Maybe we can get through the holidays without a preemptive war.
In a high-profile speech placing his imprint on a new national security strategy document, Donald Trump spoke at length about his perceptions of threats to the United States. For those who have been fearing we might be in a hot war with North Korea or Iran — or both — before the New Year, the speech was indirectly reassuring. That’s because the president didn’t talk much about either country.
Yes, in a single sentence he accused his predecessors of having “neglected a nuclear menace in North Korea” and negotiated “an incomprehensibly bad” nuclear deal with Iran. He repeated his promise to “take care” of North Korea, but didn’t give any details on what that might entail, before going into a long disquisition on the U. S. economy and then ranting about immigration for a while.
Off and on, Trump discussed China and Russia as rivals and competitors, but didn’t mention either country’s policies toward Pyongyang or Tehran. He frequently mentioned cybersecurity threats and even talked about “economic and political aggression” (election interference, anybody?). But the nuclear threat from North Korea and Iran that the president sometimes suggests would justify preemptive strikes was only alluded to indirectly via a pledge to develop a “multi-tiered missile defense system.
