The pseudonym "Philo Vaihinger" has been abandoned. All posts have been and are written by me, Joseph Auclair.

Friday, August 11, 2017

Trump to Kim: Fire on Guam and I'll fire on you!

Trump warns N Korea that US military is 'locked and loaded'

"Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong-un will find another path!" he tweeted.

And in another place, in person, to the cameras, he specifically warned that the planned and ready military response would occur if Kim fired on Guam.

As to the broader issue of NK pursuit of nukes to hit the US with, Trump did not say military action would not happen if Kim did not fire on Guam.

It's not just about Guam.

The Duce's first warning of unprecedented "fire and fury" came before the North Koreans started threatening Guam.

American media are still treating this as an occasion for mocking, correcting, and bashing Trump and not seeing this has become every bit as serious, in its regional way, as the Cuban missile crisis, and more serious than the runup to Bush the Elder's invasion of Iraq.

What Trump is doing is scary but not foolish and not without reason, no more than what Kennedy did about Cuba and rather less than what Bush pere did to Iraq.

So far as any attention is given to possible military events the focus, previously on what Kim's artillery would do to Seoul, is now on what his missiles would do to Guam in just 14 minutes.

Zero attention is being paid to the threat facing North Korea and what American forces could do, very quickly and without question, to Kim, Pyongyang, North Korean forces, and the North Korean nuclear missile program.

References are numerous to the much less threatening language of others in the administration, as though everyone had forgotten we only have one US President and he, not his staff and not his department heads, is the Commander in Chief and calls the tune.

The Secretary of State is not the President, the National Security Advisor is not the President, Donald Trump and only Donald Trump is the President.

Yet the cable networks' military experts are talking as if Trump's threats were of course mere bombast and certain not to be fulfilled, so that what actually would happen if NK fired on Guam would be very little, and at most defensive moves such as use of anti-missile systems to knock down NK's shots.

Contrast all that irresponsible foolery with the utter seriousness with which the press treated every word out of Bush the Elder's or Jack Kennedy's mouth, about what the US would do and was ready to do, about their crises.

And with the reactions of China, Russia, and South Korea.

China warns North Korea: You’re on your own if you go after the United States

China won’t come to North Korea’s help if it launches missiles threatening U.S. soil and there is retaliation, a state-owned newspaper warned on Friday, but it would intervene if Washington strikes first. 

The Global Times newspaper is not an official mouthpiece of the Communist Party, but in this case its editorial probably does reflect government policy and can be considered “semiofficial,” experts said.

Russia does not accept a nuclear North Korea – Lavrov

“Now [North Korea] claims that it has legal rights to make nuclear weapons and has already [done so],” he said. 

“But you know our position: we don’t accept the fact that North Korea could possess nuclear weapons.”

Both Russia and China have a “range of proposals” aimed at preventing what could become “one of the deepest conflicts” and a “crisis with a big number of casualties.”

According to the Russian foreign minister, there is the strong risk that Washington and Pyongyang could engage in military conflict.

South Korea Says U.S. Promises Coordination in Standoff With North

Of course not thrilled, SK is nevertheless not complaining of what Trump is doing, or demanding he stop, withdraw, or moderate his warnings to Kim.

This is a quiet but public assurance that they are on board.

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