us, because "at least we're not racist".
They'll quickly forget the threats, missiles launched over Japan, and South Korea because their hatred of Trump rules over any rational thought.
8
I would say the Republican hawks aren't any better for our country.
The W. Bush invasion of Iraq for non-existent weapons of mass destruction was terrible not only for the US but much worse for the Middle East and Europe.
They will be paying for our hubris for two generations.
And while we were there looking for weapons of mass destruction, North Korea detonated its first nuclear bomb in 2006.
The world is a much more dangerous place for that folly.
4
Liberals also wanted to wait out Castro once Kennedy got the Soviet Union to withdraw nuclear missiles from the island. That worked out despite all the hate and fear mongering from conservatives.
And then there was that little kerfuffle with Saddam Hussein and Iraq, which Robert Byrd and Barbara Lee warned against rushing into because there was no way to win, no exit strategy, and no meaningful oversight by the body responsible for declaring war. How is that working out?
And then there was that little kerfuffle with Saddam Hussein and Iraq, which Robert Byrd and Barbara Lee warned against rushing into because there was no way to win, no exit strategy, and no meaningful oversight by the body responsible for declaring war. How is that working out?
6
The US is supposed to be the "bigger man" in this game. The better person does not react impulsively to provocation from the likes of Kim Jong Un. Try being a classroom teacher, a parent, a patrol officer, a leader of the most powerful country on earth. Swatting at anyone who bothers you as if you were dealing with a fly is not an option in a situation like this. If the other adults in the administration care all about Japan, SK or Guam, they should signal to the world once and for all that Trump does not speak for the rest of us.
And there I thought a true conservative would be an non-interventionist isolationist, but instead it looks like we're back to liberal-bashing again, one more fly to swat at.....
2
Shoot one of ours down and get this over with. Ash's to Ash's dust to dust.
4
Mr. Green: Its easy for you to me all for starting a war with NK. Its nuclear tipped rockets can't reach Palm Beach. OTOH, they can reach my house in California. Evbern hear the term "Chicken Hawk?"
1
May God Have Mercy On All of Us.
8
It looks like both sides are trying to provoke the other into a first strike in order to get China on their side. China needs to make it crystal clear at this point whose side they will be on if North Korea shoots down our plane, etc. Trump must stop with the bullying rhetoric. It's indefensible that he acts this way and someone needs to step in here!!!!!!! Millions of lives are at stake because of this narcissistic, over his head, ignorant bully.
14
If we respond militarily I am pretty sure China will protect her neighbor, not us. They do not want war, but they look at NK as theirs.
Sorry Huckabee, no one has to say specifically, 'I declare war" for war to be declared. Stop being stupid.
So Trump is willing to send Americans in harm's way and possibly cause their deaths when he couldn't be bothered to defend the country due to "bad feet" So much for his respect for the country, flag and anthem. . Hypocrite.
31
Yes actually that's typically the way goes, you need to read some history
So he has a disability and you criticize him for that? Lots of imperfect people cannot serve. Should they all be ridiculed for that? That's hypocritical.
Trump's bad feet problem miraculously went away when the Viet Nam war ended.
From the comments here you might think that Trump initiated this whole issue, that there have been no threats, missile launches, or atomic bomb tests by NK on their relentless march towards being able to attack the USA. You may think that if Trump were to lay off the NK and perhaps apologize that everything would be all groovy again. I don’t think so, and there is over 50 years of failed diplomacy on the record to prove that. Nothing else has worked, and pretty soon NK will have the better bombs and missiles they seek.
Just a little research reveals this regime’s criminal history of kidnapping, counterfeiting, and concentration camps. It’s all on Wikipedia. Is there be any doubt they will be sell their atomic devices to terrorists? Iran has developed some pretty good missiles, maybe they can get together and make a deal. Any doubt Iran wouldn’t attack Israel? Maybe the Chechens could get a device and attack Russia? Islamic State? Of course they will want one too. Plenty of oil money to pay for that.
If you are so naive to not think these people are coming for us just think back a little to 911 and imagine if there was radioactive material on one of those planes. NYC wouldn’t exist anymore, and it couldn’t even be rebuilt. Time to get real, or else your kids will be practicing air raid drills again like we did so long ago. That was pointless then and now. We need to take this regime out by any means necessary, and do it sooner rather than later. Like now.
9
"Taking out" this regime could result in the deaths of several million people, both in NK and SK, but also in Japan, Guam and elsewhere. Maybe that sounds like a good plan to you. Not to me.
1
It's only failed diplomacy if it doesn't work. It has worked until the Tweeter in Chief showed up. The analogy to 9/11 doesn't hold up; Al-Qaeda and ISIS have sympathizers worldwide but there are no NK terror cells or ideologues to fear elsewhere. NK is looking for attention by acting out on a death wish. In case you hadn't noticed, jihadists are also motivated by glorious self-destruction. Take out North Korea, and you'll just have a bunch of copycats in Chechnya and elsewhere. Or deal with North Korea in a sane manner, and disappoint the copycats.
"It's all on Wikipedia"...that HAS to be the single greatest thing ever written in the comments section of anything, anywhere...bar none
2
Your president is a danger to the whole world. Please get rid of him. I have no interest in what you do domestically but this foreign policy needs to stop.
68
Geez Donald you are doing a stellar job at diplomacy.
7
Are we seriously going to be held hostage by this lunatic of a President?? I cannot believe that there is nothing anyone or group (Congress, for instance) can do to gag this guy and save us from nuclear war. We're sitting ducks.
13
I voted for Bernie first and then Hillary.
I think Trump is a conman and incompetent.
Having said that, let me play the devil's advocate. It seems to me the Tomahawk missile strike on Syria caused Assad and Putin to back off a little.
Could Trump do something similar here?
On the other hand, I think Assad and Putin are a lot more rational than Kim Jung-un. Or is Kim Jung-un just crazy like a fox?
1
Trump belongs in a mental asylum behind locked doors, not in the White House with his itchy fingers on the nuclear trigger. Unfortunately, Trump rallies are the part of the world. But the world is not a Trump rally.
8
The only thing North Korea has the right to shoot down are Trump Towers. Anywhere in the world.
5
This madman has to be taken out of power before he can destroy the world- Trump that is. It is well past time to declare him mentally unfit for the office he holds.
13
This is how wars start.
9
President Dwight Eisenhauer (to Donald Trump, posthumously); "Never miss a good opportunity to keep your mouth shut".
17
What would Israel do in a similar situation?
1
Who's turn is it to watch the president?
9
Dear Republican Party,
If not know, then when?
5
In order for nuclear weapons to bring peace, every nation should have one in DC with a remote trigger.
North Koreas regime has threatened a nuclear attack against the USA 37 times in the past cvouple of years.
Excuse me if I take N Korea's claims as rather ludicrous. On the plus side, Mr Ri is doing a fantastic imitation of Baghdad Bob . I look forward to seeing him in a war crimes court if he survives this final act in N Korea's pathetic 70 year history.
3
We use other countries to fight wars all around the world. It would not surprise me to find most the world is behind north Korea. I would bet that a lot of people around the world would live to see this bully nation nuked. I know I would. America is a disease to humanity, it should be nuked, that is what nukes are for.
1
Our only hope is that these two blowhards only love to throw bold words around but will both stop short of actually taking military action when reality sets in. That is what has happened so far. I don't know that Trump actually wants a war. Hopefully, he just wants to make threats and be a tough guy. Which is shameful in itself, but at least 30 million don't have to die.
The ever escalating rhetoric which is borne of a huge helping of ignorance; mixed with a fools ego; fuelled by a mad dictator and his evil minions? Almost sounds like the latest installment of Austin Powers, only in the real world!
Evacuate Seoul! Then Kimmy has nothing. Everytime we talk about NK we say that thousands of artillery tubes are pointed at Seoul and that NK strength lies in its giant conventional strength.
Well, if wr evacuated Seoul then Kim would have no giant conventional advantage. We could then make a planned invasion and decapitation strike where we have the advantage for once.
The one thing that liberals have accomplished foreign policy wise is to turn us into a reactionary player. America can never do anything unless some other player has done something to us. This is a huge strategic disadvantage.
This is especially true in Korea. Im sorry liberals, but ignoring NK or pretending that a NK as a nuclear power is acceptable is not the smartest option. The smartest option is for us to actually take the initiative. We can protect the people of Seoul if we just made the commitment to end the Korean War once and for all. If instead we wait for the dictator cult-God to do something, then we have endangered the lives of 10 million people.
Dont be fooled. NK wont just become Mr. Rogers good neighbor once they have nuclear tipped missles pointed at Seoul, Tokyo, Guam and San Diego. Thats when they will start trying to get what they believe is theirs.
Furthermore, only a liberal can rationalize that having a cult-dictator who has put 1 of 5 of his own citizens in concentration camps get nuclear missles will turn out just fine. As long as it makes Trump look bad its all good right?
1
31 killed in 1969. I don't want 31 million killed in 2017. Don't let Trump outdo Nixon by a million.
If the North Koreans were crazy enough to go after the United States they would only do it as a ploy of a greater power, China or Russia.
1
All silly nonsense - nothing is going to happen . Trump and Kim playing the same game like two 9 year olds in a sandbox - but it gets attention and who does like their name on the front page of the papers ?
Once more, I ask for a Jill Stein voter from PA, MI, or WI to explain to all of us what you accomplished with your "protest vote"; to explain why you really believe there was no difference between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump; to describe how your vote helped your nation; to analyze for us your thinking on Nov. 9 when everyone knew the president would be either Clinton or Trump. Please, as the world moves nearer to grave danger,tell us just why you thought your selfish action was beneficial.
25
While I also strongly agree voting is tactical and ideally to be effective should be pragmatic by choosing the best among the most viable candidates, and always do so, to call a citizen who exercised their franchise as they saw fit "selfish" is wrong. That sounds like Trump calling out NFL players for choosing to reflect their patriotism in a certain way.
Ditto for those Gary Johnson libertarian fans in Florida.... where every Vote counted.
2
Gobbledeegook... Put the blame where the blame belongs... On the DNC who conspired to shove forth the WORST Democratic candidate in history.
Really, another solution to pretend country North Korea would have South Korea or China annex the territory. This would eliminate illegitimate North Korea, liberate the imprisoned, devastated North Koreans. Insane Kim Jong Un and his followers would either be killed by North Koreans, the annexing countries or U.S. Together, we can make this happen. We can do this..
And how would they be annexed without them firing a shot?
This is what happens when you give an unhinged U.S. adult with the sensibility of a petulant pre-teen the unlimited power to order the most powerful military in the world into action and another unhinged North Korean adult with no sensibility at all but total control of his own dictatorship and military who would build nuclear weapons but not feed his people.
The world is in for a very trying time. I hope the generals in this county and in North Korea can keep the lid on their two immature brat leaders.
2
"Mere threats, rather than a military attack, could drive him [Trump] to wipe out the country" of 25 million people, not to mention the uncountable carnage south of the DMZ and who knows how much additional human life. Poof! Just like that. Wipe out an entire country, and then pretend that the whole escapade will end there.
This is outright lunacy from our orange-coiffed mad prince of nuclear conflagration. That the US Congress and the President's supine Cabinet is allowing this danger to escalate this far indicates the unfitness for office of the entire governing Party.
It is time to invoke the 25th Amendment, followed by action by the American voting public, which one must faintly hope is more sane than those currently in power.
7
When America declares war they will know. But Trump has some checks and balances that Kim apparently does not
2
Indeed so.
Kim's check is our ability to utterly destroy his country. He is a realist. And do not assume his generals are suicidal- if they see an opening, they may take him out one fine Fall evening with a vial of poison. Or an anti aircraft gun...
Trump's check is our democracy and the Congress.
Everyone remain calm.
Dear Sarah Huckabee: We already are at war. There's a truce on.
4
Any country has the right to defend itself if it gets attacked...
1
Read this, then decide if Trump should be removed from office for taunting North Korea to engage in war: https://www.wagingpeace.org/the-effects-of-a-300-kiloton-nuclear-warhead...
1
"The escalation of threats came two days after American warplanes flew close to the North’s coast, going farther north of the Demilitarized Zone "
Are you sure? And when North Korea launch missiles over Japan, and directly threat USA is not a escalation ? Who start the escalation of threats was USA ?? Are you kidding ?
This has become a barroom brawl. If Trump had the least modicum of restraint or diplomatic talent this would not have escalated to this fever pitch. We have a drunk elephant in the White House ready to go it one with anyone who displeases him, like some of the more crazy emperors in history--many of whom ended up dead or deposed.
4
As my wife once told me, “you can do anything you want, just know there will be consequences.” So it is meaningless to tell Trump’s dark haired twin to not do something, he just needs to know that repercussions will follow his ill conceived acts.
1
The N Korea’s foreign minister statement today is what exactly I called that is Obama’ s critical thinking of illegal alien immigrants rights. He and Obama must come from the same school of thoughts and no wonder the third world loves Obama so much. I am not so sure the Clinton has that kind of charisma. And furthermore his thinking is very much in line with the pirate operated out of the Somalia coast: in which they declared any vessels transit in that part of water belong to them and as such they can hijacked and shoot at the vessels unless the owners pay the ransom money. Unfortunately the world would not buy that kind of authority nor sit back to see the piracy attack their ships. I for once would love to see N Korea carry out their threats withthe action. Don’t forget the MH eu Malaysia airliner shot down by the rebels in that part of Eastern Europe.
This man, so full of patriotic fervor and talk of the flag, once told Howard Stern that his war consisted in avoiding STD
in the Manhattan of the 60's. I think that pretty well sums up his moral position. He also seems to be dim, unfocused and completely incapable of thinking of anything but himself. I hope the four-star generals can save the world from this man.
5
The following parallelism clearly expresses why we need wise leaders in these troublesome times: "Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes." - Proverbs 26:4-5
2
Not surprising considering the aggressive US foreign policy. If the North Koreans were flying bombers off the California coast what do you think the US response would be.
I blame 90% of the problems in the world on the US doctrine of hegemony, i.e. world domination. I live here but really hate this attitude
5
Indeed the US has its faults.
But query why China is usurping power in the South China Sea where 40% of the world's shipping passes?
Try living under the heel of any quasi-fascist regime and say that.
There is no moral equivalency.
But query why China is usurping power in the South China Sea where 40% of the world's shipping passes?
Try living under the heel of any quasi-fascist regime and say that.
There is no moral equivalency.
China is not building South China Sea island as launch pads to attack others, they are afraid of being encircled by USA alliances. Most Chinese trade and energy source is through that sea lane, China needs to protect that. If you were in their shoes you would have done the same...
Maybe a knee to Trump's ----- is what is really necessary.
2
Just what America needs right now, another war. As if Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria aren't enough to drain resources and supplies from the U.S. Treasury. Just think about all the good that could be done to improve the lives of people at home and abroad with the money we are now using for destruction.
Is it too much to ask that Trump get the backing of European, Asian and Middle Eastern allies before we start dropping bombs and killing Northern Korean people? At least Bush Jr made that attempt before invading Iraq. My guess is that Trump doesn't see the use in pretense. He will do what he wants to do to line the pockets of war profiteers.
2
North Korea needs to step down, before we have another Hiroshima/Nagasaki situation on our hands. Nobody wants that, but I fear that it will come down to who nukes who first. If it does, I also fear that NK will most likely be first to it. God speak wisdom and truth into Trump and Kim so that peace be achieved.
Does anyone remember the movie "The Mouse that Roared"? North Korea has a long record of getting concessions from the West by agreeing not to do what they couldn't do.
3
We are itching closer to a Gulf of Tonkin incident that will almost instantaneously lead to war. I hope to God that cooler heads prevail, and I am an atheist. However, this does not seem to end anytime soon.
2
There are no atheists in a foxhole apparently.
If you don't have time for God in the good times, I'm unsure if He has time for you in the bad...
I'm also an atheist, and at this point, recognize I am on my own both good and bad. No mythical spirit will save us from ourselves.
If you don't have time for God in the good times, I'm unsure if He has time for you in the bad...
I'm also an atheist, and at this point, recognize I am on my own both good and bad. No mythical spirit will save us from ourselves.
While American efforts at engaging them is far from perfect, North Korea is clearly the party that has been actively escalating tensions and acting belligerently.
Many times after the Korean War, North Korea has belligerently provoked war. It has tried to assassinate the South Korean president, bombed airliners, kidnaped South Korean and Japanese citizens, attacked South Korean naval vessels, captured the USS Pueblo, and shot down a US plane in 1969.
During all this time, the US and its allies did not attack North Korea.
The justification of North Korean nuclear weapons as defense against a US invasion is a canard. NK nukes will be used to bolster the belligerence of the NK dictatorship and nationalist propaganda to its people.
Due to their role for the creation of the regime & support during the Korean War, China and Russia are responsible for creating this Frankenstein monster. These superpowers deserve blame for not producing any meaningful result towards denuclearizing North Korea and for not reigning in their "ally"/"buffer zone".
1
All correct. But US extremism during the Cold War was the other dance partner to the two countries you mention and we have much to answer for in this affair.
Mr. Trump has bungled this into an unnecessary crisis. The whole world is counting on Mr. Mueller to do his best to relieve us of this totally incompetent, and dangerous President before it's too late.
2
It is unprecedented for the United States to just brazenly start a war, without even a pretense (such as the lies Bush/Cheny/Powell/Rice concocted about Iraq) of hostile action by an enemy. Sure, we've provoked enemies, such as by shelling North Vietnam islands then claiming victimhood when the North Vietnamese supposedly attacked us in the Gulf of Tonkin. But that's exactly what Trump's doing - starting a war - presumably to distract from the fact that he was fraudulently elected and is in office illegitimately. A sane president - and Congress - would quietly be protecting us, working behind the scenes to eliminate any threat, and doing whatever necessary, covertly, to minimize any threat. Instead, Trump thumps his chest, swaggers, spews insults and is on the brink of starting a war that could kill millions. Please put aside party, Congress, and do your duty to protect this country and the world. Remove Trump from office - now.
3
Surely you kid.
Invading Vietnam?
The list of wars of choice for the US is as long as your arm. Start with the 1820's wars against US Indians and start to count.
Invading Vietnam?
The list of wars of choice for the US is as long as your arm. Start with the 1820's wars against US Indians and start to count.
The 25th Amendment MUST be invoked for the security of our nation. Time is running out and we are at grave risk. ACT NOW!
5
Trump's assassination needs to be on the table. No political system in this broken country can remove him, and his mental instability makes armed conflict inevitable. The hard-won peaceful progress of humanity can no longer be risked for Trump and conservatives to exercise their monumental ignorance. One life in exchange for possibly millions of casualties in a conflict in Korea is fair and reasonable.
2
I don't like Trump, but you are way off the reservation with this post.
1
We have a hostile, thermonuclear state threatening our nation. We have a president taunting that nuclear state's volatile, unstable dictator with a 5th-grader's epithets. What is wrong with this horror show of a picture, and how do we constitutionally and quickly remove this menace from OUR office of the president?
21
once again, the USA should suggest S. Korea and Japan safeguard key IP, industrial expertise, and produce production by replicating facilities in CT. Far from any N Korean machinations and close to their reflective financial outposts in NYC.
CT has the skill and Labor force to run such facilities. It will benefit from the job creation.
Better safe, than sorry.
These discussions, comments and news reports all assume that there is in fact an accurate rendering of NK's position, which is strictly being propagated by US media (and Pentagon press, media and psychological operations). This really has little if anything to do with Trump, but he is serving well his intended role as an asset of plausible deniability. It may be prudent to recall the extent to which US special interests can position, engineer, plan, provoke and synthetically construct conflict, while carefully orchestrating pretext, media and of course, Congress. It is what we do (by no means alone). In the meantime, who really knows what North Korea is saying (if anything at all). Follow the money--and the institutional motives.
It's time to bring the hook. Trump doesn't really care about the people who live in this or any country. The same is true of Kim. Neither seems alarmed by the prospect of sacrificing a few major cities.
I'd love to see them left together on a small uninhabited island with no resources to get a sense of what they amount to. Realistically, we need to control what we can and that is Trump. He needs to go.
I find it remarkable that Wall St. is taking all of this in stride. Equity investing is driven by fear and greed. We saw fear from the summer of 2008 to March of 2009 when equities were grossly oversold. Yet, we are now seeing unmitigated greed, the markets are as sanguine as a calm, summer day. Some headlines "blared" that there was a "selloff" today. Some selloff...the Dow was down a fraction, the other indexes down just a tad. For those old enough to remember the true selloff of Oct. 1987 culminating in the 22% down day of the 19th, we would need a 4,500 drop in the Dow for a similar effect. Yet, all the threats concerning No. Korea barely registers. Something's "gotta give".
1
North Korea has been developing its missile capacity for many years, and has now has apparently added a nuclear capability to it.
Nevertheless, for the President of the United States to be advocating such a warlike response is a grave and extraordinarily irresponsible error. Past presidents, while they have not stopped a gradual development in North Korea, have never jeopardized the lives of so many people in South Korea, North Korea, Japan and the United States with such outrageous behavior.
President Trump is way over his head and seems to approach the situation like some sort of a game,. Those close to him in his administration and Congress must urgently counsel him as to how he must respond. He needs help fast, and so do we all.
It is dangerous to blithely use phrases such as "wipe out the country." This is the kind of language Trump uses without, it seems, considering their meaning. Careless use of language is, yes, contagious; we all have a responsibility to watch what we say. The more comfortably people speak of "wiping out" a country with "fire and fury" and so on and so forth, the more familiar these phrases become, and the less human and tangible North Koreans come to seem. A New York Times reporter on this subject should be more specific, resorting less to pop-culture language, in order to convey the real consequences of military action. "Wipe out" is Hollywood language. Trump language.
Both China and North Korea are the pulling strings on puppet Trump; the former to avoid trade sanctions by the US and the latter for further indoctrination of the north Korean population. Meanwhile, the countries at greatest risk, South Korea and Japan are beginning to wonder about their alliance with the US. Hopefully the serious White House cabinet members have made sure the wires to the button on the President's desk are disconnected.
Why are the cable news channels focusing on football and health care? War is immanent? Is it yet another ploy to keep the nation in the dark while Trump plays cat and mouse with nukes, which according to him, he "doesn't mind using".
1
So far it has just been a war of words. The chance for a mistake and bullets and missiles start flying grows by the day. To avoid a real war Trump has to be removed from office asap.
The situation in North Korea will not become better by giving its regime more runway to test ICBMs and nuclear weapons. All choices are bad, we can either handle this now, or accept that a rogue nation will be a nuclear power.
1
North Korea also has the right to care for the basic needs of its people.
North Korea does not have the right to pollute radiation across the Pacific Ocean and harm innocent neighbors.
Trump is leading this country into a disaster. If Congress does not restrain him
they also become responsible. They cannot dodge the affiliation of both party and
president. As the majority, they have any and all means to do whatever it takes to defuse this mess that Trump has created.
They are immature, inexperienced, unqualified, unelected, have zero impulse control, listen to no one, inherited empires from their fathers, have never been told 'no', apparently cannot be removed from office anytime soon and have no concern for the consequences of their actions.
How, can somebody please tell me, have we left the fate of our planet in the hands of two 'leaders' who fit that description?
35
I'd like to see them even attempt to try to shoot down one of our aircraft.
They've been gunning for a conflict for years and the spineless presidents of the last two administrations have a lead them on a very long and dangerous leash.
This was inevitable, it was going to come, just unfortunate it came under the trump administration. In any case, we, as always, have to clean up the big messes.
I hope the Pentagon and all these generals we have running the country are prepared to make this a short, brutal and historic attack on NK.
2
US military was defeated by rice farmers in Indochina, and booted out of Iraq.
They talk a good game but are basically career losers.
11
What? Don't you understand that North Korea (or as you call it "NK") can just walk twenty feet south and slaughter millions of people. The time for WAR in the world has passed - diplomacy, negotiation, and intelligence are the only things that can save a world loaded with nuclear weapons. Mutual self-destruction is a term that applies to the entire world - not just Russia and the USA. Trump needs to resign NOW.
3
Look, even Steve Bannon got this right in a recent interview. There is NOTHING that can be done at this point that could possibly justify the damage and inconceivably huge loss of life that would ensue.
NK is now a nuclear power. End of story. This makes their case different from that of Iran because Iran is not YET a nuclear power and could, arguably, be convinced not to become one. In the case of NK, it's too late. And, provoking them makes about as much sense as repeatedly jamming a stick into a nest of pit vipers for no reason other than to teach them who's boss!
NK is now a nuclear power. End of story. This makes their case different from that of Iran because Iran is not YET a nuclear power and could, arguably, be convinced not to become one. In the case of NK, it's too late. And, provoking them makes about as much sense as repeatedly jamming a stick into a nest of pit vipers for no reason other than to teach them who's boss!
2
Can Twitter's CEO please lock Trump's account permanently? How much longer do we have to tolerate his hateful and harassing rants (don't these go against Twitter's rules of conduct)? How can it be deemed acceptable that POTUS speak about matters of foreign policy that require the consensus of an advisory board single-handedly via Twitter, potentially putting the country and its allies in peril? If Congress won't act, PLEASE Twitter save us! Along the same lines, the media has a duty to censor, in such cases, rather than broadcast. The man is a danger to civil society.
21
I could not agree more. All: please google said CEO's email address and ask him directly.
We are justified in expressing our outrage against this deranged, unfit tyrant. There are literally no limits on his unhinged, dangerous behavior. We have a neutered Republican Congress cowering before him. We have five guaranteed Supreme Court votes from justices who will do his bidding.
And yet, we express our outrage against someone who did not seize power at the barrel of a gun. The targets of our outrage should be the more than sixty million Americans who voted for this unhinged man. They saw every disgusting quality Trump displayed, and they voted for him, not in spite of but because of his sickening behavior. During the campaign he asked repeatedly why nuclear weapons could not be used. His voters were thrilled to hear these kinds of comments. They roared their approval at every hateful, vicious remark he made. Thus, it is this group of citizens who deserve our hatred and our wrath. They installed this sickening tyrant. And they continue to support him.
His provocation of North Korea demonstrates that Trump and his voters would gladly sacrifice the fifty million of our citizens living on the West Coast. He knows he has little support from Seattle to San Diego, and would lose no sleep from the mass slaughter a North Korean strike would inflict there.
This is exactly where we are in this country now. We have a leader and nearly half the population who would gladly sacrifice millions of their fellow citizens, simply because we do not support their "Dear Leader".
21
The slide into war with Vietnam has many parallels with this ongoing dangerous stupidity. Back in 1964 a series of posturings by far less verbally belligerent American Presidents culminated with the Americans thinking that a destroyer had been attacked (it hadn't been) and then launching an air strikes on North Vietnam. The war accelerated from there. Our current 'administration' may find that the slope towards war is increasingly slippery and that only the most reasonable and self-disciplined can get a grip on that slope. Let's hope the three generals can somehow stabilize the situation, because Trump is throwing gasoline on this fire.
5
Since when does North Korea need justification for military action? They have a "right" to shoot down US planes? They have never cared to justify their threats before, so why does this statement matter to anyone? Their words have no credence. They lie every day to the world and to their people. Their sense of justice is perverted. They are a dishonorable people. They don't even know what a "right" is.
3
I am a socially liberal Democrat and believe DT to perhaps be the worst president this nation has ever known.
There is rhetoric on both sides. Noise of two 6th grade schoolboys. This cancels itself out.
Kim Jong Un is taking direct actions of dire escalation. In the past several months alone, we learned that NK has: ICBM capability, (supposedly they did not); Nuclear devices small enough to fit on an ICBM, (we thought they did not); a hydrogen bomb, (we thought they did not). They have taken dangerous measures of flying missiles over Japan and have proven they can hit Guam.
This is not about words, people.
1
No argument with most of what you write JV; but, what realistically can be done that wouldn't result in totally unacceptable destruction and unimaginably great loss of life?
NK is not going to launch a preemptive strike because it would be suicidal and the regime wants, above all, to survive. Unless, that it is, they become convinced that WE are about to launch one. We can't afford to have them think that; and that's why it is IMPERATIVE that we (Trump) dial back the rhetoric.
Note that South Korea would be the most severely damaged of our allies -- and THEY want to calm things down.
We should listen to them.
yet no word in your post about the terror nation that has all of the above and also actually USED atomic weapons to butcher women and children.
"North Korea’s foreign minister escalated the tensions with the U.S., saying the country had the right to shoot down American warplanes, even if they are not in North Korean air space."
Escalated tensions? Isn't that a conclusion, rather than a fact? North Korea is no more capable of shooting down one of our fighters than it is capable of feeding its people. Why give credence to the attention-seeking stammerings of a fool? (I don't mean our fool; their fool.)
It bears remembering the old joke during the Gulf War with Iraq: "What are the 3 most feared words in the Iraqi Air Force? 'Cleared for takeoff.'" The Iraqis flew their planes to Iran for internment rather than fly up to meet US airpower.
So talk is cheap. Don't beat the drums of war just because NK's foreign minister opens his mouth. He's hardly a source of reliable information.
1
What happens when Trump has pulled all the distraction levers . . . from Kaepernick to the Pope to the media . . . and the only mechanism for distraction left is the button?
12
Is the liberal line still, "Pence would be worse than Trump?" I'm a lefty for removal of Trump. Let Pence be President. I doubt a Pence Presidency would risk inciting nuclear war!
8
A question for the uber-wealthy who have been so gleeful with deregulating- Donnie and the Republicans in charge: What will happen to share-holder values if we go to war?
3
Am I the am I the only person to whom this all feels like a huge crisis of perception and misperceptions that most historians think started World War I?
14
It very well may be...but we have a president who knows NOTHING about history. Or governing.
1
No! There are two of us.
2
Since the United States declared war on our country, we will have every right to make countermeasures, including the right to shoot down United States strategic bombers even when they are not inside the airspace border of our country,” he said.
North Korea first are the ones who created an missle with an projectile for California. One press of an button. Isn't that against some type of an agreement? He basically has the people of California in captivity. The press of an button.
1
Don't we have missiles that can reach North Korea?
Here's the plan:
Minute Mr. low to the ground launches his next missile in the approximate direction of any US/US ally, we should shoot it down. This should be immediately followed by minimally two weeks of conventional blanket bombing of NK cities and critical targets. Our bombers will be flanked by our fighter jets, and Japanese fighter jets. When the blanket bombing starts, we must immediately unload conventional torpedoes into all of NK's key ports, and sink any ships to block the ports. About one day before the port torpedo action, we must send in some of our underwater specialists to destroy all wire based telecommunications facilities/cables.
We can then stop for 24 hours to inform NK that they have 24 hours to surrender, or the last 2 weeks will feel like a day at the park compared to what will happen next. Hint: all NK earth orbiting communications will go from inoperative to destroyed, all inland fuel, electric production, water systems/sewage systems will be put permanently out of commission. They will be reduced to random food gatherers living in the dark ages, and we won't even need one nuclear device to accomplish this.
I think you read too many works of fiction. Where were you during the second Gulf war? It is not this easy.
Americans will die. South Koreans will die. North Koreans will die. And Trump and Kim will still be cursing one another.
What happens to the 16 million south Koreans in range of the hundreds of conventional artillery pieces NK has on the DMZ? I guess, in your video-game bravado, you think their lives don't matter.
3
Yeah, that idea worked really well in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam (insert country here and take your pick).
3
What did all his voters say before the election. Something about how they don't think he would start a nuclear war, but was okay if he did?
6
I hereby call upon citizen John McCain.
Mr. McCain, you have devoted your lifetime of service to us, your country, and recently you, ever vigilant, have been warming-up in the wings.
Now is the moment to take, and keep, the stage. You will only be sharing the spotlight for as long as it takes for us,as a nation, to get organized enough to give Trump the hook.
You have the respect of the right and you will have the blessing of the left.
What better swan song, what more noble pursuit but to save, in a very real sense, one's own country and people.
The pen of history is poised. Your cue has been heard.
Please, engineer for your beloved nation a transitional period out of this runaway train of a presidency.
Now THAT is a legacy.
17
Since no one else seems to be able to influence or control him, Twitter needs to shut down his account in the name of taking personal responsibility for preventing war, preventing a mad man from destroying everything we hold dear. They can find a legitimate reason or else let him take them to court, which would, at least, stop him for awhile until the sane people can can get an order to have him committed, have him impeached, get him out.
3
It is time for the responsible leadership to step up to the plate and give this man some of his own medicine. You're fired!
8
I think all of us are feeling a little of what that doorman is feeling.
5
Unicef estimates that about 200,000 North Korean children are affected by acute malnutrition, heightening their risk of death or stunted growth. About 350,000 children under the age of 5 have not received vaccinations against life-threatening diseases, it said. Food and essential medicines and equipment to treat young children are in short supply.
But some South Koreans wondered why they should help North Korea when it is using its resources on its nuclear weapons and missile programs while its children were starving. “We are speechless about the government decision,” said Chung Tae-ok, a spokesman for the main opposition Korea Liberty Party.
We need to liberate North Korea. Not just because of the threat they pose to us and our allies, but to rescue the population from this madman. This is everything that they sold us that Iraq was.. This time we know where the WMDs are.
3
Interesting. America has the child malnutrition, domestic violence, quality of life statistics of a third world country yet the Democratic and Republican leaders have pledged a TRILLION dollars to new weapons of mass destruction.
It's a shame Kurt Vonnegut is alive now. Donald Trump is a character right out of his novels. Trump is the leader of the most powerful country in the world who, on a daily basis, tosses off banal and incendiary barbs. Today it's about NFL players who take a knee in protest. Tomorrow it might be about Hillary whose book is selling like hotcakes. And the day after that it might be about Kim Jong Un's appearance. Yep, Trump is the President who would throw Ice-9 into Long Island Sound just because someone warned him that one speck of the chemical would cause all the water on the planet to freeze..... just to poke his finger into the eye of the scientific establishment.
4
I think you mean "isn't alive".
Vonnegut died in 2007.
1
North Korea was a huge problem before Trump came to power. Trump was and is completely unqualified to deal with it. Voters who voted for him could not foresee this level of incompetence, but now it is on full display for the whole world, and something needs to be done to resolve this dangerous situation. Why is his handling of the present crisis, aside from anything else, not a reason for him to be removed from office, according to established legal criteria? He is playing with millions of lives.
4
It seems that both Kim Jung Un and Donald Trump are in a Yes I Did, No You Didn't childhood shouting match. Neither man is showing any maturity or restraint. Unlikely either man has an ability to show maturity or restraint. There was an article in the Los Angeles Times this past weekend about "The Man Who Saved the World". A Russian radar officer saw what appeared to be a launch of several U.S. missiles and he had moments to decide if the launch was real or a false alarm. He chose false alarm and it turned out later that there had been a mistake with the Russian satellite observation, no U.S. missiles had been launched. Had the Russian radar officer chose instead to report that U.S. missiles had actually been launched Russia had but a few moments and no choice but to launch a retaliatory nuclear launch; end of the world as we know it. Moral of the story . . Trump and Kim will not have the wisdom to see a mistake. Which is why we should be worried.
2
I am about to depart for Europe at the end of the week. For the first time in my life, I am leaving instructions in case war breaks out with North Korea and I have difficulty getting home.
At least I am not going to Asia.
2
During the campaign Trump said something like, "We have nuclear weapons; I don't see why we don't use them." He meant that. He's just waiting for the right moment and he no doubt wants it to come before Mueller brings any indictments. We live in scary times.
6
This rhetoric is out of hand. It's time for an international mediator. President Xi Jinping of China should come together with leaders of the E.U. to stage an international diplomatic intervention. Why have other world leaders remained so silent? This war of words, not to mention the threat of full-fledged conflict between two nuclear powers, is in the best interest of NO ONE.
4
China, Russia, and Europe profit from this conflict. They aren't going to rock the boat when they have so much to gain, especially in the aftermath.
1
In 1973, the late great historian Barbara Tuchman wrote an article for the Times called "Should We Abolish the Presidency?" She laid out a plan that would reform the executive branch by eliminating the possibility of a single dangerous human being taking the reins to the detriment of all.
Tuchman wrote:
"What needs to be abolished, or fundamentally modified, I believe, is not the executive power as such but the executive power as exercised by a single individual.
We could substitute true cabinet government by a directorate of six to be nominated as a slate by each party and elected as a slate for a single six‐year term with a rotating chairman, each to serve for a year as in the Swiss system."
She lays out her plan quite well in the article. In today's nuclear age it is sheer madness to allow one possibly fatally flawed individual to have control over the nuclear codes. We are witnessing now in Trump what Tuchman was trying to tell us 44 years ago.
4
Last week I saw a poll that said that over 80% of Republicans favored military action against North Korea. Do they still believe that? Someone needs to educate the poopulace (and many politicians) on what that would entail. Please. Reporting only the back-and-forth doesn't educate people about the deeper issues: what's at stake. It is pretty obvious that many US citizens don't know (or don't care). This needs to be addressed.
One wonders if Trump is intentionally provoking the North Koreans so that he will "have" to respond militarily, leading possibly to huge numbers of innocent deaths in North and possibly South Korea. He should not get any kind of pass for such dangerous and predictably disastrous behavior. Republicans in congress should be held responsible if they don't take action to reign him in. He should be impeached.
If Trump orders a first strike against NK, I hope whoever receives the order has the sense to disobey it.
This is what everyone was saying during the campaign - Trump was not qualified to be CIC, could be a danger to our country and other countries, and shouldn't be anywhere near the nuclear codes.
If he starts a war, Republicans in Congress will be Complicit.
2
Since the bombs were first dropped on Japan it's inevitable that someday it will happen again. Civilization has managed to avoid this for 72 years, a blink of an eye in human history. As surely as California will experience the "Big One," mankind will experience a "Bigger One." Let's hope this won't be it.
2
Both Trump and Kim have put their “reputation” on the line (at least in their narcissist's eyes). They would never accept to appear weak in their home countries. So they won't back down. I see essentially four issues now:
- Congress and the generals in the White House restrain Trump;
- The generals in North Korea restrain Kim by staging a coup;
- China (or perhaps Russia) makes a move that changes radically the situation;
- Trump and Kim's brinkmanship leads to war, voluntarily or accidentally.
Restraining Trump looks unlikely to happen, as it should have been done already. Removing Kim looks ideal, as everyone could save face and change the logic and the nature of the conflict. However, these generals and their family must be ready to die by a firing squad shooting anti-aircraft ammunition in case they fail. Staging a coup seems a rational but extremely risky decision for the individuals involved. The Kim dynasty has already survived six decades so I wouldn't hold my breath. China and Russia do not seem to be willing to intervene effectively for now. So, we are probably heading for the worst.
Now, is being called a dotard and losing a childish put-down contest with an unstable dictator sufficient to invoke article 5 of NATO? Because, in the end, if there is war, that deplorable episode could be perceived as its totally avoidable trigger. Going into a potential nuclear war on that premises would be hard to swallow for America's allies.
1
Good god McConnell and Ryan!
Are those checks from the Koch brothers so dear to you that you can't see that this dangerous fool may blunder into a war just so he can get some more cheers at his next campaign rally.
Get him out of there and under medical supervision.
McCain?
33
Its time for us to launch a "Your Fired" grassroots campaign. DJT is mentally unstable and wholly unfit for POTUS.
24
There is not a remote chance, even, that the DPRK can shoot down an American military plane without ground-based units. Their attacking aircraft would be torn apart in short order.
Though the DPRK is adept at sneak attacks, they know they can not go head-to-head with the US.
This is just more hot air from Ri – nothing more, thus I don't take this bluster seriously.
Secondly, it was North Korea that started this whole history of warfare by attacking the Southern part of the nation. They are not the innocent party and most of the world knows this.
6
Wow. I guess Mueller really is getting under Trump's skin and maybe too close to the truth. Why else would Trump start a war with North Korea, Iran, and the NFL?
29
Does anybody have any ideas how to keep these two hothead lunatics from blowing the earth out of the solar system?
Where are 45's minders? Where are the generals who are supposed to keep this draft-dodger in line? Where are the wise leaders in congress who... never mind.
But writing comments to each other in the Times won't stop him.
Why do we have to have a crisis- sometimes life-threatening like these killer health bills- every day?
Me. Mueller: please hurry up before it's to late!!!
11
Trump needs to be escorted out of the White House in handcuffs or a straight jacket
33
I am so sick & tired of North Korea's rhetoric . . . really just am . . . they keep pushing the limits as much as they can with what they can get away with!!
4
As good Americans I would suggest we fix this by attacking Ireland. There are terrorists there too. Shock and awe Ireland to defeat terrorism!!!!
1
Donald Trump cannot have it both ways. He admires Kim because he can kill anyone who does not agree with him. What hypocrasy!.
Earlier this year, Americans went ape over the sighting of one Russian "spy" ship off the East Coast.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/16/us/politics/russian-ship-vessel-usa.html
Now imagine how the people of N. Korea must feel with American war jets flying by their border and the US military holding war games nearby every few months.
How would YOU react if Russia buzzed us and held war games just next-door?
We must stop these hegemonic provocations.
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
13
All of Trump’s choices are selfish, what could he stand to gain from warring with North Korea? Lets work backward from there.
4
Last year, I facetiously stated that if he got in, I'd give Trump 10 minutes of shooting off his big mouth before he'd start a nuclear war, so I was off by 9 months. All it takes is two megalomaniacs with nukes. What does it take to impeach such an obviously dangerous president who's obviously confusing reality t.v. with reality?
12
North Korea is a nation suffering from a kind of collective sycophant psychosis. And now, a leader who wants to be 'great' directly insults their great leader, of course they think its a declaration of war.
At the beginning of this year I would wake up and turn on the news and ask myself "what's he done now?", waiting for the next Trump scandal in sheer disbelief. These days I wake up asking myself three questions:
1. Has the first nuke been fired yet?
2. Will World War 3 begin?
3. Will millions die?
4. Will my family be safe?
Welcome to the age of Trump. What about those emails?
11
This madness has to stop. Isn't there an adult anywhere in the White House?
9
There needs to be a new cabinet position created to solely handle or filter all outgoing twitter messages from POTUS.
2
USA type diplomacy is all about military threats, provocations, sanctions and nuclear deterrence and military actions and meddling in elections and removing governments they don't like. Trump really makes it a point to insult and humiliate other heads of state and nations, like an undisciplined spoiled brat with a big mouth.
Korea has been destroyed and humiliated by the USA before, so one can understand they have a big and healthy inferiority complex. Kim needs as much careful handling as the big kid in Washington.
4
I urge everyone to email or call your Senators and Representatives - it is up to Congress to impeach this President, who is threatening our National Security. Do we want war over something as trite as childish sandbox bullying and name calling?
10
I just wish Trump would keep his big mouth shut but I know that isn't going to happen. If he wants to end up in a nuclear war, continue saying and tweeting threatening rhetoric.
4
It would be a very good start if Mr Bone Spurs Deferment sent every single one of his living relatives to serve in the military on the front lines of whichever conflict he's provoking this week.
3
Dangerous times. It would seem that our "belle epoque" could be coming to an end. An anti-intellectual world view in the White House taken together a diplomacy of bombast and a domestic politics characterized by a most base form of gingoism may very well lead America into a war from which a pyrrhic victory would be the most that could be gleaned. Furthermore the real possibility of a resounding defeat at the hands of the Chinese would ruin American life forever. Mr Trump, for the sake of all the young men and women in uniform who will die in a Korean war can you or will you tread softly for once? Or will such a sacrifice merely slake your ego?
4
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
Albert Einstein
11
This wisdom of a socialist.
All his life Trump the spoiled brat has been able to say and do what he pleases , with no repercussions, even being bailed out by the legal system. Now he is truly in over his orange head and he won't be able to sue himself out of trouble.
Time for impeachment due to incompetency.
8
President Trump is making threats without understanding the potential consequences. The consequences of a miscalculation regarding North Korea will result in the loss of American, South Korean, Japanese and North Korean lives, possibly via nuclear weapons.
President Trump is demonstrating that he is as much as, if not more than, an imminent threat to the United States than Kim Jong-Un. Wether this is because of his personality, his ego, or something deeper like dementia is immaterial.
President Trump is a threat to this nation. It is time for VP Pence and the Cabinet or Congress to take the powers of the presidency from him to protect all of us.
8
I happen to think that President Trump is being extraordinarily shrewd. Feed them some rope, then watch them hang themselves upon it.
With every new threat made by this rogue and truly-psychopathic regime, it becomes all the more obvious to every one of the "United Nations" that these people represent a clear and present danger to everyone, not just the United States. "It could just as easily be Me."
As Korea brashly threatens the United "States," they must find themselves faced with the indomitable power, and resolve, of United "Nations." Nations who refuse to accept a destiny dictated to them by criminals.
North Korea is a nation born out of an unfinished war. Its people are now trapped under the governance of psychopaths, and they have been indoctrinated that there is no escape. So, this, above all, is the ultimate test of the collective power and strength of "United Nations." This perverse regime, born of war, now appears determined to thrust global war upon the nations, even against their will. They must now be shown that they are in fact powerless to do it.
Also: when I use the term, "psychopath," I mean it in the literal and clinical sense. This cabal now rules these people, but it cares nothing for them.
1
Mike Robinson wrote:
"Its people are now trapped under the governance of psychopaths, and they have been indoctrinated that there is no escape. ... when I use the term, 'psychopath,' I mean it in the literal and clinical sense ..."
Mike is referring to Mr. Kim. However, virtually the same thing can and should be said about Mr. Trump and his supporters. Yes, this has been noted many times. Yes, no matter how many times we mention it Trump's supporters will choose ignorance over reality. Yes, it must be noted all the same. For the benefit of the sanity of the majority of Americans.
"Its people are now trapped under the governance of psychopaths, and they have been indoctrinated that there is no escape. ... when I use the term, 'psychopath,' I mean it in the literal and clinical sense ..."
Mike is referring to Mr. Kim. However, virtually the same thing can and should be said about Mr. Trump and his supporters. Yes, this has been noted many times. Yes, no matter how many times we mention it Trump's supporters will choose ignorance over reality. Yes, it must be noted all the same. For the benefit of the sanity of the majority of Americans.
1
In the months before the Cuban Missile Crisis (Oct. 1962) JFK had completed reading Barbara Tuchman's, "The Guns of August" which made him cognizant of not repeating the mistakes of German, England and Austria-Hungary during the summer of 1914. Most unfortunate that Trump 1) won't read; 2) has no regard for or interest in history, and 3) is so arrogant that he won't seek the counsel of knowledgeable people. I cannot believe the American people and Congress have permitted this man/child to continue in office. All Americans, whether they voted for him or not, should be ashamed.
9
Take Heed! Trump is a loose cannon and there will be NO Billy Budd to secure him.
As Bruce Rozenblitz points out in his comment just one little mis-cue and as we said years ago in the Army, "That's all she Wrote."
3
General Kelly needs to have a firm talking to with this monster we have in the president's chair. And I do not mean in an advisory way. I mean in a word-to-the-wise way. Enough is enough.
5
Clearly a misunderstanding. Kim's behavior has been tolerated globally because NK is a buffer for China from undue western power and cultural influence. Western influence is on the wane globally and China is already unduly influenced. Kim becomes irrelevant except as bait for the US to overextend and falter. Shoot down a plane. Goodbye Kim, Good luck Trump.
2
If only there were some presidential candidate who had pointed out Trump's lack of experience, horrible temperament, and being easily baited by Twitter... and he still has ~80% support among Republicans.
On the NYT, there was a great story about Mr Petrov, a Soviet officer who helped avoid WW3 in 1983 by not reacting to a false alarm on a nuclear attack.
I wonder if there will be more people like Mr Petrov in our government, in North Korea, and around the world to mitigate the razor-thin margin of error Trump's childish games have brought us to.
5
Trump has access to immeasurable destructive power and has shown no awareness of the harms he is doing. His actions are all about his pathetically insecure ego. He is unqualified for the position, unprepared for the position and temperamentally inappropriate for the responsibilities of the position. If Congress doesn't stop him from unilaterally starting WW III, I hope the military will.
5
"If Congress doesn't stop him from unilaterally starting WW III, I hope the military will."
I never thought I'd ever wish that.
2
His administration's denials to the contrary, Donald Trump is acting like someone who is trying to start a war. He must know that his daily threats and insults will provoke Kim Jong-un into taking some type of military action that Trump can then use to justify a massive retaliatory strike. But that certainly won't be the end of it. One wonders whether Trump understands or cares about the massive loss of civilian life that will follow from this game of nuclear chicken.
4
Where are the Republicans? They are working on denying us all healthcare - despite the risk of war! Are they helping the victims of recent events? Or listening to Senator Barrasso of Wyoming, a doctor who has an oath to save lives, yet is trying with all his might to deny us equal medical coverage. Are these republicans standing over Trump to save us from nuclear war? I am absolutely baffled by the indignation of these people, and I might say a bit scared.
6
Conducting foreign policy via Twitter threat makes me think we live in an alternate reality. President Trump is forgetting South Korea is our ally, and he needs to stop poking the bear, or South Korea will surely suffer. I strongly believe President Trump wants to go to war to bolster his ratings and show Kim Jong-un that Trump is the boss. Grow up, Trump. Lives are at stake. Anyone who has been to war or lost a loved one can tell him. Try listening for a change.
5
I used to think we were repeating August 1939,
but now I think we are repeating August 1914.
It seems certain that North Korea under Kim
will only continue to build more missiles with longer ranges
and larger war-heads.
If the world survives a nuclear war, generations will wonder
why Kim was allowed to bring about this war.
Why China and the USSR did not remove Kim will be a
question that will plague history for as along as humans live.
5
Why Congress did not remove Trump will be a question that will plague history for as long as humans live.
2
The North Vietnamese were willing to suffer mass casualties and even annihilation in order to become a unified country and North Korea is no different. Trump needs to learn from history.
3
That's exactly what they'll take if they fire on any US aircraft, I hope they do.
So far the Trump 'get tough' strategy is going great, and I can almost tell these two 'leaders' apart if I listen closely enough.
3
Reading the comments to this article, I'm stunned that most commenters (and for that matter most Americans) don't seem to be taking the North Korea situation all that seriously. I was a kid during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and went to bed each night during that horrifying period wondering whether I'd actually be alive in the morning, as we faced the prospect of WWIII.
The situation with Kim Jong Un and Trump seems to be no different. Lines in the sand have been drawn, threats at the highest levels have been made. Unlike Khrushchev and the Soviet Union, Kim isn't going to back down.
How we can be focusing, in the midst of this crisis, on whether NFL athletes are protesting during the playing of our national anthem, or on repeal of the ACA, is simply beyond me.
10
I now wake every morning thankful to have made it through the night.
3
My parents built a fallout shelter. I was in tears when I was told I couldn't take my dogs with me if we had to take shelter. I feared for my friends. I imagined a bleak landscape that would greet me after 3 weeks underground, no trees, no life, just dead and grey.
I was 8 years old. From then until 1990, I held my breath.
At least I made it to 64, but what about my grandson???
I'm holding my breath again.
Trump is playing with fire, and MUST be stopped.
THIS IS NO JOKE.
4
The Korean culture is based on threats. It sounds strange but having lived in Seoul twice and previously married to a Korean I know this aspect very well indeed. It's all bluster for show and a pay-off down the track has that worked a treat for the past 25 years.
Trump for all his failings thankfully won't fall for it this time around. This will infuriate the North Koreans but they won't do anything, just issue empty threats coupled with a few choice new adjectives.
1
Yeats summed things up in a poem written some 100 years ago...
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
10
Two scenario's:
1) Kim is starkly pragmatic, nothing like insane, and doesn't want war spelling regime end. His rhetoric appears insane by design (Nixon'd mad man theory) but it's done to both insult the outside world and to unite his people against a common enemy.
Trump wants to succeed here and knows the leverage key is China, as Nixon knew the key in Vietnam was Russia by way of going to China.
China wants no war on its doorstep, if nothing else for economic reasons. China will step in soon (directly or indirectly asked) and act as third party negotiator to allow these two to save face and step back.
2. Unless Trump really does want war in which case he can use any excuse to attack. Wants it to stop Kim before ICBM-capable and/or to create a rally 'round the flag patriotic effect to thwart Mueller and help pass thwarted domestic agenda.
3
It's past these kids bedtimes. and they shouldn't watch so much TV.
8
Well amazing, a 30 year old leader playing a 70 y/o like a fiddle on the world stage.
11
My guess is that is one of the reasons Trump picked his fight with the black football players, to distract the news and people on Facebook from talking about how Kim Jung-un called Trump a dottard, etc.
2
Desperate times call for desperate actions. If one believes, as I do, that Trump was illegitimately elected with the help of Putin, then allowing Putin, indirectly, to go to war with NK is indefensible.
The senior military leaders must quietly go to Congressional leaders and disavow the president and make it clear they will not follow him into war. Democrats must immediately cease ALL co-operation to run our government until he is removed. The alternative is unthinkable.
23
Putin is actually playing the other side. Having facilitated the election of a "mentally deranged US dotard" as POTUS, he is now encouraging NK to manipulate the dotard's fragile ego and pathetic ignorance. If the US and NK get into a destructive conflict, Putin will be the winner.
3
Yes, it could have been better handled by the Trump administration but this escalation in tension is solely Pyongyang's fault. It is almost like NK is looking for war by continuing to do the nuclear tests and firing missiles over Japan.
Due to one dictator millions lose their lives that is what history has always shown us and unfortunately it might be the same here.
6
All signs are now pointing toward a confrontation on the Peninsula barring some miraculous intervention... presumably in some form by the Chinese.
Short of that, the U.S. has most likely determined that it simply cannot allow the DPRK to achieve the capability of delivering a nuclear device to our shores. However, the U.S. feels compelled to force NK into taking the 1st shot. Hence, the insults and the heated rhetoric in order to goad Mr. Kim into making a tactical mistake.
Expect a Gulf of Tonkin like event to occur in the near future. At that point, the U.S. will have the "moral authority" to take out the nukes and the entire regime itself.
Both Mr. Kim and Mr. Trump are playing a high stakes game of chicken........Who will blink 1st?.........Perhaps neither one.
7
All China need do is tell NK, in front ot the whole world that THEY will not come to their rescue, deliver soldiers, supplies, weapons, food, to them no matter what. China's eagerness to come forward in 1950 is why the NKoreans dared start a war in the first place. Lets make sure China knows that the rest of the world will fire every nuke, every HE, missile they have at Bejing if NKorea fires one. Then stand back & let China deal with the insanity THEY started all those years ago. Good way of getting rid of the expired high explosives left from WW2 that we didn't get rid of in Korea or Vietnam. Some won't go boom. Until a kid pokes it. Kid's fault.
Oh, shooting at a US plane can cause death to those on the ground. Never know when one is loaded with either conventional or nuclear warheads, missle coming, with advance orders to drop on NKorea, will mean it won't happen twice.
Well, here comes the next Twitter storm of vacuous threats.
3
Dear Twitter,
Cut off Trump's account! You are a private company. Trump is ruining your brand by engaging in anti-social media.
I now turn the news off when my kids are in the room. Trump has put us all at risk, particularly the people in East Asia who will suffer the most for his foolish and irresponsible behavior. And when there is blood spilled, the whole world will blame us for voting him in. We went from a President who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and even with his shortcomings, was held in the highest respect by the world for his efforts to make everyone safer with diplomatic efforts, to a despot (lower case "d" intended) behaving president, (I repeat, lower case intended), who cares for nothing but himself. Consequences be dammed.
29
Trump has been in office less than a year. The situation that exists with North Korea was created by Obama and his predecessors. Trump did not encourage NK to develop a hydrogen bomb, or delivery vehicles, these were under development during Obamas regime. Trump is simply reacting to events that began before he came to office.
1
Say what you will but Trump had some semblance of self control we would not be in so deep.
2
This couldn't all be part of some nefarious Russian plan, could it?
9
For all the money this country has spent on its fancy stealth capabilities and super-advanced military technology they better not dare shoot them down, that would not make our engineers look very good.
2
A majority of voters did not choose Trump, but the system allowed him to win. He was right. The election was rigged and now we have a power mad child with the ultimate control over the military. He can and will start a war because that will make him famous (he thinks). Two alleged leaders with the brains of seven year old boys are bringing the world to the brink of war. We can't do much to remove the North Korean , but our congress could remove the occupant of the White House . Oh right, the majority in Congress can't act unless it is in concert with a vocal minority' in their party. Prepare for war. I've served in combat zones. I don't want to be in another one.
22
Everyone knows the rules of the system. No one thought it worked based on popular vote, nor did they intend that to be the case. If they did, the laws would have been changed. Think of the United Nations. Individual citizens do not vote at the UN. There is no worldwide plebiscite. Representatives of countries vote. Election of a president in the US works the same way. Don't like it? Get it changed. The fact you don't like it doesn't mean it is not legitimate.
I fear that Trump would prefer a shooting war with Korea, despite it's potential for unleashing nuclear bombs that would kills millions of people on the Korean Peninsula and beyond, to a continued probe by Mueller. Our president's narcissistic nature may well kill us all.
18
NK will continue using nuclear weapons to extort the world. The more power they get, the more they will extort. Give them 100 ICBMs with hydrogen bombs, and you think you will have peace? No, they will simply ask for more. Control over SKorea, most favored nation trading status, a seat on the UN security council. There is no end to what monsters like this want. Unfortunately, it has gone on too long and has only gotten worse. Trump has the strength of courage to realize that it needs to stop now, for it will get worse, and he will leave the legacy of all who have come before him--a legacy of ever increasing risk. Time to end it. I hope it ends well.
1
Trump is unfit to be president. He should be impeached.
24
To the Senate and House : Use your intelligence and right to declare Trump out of office. If not, both heads of state have lead us to the end of the world. There are two crazy men heading two nations without a clue as to the dangers to existence they are playing with !! Please act !!!
18
The fact that virtually anything the US has said or done with regards to North Korea in the past fifty years has been called a "declaration of war" by the DPRK is cold comfort with the knowledge that all it would take is a miscalculation and literally hundreds of thousands of people will die in the first week, the majority of them not Americans.
7
NK may have the right to shoot down US planes, but, unfortunately for them, they don`t have the means. There is not a chance that NK ground-to-air missiles, all vintage ones from the Soviet era, can be of any danger to American war planes.
1
Dear John Kelly, Please don't quit. You are the last sane person in the oval office. Please be ready to take the football away from Trump if he threatens a first strike with nuclear weapons. The lives of millions are in your hands. For the world's sake, be ready to be America's Stanislav Petrov. Signed, humanity.
13
Go for it, everything will be just fine
1
This is from an essay by Bill McKibben "The Christian Paradox" in Harper's a few years back:
" Consider House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. At church one day he listened as the pastor, urging his flock to support the administration, declared that “the war between America and Iraq is the gateway to the Apocalypse.” DeLay rose to speak, not only to the congregation but to 225 Christian TV and radio stations. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, “what has been spoken here tonight is the truth of God.”
I am scared to death that the current leadership includes a lot of this type of thinking.
9
Without having to fire a shot, Kim has given the DPRK a huge leverage over the U.S. in future talks. The 'great deal-maker' Trump fails again.
12
Before sending any warplanes, let's send Trump, the "deal maker" to convince N. Korea leaders those tweets and comments was just locker room talk....
15
Problem is, Trump really means what he says (at the time).
This tense moment would be a great time to have a seasoned person at the helm, maybe a former Secretary of State.
22
Yes. Sigh.
Trump appears to have violated the rules of Twitter's terms of service with regard to "Violent threats, (direct or indirect)." Twitter, delete his account. No one else seems able to keep Trump from tweeting us toward the brink.
25
After 34 years in the service, I was hoping I would never see "the dogs of war". But they are barking loud and clear. Trump has stepped in over his head, and he will not shed one drop of his or his crony families blood. It will be the young men and women that wear the colors. May God have mercy on all of us.
15
I wish both leaders -- and anyone in favor of this rhetoric -- would read "On the Beach." There are no winners in a nuclear war. It's better to lose face and stay alive than to destroy humanity all over the planet. Aren't leaders supposed to be responsible for preserving the safety of their citizens?
6
> And Col. Robert Manning, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters on Monday that if North Korea did not stop its provocative actions, “we will make sure that we provide options to the president to deal with North Korea.”
Oh, come on, that has already happened! Why insult our intelligence? (No pun intended.)
1
Congress must act now to protect Americans from these two immature men who value their egos more than all lives on our planet. Trump has become an imminent threat to the safety of Americans. The two immature men have become imminent threats to the safety of all lives on our planet.
10
The WH needs to bring Bill Richardson in to talk and deal with NK. trump is unqualified and unfit to be involved in such matters.
8
A pair of adolescents playing "my thing is bigger than your thing."
5
It's very clear who has the bigger thing
Little incidents can big wars make. Or, that old saying "loose lips sink ships." The start of WWI comes to mind. One nineteen year old man, Gavrilo Pricip, fired shots that killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophia, Duchess of Hohenberg in Sarajevo, Bosnia on June 28, 1914. The resulting reaction to the murder by a member of a Serbian nationalist group started a chain of events and triggered treaties of defense and war. The resulting massive casualties, and the destruction of the pre WWI societies led to the creation of conditions that led to the rise of extremists like Hitler, Lenin and, of course, Stalin. North Korea vs US could really distract from any Russian interference investigations and could encourage constitutional changes to "strengthen" our government that many of us would not like. It's a shame some folks don't believe in diplomacy or reason.
7
"....with the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, telling a news briefing in Washington: “We have not declared war on North Korea.” "
This is where the problem get real... they've got a press secretary with no credibility saying the US hasn't declared war on North Korea. Since the first day of this administration, most of what Spicer and Sanders say have been "alternative facts", so one would assume the same now. This announcement should have been made by someone without a history of lying, like a military general.
4
tRump started this. I distinctly remember reading some snide remark he made about the NK leadership and thinking to myself that we were about to "get involved". You cannot openly disgrace a nations leader and expect them to do nothing about it. We desperately need to get this occupant OUT of office.
6
11 previous administrations have kicked this can down the road. It's now landed on Trump's doorstep at the end of the road where it can't be kicked any further. The free world cannot tolerate a nuclear armed DPRK lobbing ICBM's all over Asia. All previous acts of "diplomacy" were essentially caving in to a fear of the war that will someday happen to "fix" the DPRK. China now can't even control them. There will be another war, it's the only possible outcome. The longer we wait the higher the cost.
2
Trump supporters will stand by him whatever decision this administration will take. To them N Korea is far away, and their president is finally doing something about this issue that other presidents couldn't solve. He is their hero and they will revere him even more once he starts a shooting war.
2
Getting rid of Trump will allow a reset of all his international insults and war mongering. Pence is no better but at least a new guy in the chair will allow a reset of all Trump's brutal snafus in Korea, China, Mexico, Canada, trade, Time for Congress to act. If they don't and the Koreas are plunged into war with thousands or even millions killed, the blood will be on the Congress's hands.
5
So many expressed concern before November 2016 that Trump would lead us into precisely this type of situation, and yet so many voted for him anyway. Presumably not the same people. They have themselves to blame for this. If I were living in South Korea, Japan, Guam, Hawaii, or along the Pacific Coast, I'd be assembling a nuclear disaster emergency kit at this point. Buy propidium iodide and pray!
4
Trump tweets and statements fall right into the NK narrative that US is out to get them.
Again, US mainland isnt at stake. Japan and SK are, world financial balance. DJT might miscalculate that feeding the troll might just shatter US credibility to a point that world leadership will be questioned and eventually have a world war down the road.
Trump and supporters arent seeing the long game.
2
If this goes south and becomes a deadly shooting war costing hundred of thousands, perhaps a million + lives, Trump owns shared culpability.
He would need to stand and face the same charges & fate as others who have done similar acts . . . such as Saddam Hussein, for example.
Are you ready & willing, Mr. so-called President ?
2
Maybe the best solution would be that neither Kim jung Un or Donald Trump would be around much longer. Hopefully not by the cause of nuclear explosions. But because of that their sorrundings just had enough. And then get a fresh start to solve the problems between the two countries in a peacefull and civilised way.
2
Trump did not declare war. He only threatened retaliation if North Korea attacks first. What he said is certainly no worse than what the North Koreans have said repeatedly about us. So this latest development is completely on them. We need to stop tip-toeing around these terrorists. Theyre getting desperate now because Trump has called their bluff and theyre out of options. If they want to shoot down one of our planes, fine, big deal. Its hard to see that ending well for them.
1
trump supporters are chomping at the bit for a fight.
Does trump think a war will make America great again?
Watched "The Vietnam War" over the weekend.
Both governments lied to their people to prop up their elections and power.
trump is mirroring Johnson & Nixon - all they cared about was propaganda making themselves look good to the voters so they'd get re elected at the cost of our military and civilians.
5
I’ve got an idea. Let’s implement a space program where we send Kim and Trump to Mars and let them battle it out there. Far, far away from this planet. Hopefully, there’s no WiFi signal, so Trump won’t be getting any reception and will therefore become unable to tweet as well. Problem(s) solved.
5
Very original, JT. I haven't heard anybody propose something like that since ....well, Vietnam for starters.
We should look again at the morass of miscommunication that led to World War I, a war that even Austria-Hungary had no intention of starting. Every leader involved in the lead up to that war wanted peace, but they made so many wrong assumptions about how their actions might be seen by the other side that they collectively caused the conflict. For example, Nicholas thought that by partially mobilizing he would reassure Germany that he was only responding to Austria Hungary while the Germans read the Russian mobilization as a threat to which they had to respond. If we make threats to a paranoid leader of an insular and paranoid regime, will they be seen as negotiating ploys or just empty threats, or will they be seen as the prelude to an attack?
6
So if we don't find a way to get Trump out of office very soon we all might be dead/maimed because of our allegiance to the Constitution, unless somebody really wants to invoke the 25th ammendment of that Constitution (very appropriate) challenge an election that seems to have been hacked by a foreign government (probably will take too long) or make a deal with Trump to resign or he won't do jail time--I can't think of anything else. It seems to me there is enough clear evidence for the generals and the cabinet and Pence to invoke the 25th. I mean their lives are at stake too. What are they waiting for?
3
Where was that photo taken--downtown Timbuktu? Rather than continue to hurl insults and threats of annihilation at one another, would not it be a tad better to sit down and discuss the present situation. Are there no diplomatic enablers on either side?
Where have you been for the past 66 years?
we are facing a new situation with a direct threat of first use of nuclear weapons.
We are past the point of "accidents." We are right where Mr. Trump put us. And an unhappy outcome looks more and more likely. The president who tweets endlessly about strength and weakness has been played yet again by a murderous autocratic leader.
His three generals all disagree with the erratic president vis-a-vis his North Korea chaos, but apparently they have had no meaningful influence on his behavior. Is this possibly the last chance for Congressional Republicans to show us they are not opportunistic collaborators? My goodness! Are their reelection chances more important than stopping nuclear war?
North Korea clearly believes the United States cannot do anything, even if they shoot down an American jet. Seoul is still their hostage. But we here in the Pacific Northwest are now in range of their missiles. China and Russia are opposed to an American presence on the Korean peninsula. Will this become a proxy war?
It makes no sense whatsoever at this point to make an appeal to Trump's supporters. They can no longer think for themselves. They are not living in the real world. All that matters is sticking it to the other guy. Even when the risk is nuclear war.
4
Of course, North Korea does have the right to shoot down U.S. planes, or do anything else it wants to. There is no government that has created legislation prohibiting them from doing that and that also has the power to enforce such legislation.
This is because nations have chosen international anarchy over law and order.
I spent three years in Korea, and the bombastic language coming from North Korea is nothing new. That language has rarely translated into anything beyond words, meaning sound analysis of the Hermit Kingdom must rest on something other than what it is saying. The fundamental weaknesses of the North Korean Regime have left them very vulnerable, economically, financially, culturally, and militarily. Seeing the widening gap in capabilities, the near certain defeat in a conventional fight (and the US willingness to apply its military), developing a nuclear capability is the only thing that might give North Korea's adversaries and their huge advantages a reason to pause. This equation has not been fundamentally altered in several decades.
What is new is Trump's descent in the use of language, and an increase in militaristic displays. These actions do not undermine North Korea's position, they validate it - as an unsteady Trump and his antics raise the possibility of Trump using the US military's massive advantages to attack North Korea. The fact that we are talking plausibly about a first strike, or creating 'decapitation' capabilities, it us poking the proverbial hermit into greater resistance to be left alone.
That the North Koreans suffer from brutality and repression is difficult, but it is not a problem that nuclear annihilation and prideful insults is going to solve. One should probably use their head before opening ones mouth.
2
I remember many warning of Trump's erratic and unpredictable behavior during the presidential campaign, a warning sadly not heeded by far too many of our electorate.
President Bullhead is so clearly out of his depth, the tough kid from Queens behavior does not cut it on the world stage. His insults and crude remarks may have worked in his business life to some extent, but are wholly incompatible in governing our nation.
He seems to have no comprehension that insulting the leader of their nation is taken very seriously in North Korea, especially with comments like wiping them out by force. Trump is at present the greatest threat to our nation and to the security of the world.
41
Perhaps you have made a mistake? You probably meant to say that North Korea's Kim Jong-un is "erratic and unpredictable" and that Rocketman is "so clearly out of his depth" and that Kim seems to have "no comprehension that insulting the leader" is taken very seriously in the US, especially with comments like firing nuclear weapons at us.
Surely, you can't seriously believe that Trump is the greatest threat to the USA? Like what? He will kill all the NFL players with tweets?
In your world, I guess Kim should get the Nobel peace prize? If this is on Trump (meaning that at any time Kim has responded to Trump's provocations rather than the other way around), we haven't been reading the same news sources.
Of all the major world powers, only one could plausibly come out better off in the wake of a military conflict between the US & North Korea: Russia. Makes one wonder...
4
Wrong.
The one that comes out better is China.
This is what you get when the man that leads the nation has never worn the uniform of his country.
I wonder if he would be shooting his mouth off like this if any of his children were in the military, stationed close to the action.
22
Neither Bush Jr., nor Clinton, nor Obama served in the military. And they certainly would have never allowed their spoiled, entitled children to enlist.
I'm not a Trump supporter but let's not be hypocritical.
2
When is enough, enough? Trump has caused this escalation. He WANTS nuclear war. He's Dr. Strangelove times 100. Someone, anyone, please remove him from office before it's too late.
20
The only people who can rid us of this troublesome dotard are in Congress, and they like him. His belligerence covers their own behavior. They are the slaves of their donors, eager to do their masters' bidding so as to hold on to their positions.
Many of their masters would LIKE to see a war. Another Vietnam. Endless, useless slaughter. War profiteers whose greed is boundless.
3
@Eileen: ask a grownup to explain the situation to you, so you don't stay confused. "Trump has caused this escalation" says that you've missed a few episodes.
If North Korea wants their country glassed its sure is the best way.
4
Thank goodness we didn't put the nuclear codes in the hands of a malignant narcissist with the temperament and intelligence of a spoiled, adolescent boy. Oh wait.
30
Yeah, I agree! Thank God Kim Jong-un doesn't have nuclear codes in his malignant, narcissistic, and adolescent hands.
Trump noticed how Bush's approval ratings went through the roof when he took us into that useless and unnecessary war in Iraq instead of Afghanistan. He selfishly sees N. Korea as a way of boosting his ever drooping "ratings".
...which mean more to him then tens of thousands of American military lives ever will.
God Help U.S.
9
You all assume Trump is the cause of this crisis. He is not. Kim and his daddy before him blackmailed Clinton and Bush and Obama. They paid off; the Kims took the blackmail and kept working on their bomb. Our current POTUS just doesn't play blackmail.
Un doesn't have the capability to hit us yet. We can use our strength to force him to back down, since he does not yet have any answer to us. It may result in the deaths in Korea, but that's his fault, not ours.
If we don't act, Un will have that capability soon enough. Then it doesn't matter. He will hit us.
We will be forced to retaliate, and there's your nuclear war. His fault, but millions will die on both sides.
Which do you want? We hit him and he is forced to fold. There may be deaths in Korea, but not in the US or other targets. Or we do nothing, and he hits us. We suffer millions of deaths.
If you don't want nuclear war, the choice is easy.
What do you say?
5
The choice is NOT easy. This situation has irked many presidents in the past but now we have a president who has absolutely no rationality in the world stage. It is dangerous. He is going to help put himself into a situation where he cannot go back and by the way Southern Korea will be the first heavy heavy casualty within hours of any spark
2
We say you cry like a baby and want to blame all the other leaders who were able to keep this Kim Jong at bay..your guy is in charge now. Don't think for a moment that this is anybody else's baby but Trumps..he is a failure and everyone will pay for his version of patriotism while innocents die. All for this admin. ...what a travesty that these thoughtless subversives are now in charge. Now what do you say?
1
Are we at the apex of a Cuban Missile Crises in 2017? we are fast approaching such a revelation. Trump has infuriated the thinned skin, attention needing North Korean leader who in turn will now prick the thin skin of Donald Trump. We must have someone in the room of reason thwart a cataclysmic event; and not, as another commenter has suggested, have military action.
4
Where is all the winning and success? I'm not seeing it. Where is rationality and logic with Trump and his cabinet? I'm not seeing it. Where is world leadership? I see a coward.
North Korean is the size of Oklahoma. Trump is behaving as if we could enter mortal combat with China. It's North Korea. Their rural citizens are starving. Their 2016 GDP was 26 billion. That's the GDP of Vermont. We should continue to apply economic sanctions and ignore North Korea. Now that would irk the moon faced fat leader more than threats. And if they do join the nuclear club, get used to it. More nations are working toward that goal.
20
North Korea has been, since the Korean War, China's surrogate as enemy of the USA.
P.S. I believe there is credible evidence that Beijing skirts the sanctions against North Korea by importing and trading with North Korea (particularly for coal) surreptitiously.
I wouldn't be surprised if this were to be proven definitively. Why? Because China is in a position to quash Kim Yong-un but has no intentions or reason to, since North Korea does to the USA which China is economically not ready to do (yet).
I am amazed that some commentators here find this confrontation inevitable, or that because Mr. Trump was given a bad hand by others, it somehow excuses his nonses.
Fact is: NK did not say it had the right to shoot down US airplanes during Obama or Bush presidencies; it did so after Mr. Trump repeatedly and needlessly provoked them.
Waiting and avoiding disaster has several benefits beyond the non-wipe out of SK, and that involve NK president being taken out of office for several reasons, China getting a hand on the situation etc.
It is obvious to me that Mr. Trump 1) has nothing to loose in the conflict - his family or his properties are not at stake and he thinks in terms of his bottom line - and 2) that he hopes to ride the usual patriotic public support that is given to war Presidents.
It is unbelievable and indeed a failure of our collective intelligence that not only that was the man chosen to preside the US; but also, that once there, the public is so easily mislead by a foul-mouthed draft dodger.
630
You say: "Fact is: NK did not say it had the right to shoot down US airplanes during Obama or Bush presidencies; it did so after Mr. Trump repeatedly and needlessly provoked them".
A crucial difference from the previous two Presidents is North Korea had not shown any ability to deliver a missile inter-continentally. That changes everything. In that scenario, Trump had to make it clear to Kim in a language he would understand, which is not soft and fuzzy, that in self-defense the U.S. will do everything necessary to stop him.
Blaming Trump is like blaming the messenger of ill-news. We need to go to the source which is the reckless adventurism of Kim. Kim is playing with fire, answering him in firm terms is the only reasonable chance to stop him and if won't, nothing else will.
Doesn't the article say this outlandish remark from North Korea fits the pattern "periodically made" by Pyongyang? So why do you place this latest hostility at the feet of The Donald? Why wouldn't you criticize Kim and his surrogates in Beijing?
"Fact is: NK did not say it had the right to shoot down US airplanes during Obama or Bush presidencies; it did so after Mr. Trump repeatedly and needlessly provoked them."
Nope. Fact is, Kim has been provoking from the get-go. The only difference between, say, Obama's response and Trump's, is that Obama would have apologized without knowing what he was apologizing for, and Trump is responding. If you'd been paying attention to Kim's discourse, you would have noticed that his aim isn't to make sense in an adult conversation, but to create a narrative that he can serve to his people, that NK is under constant US oppression, and that any saber-rattling he is actively engaging in is the US's fault.
Being sore at Trump for not letting Clinton "get her turn" is fine, but validating a crazy foreign war monger's justifications for preparing to launch nukes on US soil may be taking partisanship a step too far.
Okay people let's wait till l.a, and a few other cities in America are wiped off the map. The 'dear leader' of North Korea is insane but let's give him what he wants: certain death for him and his country . Having served in the Air Force
On a sac bomber base with b52 bombers in the sixties I know what they can do. By, by Kim.
6
Thats all well and good and will be an easy victoey for US, but South Korea wwould be devistated in the process. Not tk mention China and Russia said they would act if we attacked first and initiated war....idk if your up to date on things, but a war with China and Russia (worst case scenario), especially if other countries, mainly the EU, Brits and Canada say "hey this is between you guys, we're sitting this out" is going to reault in the biggest defeat for the US since 1815.
1
Please please remove Trump from office before he kills America. The man is insane!!
31
This brings to mind a Twilight Zone episode, "It's A Good Life," about a small town taken over by a cute but vicious little boy with unusual powers. At a birthday party for a neighbor, the guest of honor becomes upset when he's given a Perry Como album that can't be played because it might upset the boy, which could lead to tragedy. After a few drinks he loses control and wonders aloud if, while he keeps the boy distracted, there isn't some man present with enough guts to come up behind the kid and lay something heavy across his head. I keep hoping the same thing.
12
That was one of the creepiest episodes I ever watched. Until now, I hadn't made the connection between that and today's reality.
I'm going to keep checking my face in a mirror to make sure my mouth is still there.
1
Beam Me Up anywhere but here.
6
Trump is desperate for a distraction. As Trump's chief enabler, the GOP is wholly responsible for whatever ensues. I hope they have a special arrangement with God, because they're going to need it.
7
The blame lies with those who continue to support this disgraceful sociopath after he has now demonstrated he is willing to put the survival of the planet at risk to satisfy his boundless personal insecurities.
16
Time for Congress to start impeachment procedures. Nuclear war is no joke.
21
Trump is 71 years old. There are millions in our country under 50 years of age. They too, trump, would like a decent chance to live to the ripe old age of 71.
Back off Little Mad Man - POTUS.
6
Trump and Kim. Perfect together.
1
What a horrid distraction.
What happened to "America First"?
We have problems at home, hurricanes, health care, immigration, name your issue and let's fix that first, here at home.
4
Trump is too busy waging war with the NFL.
1
Twitter needs to be held responsible. They are providing a platform for violence.
10
I agree. I don't use it myself, but everyone who does should boycott Twitter until Trump is removed.
The Japanese stare at missiles flying over them and they can do nothing because they have unilaterally disarmed themselves.
The south Koreans face an existential threat yet they are afraid to do anything.
Lets see what China - the puppet master of North korea will do if USA launches a missile harmlessly over China and lands in the south China sea.
Wait, we already know a response of these arrogant Chinese so called communists.
They are threatening their neighbors with war if they infringe on Chinese man made islands - attempting to expand their economic zone.
North Korea should be made the Crimea of China. The POTUS should start immediate tabling of a resolution condemong China for protecting the rocket man.
Actually, what China is really afraid of is what happened to them with Vietnam.
They supported North Vietnam while it was waging war against the South and by proxy against us.
The war is over.
What happens, Vietnam is friendlier more with us than with China.
Heck, the Vietnamese fought a war with the Chinese which by most accounts China lost.
Ditto with Korea.
Soon, they will have a sworn enemy once the rocket man is history as the North Koreans will never forget who supported the rocket man.
I have been to north Korea and have seen with my own eyes devastation caused by rocket man and his henchmen.henchmen.
China played this game too long and they are about to lose big time.
Beijing dictatorship will be over before too long.
3
"The supreme art of war is to defeat your enemies without fighting." Sun Tsu was a cleaver and experienced warrior. America has already lost one war in Korea, but now we are letting a gnat incite war with a very large country that is a
sucker for military involvement in the hope of bringing back yesterday's glory.
Intelligent Americans who know history and the lessons it teaches. They also know that we are a leaderless nation, come what may.
4
You should be aware, if someone hasn't already told you, that North Korea and the UN Alliance (SK, USA, Australia, Great Britain, etc) that fought in the Korean War are STILL IN A STATE OF WAR. We only had a cease fire in 1953 that has held to this day. But it is just a cessation of war, not a truce or end to the war. So....moot point.
5
An armistice, actually. But you're right, no one has surrendered, no peace treaty has been signed, and no one has officially won either.
This is not the time for hysteria, but even the most sober analysis should prompt the gravest alarm. Everyone seems to assume that if there is a war on the Korean peninsula it will be confined to the region. But this is precisely the sort of fatal miscalculation that allowed a minor event in the Balkans to become the First World War. Should Korea explode, it could well set off a chain of conflicts that may have no direct connection to a war in east Asia. A global nuclear holocaust is entirely conceivable.
Kim is a dreadful dictator, the true heir of a terrible dynasty. But it is hard to imagine having anyone worse than Trump as the commander-in-chief to deal with him.
4
I am no economist but doesn't S. Korea have LOTS of business going on? If Seoul, a city of almost 20 million, is in the middle of any kind of war, would that not disrupt those businesses which in turn would affect the global economy and stocks back here in the U.S. ? Even if no bomb ever landed near American borders I would think that a Korean war would have an effect.
2
Lots of hand wringing here today: Mr. Trump "crossed a line"; Mr. Trump is "playing with fire." Etc.
Do you all hear yourselves?
By continuing his nuclear weapons program, Kim Jong Un is ignoring countless UN Security Council resolutions. Is HE not the one crossing a line? Playing with fire?
Mr. Trump inherited a problem that the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations did not want to touch with a ten foot pole.
It is now Mr. Trump who will have to exercise leadership if we are to prevent the emergence of a nuclear threat to our homeland and to that of our allies in the far east.
4
The article doesn't mention it, but according to France24, countries such as Russia and Canada are working on calming Kim. I'm not sure the situation is dire - yet.
2
The solution is simple: Get rid of Trump.
4
I agree Trump should go but that does nothing to solve the problem of a belligerent government in North Korea constantly threatening us and soon obtaining intercontinental nuclear weapons.
And then Kim will be nice to us, guaranteed.
Don Sr. dodged Vietnam and his two sons and son-in-law did not serve either in Iraq or Afghanistan, now this is their change that his kids fight daddy's war.
1
Jared already has a flack jacket from his middle east visit so he is good to go.
1
Here's what Trump should do-nothing. No tweets and, God help us, no flying of even one plane over the area. It's NOT backing down. It's the prudent thing to do.
4
I guess North Korea thinks Donald Trump's words for real. Donald Trump thinks his words for show. My hope is that China & Russia will step in to intervene the crisis in exchange for calm & tone down military exercise. In the meantime, we will cancel plan to send military vessels to Taiwan for supply and entertainment on a routine basis. And we will get promises from China to open more market, and Russia to cooperate more in Syria and other countries in the Middle East.
In the space of a few months, the NK issue has escalated from a thorn in the side to an outright crisis. Why? Ask Trump. He's the one who decided to blunder toward war. This is a completely avoidable disaster in the making. Let the MAGA hat crowd send their kids. Mine will have no part in this.
6
If Trump is willing to disregard the human devastation a nuclear war would have, I’d have thought he’d at least spare a passing thought to the economic disaster that would be unleashed were Seoul, Tokyo, or any of the other major commerce/finance hubs, to be attacked.
Would I rather his motivations for deescalation be rooted in the former rather than the latter? Of course. But human civilization may have to settle for what it can get at this point.
2
Of course it has the right to shoot down US warplanes, just as we would have the right to shoot down NK aircraft that entered our airspace. From the perspective of international law, that's not even controversial.
How about not entering their airspace to begin with, pulling back from the brink and de-escalating the war of words with North Korea? It can be done. But it takes a statesman.
Meaning that the US sorely lacks what it most needs at a precarious time such as this.
3
Read it again. The NK foreign minister Ri said, “Since the United States declared war on our country, we will have every right to make countermeasures, including the right to shoot down United States strategic bombers even when they are NOT inside the airspace border of our country,” emphasis added.
1
And hasn't NK fired on commercial aircraft also? It's hard to say Trump is worse.
I fear Trump is going to get large numbers of people killed through his inexperience, ego, and obfuscation of scandals. I fear this is the single most exigent threat to our nation since 9/11 - by an order of magnitude - and it is self-inflicted. My only hope is that it is unfolding in real time, more slowly, with a level of transparency we did not have in 2001, and that it can be stopped by some combination balance of power and self-control on the part of people close to the president.
4
Trump will do "anything" to divert from the Russian invasion he orchestrated to elect him. And with the mentality of shock jock assistance, he's doing a fine job closing down our borders, attacking health care, and calling the brainless to defend his oligarchy from peaceful demonstrations. Of course he loves the uneducated, they're the only ones who still defend him.
2
Hillary warned us. We should have listened.
44
Do you honestly think Kim wouldnt be threatening to use his newly minted missiles against us if Hillary were President?
I can't stand Trump but if Hillary had any better ideas, she should have put those on the table when she was Secretary of State.
Samuel-Kim wouldn't have threatened us because Hilary Clinton would not have provoked him to this point .
He's mostly been lots of talk -Trump upped the ante .
2
The time is now for the GOP and congress to remove President Mayhem from office. It may just be enough to diffuse the whole situation and the appearance of the North Korean regime saving face. We may save face too, by removing our imbecile president from the world stage.
28
China + Russia prop up NK: they aren't going to let them do anything. This is a distraction b/c Mueller's Manafort indictments are near.
1