Steve Berman:
The North Koreans have never been shy about taking life. They are not skittish about committing acts of war. And now three things seem to be confirmed:
1) North Korea possesses rockets capable of threatening U.S. territory, as well as Japan and other American allies.
2) North Korea has miniaturized nuclear warheads to fit into warheads, or will soon be able to do so.
3) North Korea has begun moving anti-ship cruise missiles onto a patrol boat on the peninsula’s east coast, according to Fox News.
I say these things are confirmed because the UN Security Council voted 15-0 on new sanctions against the Hermit Kingdom. Even China did not exercise its veto. This means the U.S. possessed enough foreign policy capital–carrots and sticks–to achieve this result. No small achievement.
If the world did not take seriously North Korea’s ability and lack of inhibition to conduct a bloody war, there would be no sanctions. Dealing with North Korea can be profitable to those without a moral guardrail.
That being said, the world should also take President Trump’s statement–incendiary as it was–very seriously. Literally and seriously.
He has been very threatening beyond a normal state, and as I said they will be met with the fire and fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before. Thank you.
Here’s what Donald Trump believes about nuclear weapons. He said this in 1990.
I’ve always thought about the issue of nuclear war; it’s a very important element in my thought process. It’s the ultimate, the ultimate catastrophe, the biggest problem this world has, and nobody’s focusing on the nuts and bolts of it. It’s a little like sickness. People don’t believe they’re going to get sick until they do. Nobody wants to talk about it. I believe the greatest of all stupidities is people’s believing it will never happen, because everybody knows how destructive it will be, so nobody uses weapons. What bullshit.
Surely Kim Jong-un knows Trump believes this. It would be folly for him to consider attacking the U.S. with a man in the White House who fully expects to live to see nuclear Armageddon–or be the one to prevent it.
Therefore, what Trump said is perfectly consistent with what Trump believes.
I wonder if North Koreas little butt smuck wants to Play Slim Pickens Kong a Bomb a B-52 Strato Fortress ride it like a bull all the way down and KA-BOOM problem Solves nest comes evicting the Useless Nations
I don’t think the USA has ever been kidding about our military might and our ability or wilingness to defend ourselves. That should stand to reason.
So far so good? Questions?
But strategic military actions should also come into play and that’s what’s missing from trump’s shoot-from-the-hip suggestion that he’d alone make the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima look like a bottle rocket. Consider that his statement took his very own national security team by surprise. It sent generals to their feet to denounce such dangerous rhetoric. Sec of State even went in to tap dance around around it.
It’s alarming that the obviously incompetent and questionably mentally challenged egomaniac con man would make such a vague and uneducated gut statement but it should make even the most avid trump licker pause in concern of what he might actually do on a whim.