Tuesday, April 11, 2017

"Something is up in the Trump White House on North Korea"

Via InstapunditAccumulating evidence, however, indicates something is up on North Korea. It could be real. It could be mere pressure, although after the sudden missile raid on Syria last week, diplomats would have to plan as if it’s real.

After visiting South Korea last month, Secy. of State Rex Tillerson pronounced the last 20 years of allied policy toward North Korea a failure. He said the era of “strategic patience” was over, adding all options are on the table, including military action. Secy. of Defense James Mattis delivered similar messages and Vice President Mike Pence is due there later this month.

When Pyongyang launched its next missile test, Tillerson issued an unusual 23-word response: ““North Korea launched yet another intermediate range ballistic missile. The United States has spoken enough about North Korea. We have no further comment.”

Over the weekend the Pentagon ordered the Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group to waters off the Korean Peninsula. Press reports said China was massing 150,000 troops on its border with North Korea, reports denied by a Beijing spokeswoman.

On Sunday H.R. McMaster said Trump had tasked the National Security Council to develop a full range of options to halt North Korea’s nuclear threat to the U.S. and regional allies.

Then, we checked President Trump’s public schedule for today. He’s got his daily intelligence briefing, followed by meetings with Homeland Security Secy. John Kelly, and Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council, and also McMaster.

And then, wait. What this? “In the evening, the President will have a working dinner with senior military leaders.”

10 comments:

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Memo to self: Don't get Ivanka mad at you...

edutcher said...

SOP.

I think a lot of people are panicking over not much.

Trooper York said...

What could go wrong?

Trooper York said...

[Discussing the fate of the Ark]
Maj. Eaton: We have top men working on it right now.
Indiana: Who?
Maj. Eaton: Top... men.
(Raiders of the Lost Ark)

Trooper York said...

Maj. Asa Barker: Never in the U.S. have we asked for anything back. It would screw up the bookkeeping.
(Go Tell it to the Spartans)

edutcher said...

You really go out on a limb quoting a Burt Lancaster I-hate-America movie.

But, for those keeping score, Poot has now agreed to meet with Rex, and the Red Chinese are returning the Norks' coal in favor of ours.

Somebody's getting his point across.

PS Those top men were named Marshall, Stilwell, MacArthur, and Halsey.

Trooper York said...

There are always top men who will send the American Working Class into War for some nebulous concept. To squander our money and the precious lives of our best young people to protect some gooks or Arabs or some other bunch of cockroaches.

It's a rich mans war and a poor mans fight.

There is nothing Pro-American about bombing Assad. It is Pro-Globalist. Pro Deep State. Pro Duopoly.

56 million dollars in missiles spent. To send a message? Fuck that noise.

You are a fool if you think that means anything to anybody.

edutcher said...

Now you're twisting things.

The top men weren'r Marshall and Arnold and Spruance and Halsey, they were Roosevelt and Hopkins and Adolph Berle and Vannevar Bush.

And, considering Trump has cut the debt 100B in just 2 months, 59 M is chicken feed. And the message was sent.

And received.

And understood.

That some people refuse to acknowledge it is their problem. Clearly, it does mean something to the Reds. They do seem to have gotten the message.

And whether bombing Syria turns out to be pro-American has yet to be seen. Right now, no Americans are getting shot at. If that strike keeps that a fact, then maybe it was pro-American.

time will tell.

The Dude said...

I fail to comprehend your obsession with money. There is no budget, the American dollar is worthless, we have 20 trillion dollars of debt, and 60 million won't even cover a day's worth of interest payments.

What is really up with that focus on money? Whatever it is, it is off base. I agree that no American should die to kill our enemies, but they are relentless and we have to kill them.

But who cares about deficit spending? It's all a joke.

Methadras said...

When Troop starts doing an ROI on warfare as a function the costs to wage it vs. the outcome you get, then that should really make you pause.

For about a nanosecond. War sucks, it costs money to wage, and people who have to wage it who will die or get hurt. That is life, but when you take a short sighted view of the world and retract your perceptions to your own borders, then you don't see what the real evil fuckers are doing outside of your borders. Syria was a one off, but the message was, don't fucking do it again. Russia gets the worries and that's it.

However, DPRK has been fucking around with evil for over 50 years. China has done shit about it and the meeting with Xi should have given that slanty-eyed motherfucker a taste of something he's never had to deal with. Oh sure, sending in a few head crushers into Tibet to quell a temper tantrum may sort of wet his whistle, but he has no stomach for what Trump is putting on display. You can see it, you can feel it.

XI knows he's fucked on this since Tillerson pretty much put an end to Obama's patience strategem when it comes to the DPRK. China has been ineffectual and that statement pretty much is a punch in the face to Xi that their rogue satellite step-child is on the outs if they don't fucking fix it because Xi knows that the outcome for China is going to be a disaster.

If Trump does engage in a pre-emptive strike to take out DPRK's nuclear capabilities, China is screwed on many fronts and they know it. Trump hits the nuc facilities, Un moves towards South Korea and engages SK/US forces. China either waits to see what happens or invades from the North. America most likely comes out on top and you see NK/SK reunification. China won't like that one bit. Their best bet is to depose the little evil fucker and put in a chinese puppet regime, but the Norks hate the Chinese more than they hate Americans I would wager. So Xi is in a squeeze with no good options for him. Let's see what he does.