People of good conscience must stand up and call out the president’s strategy whether or not he is pursuing it intentionally or understands the consequences.
One of the most vexing questions in foreign policy circles is what precisely is the president doing with regard to North Korea. His secretary of State and other Cabinet officials have consistently talked about wanting to use all diplomatic means possible to resolve the issues plaguing the region, but the president repeatedly undercuts these efforts on Twitter and elsewhere in public with his own bellicose rhetoric.
Military experts are unanimous in their assessments that a military first strike against North Korea will not eliminate the threat and likely lead to the destruction of Seoul, South Korea—a city of 10 million people, including almost 40,000 American troops with their families. For some time, I have wondered if Mr. Trump wants to pick a fight. The other night, he tweeted: “I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!” This tweet reinforced my worst fear: The President of the United States wants to provoke North Korea to strike first.
Before the latest provocative tweet, the president had stated Kim Jong Un “won’t be around much longer,” “[t]hey only understand one thing,” and while undermining his secretary of State: “Save your energy Rex, we’ll do what has to be done!” North Korea has thus far responded with similarly irrational and bellicose comments, including that they believe the president’s tweets to be a “declaration of war.”
Add to this provocative back-and-forth the fact that North Korean experts agree that Kim Jong Un is unstable and the regime’s primary concern is its own survival. So what happens if one of the president’s statements finally convinces Kim that the United States is about to attack and destroy his regime? He may likely decide he needs to strike first to demonstrate his capabilities, hoping for minimal regime survival—and that the United States will not have the fortitude to actually use nuclear weapons.
