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When President Donald Trump canceled his June summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, he told him in a letter that the past few days of tremendous anger and open hostility had made it inappropriate for the two to meet and discuss denuclearization. You talk about your nuclear capabilities, Trump wrote, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used. The language echoed a January tweet in which the president wrote, I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!
The North issued a statement in short order emphasizing a willingness to sit down with the United States any time, in any format, to resolve the problems. Yet its getting harder to see how Trump and Kim can make the mutual accommodations necessary for diplomacy to succeed. In fact, beneath the surface, the current situation resembles the prelude to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, which historical research continues to show was much more dangerous than anyone knew at the time. If the Trump-Kim summit stays canceled, and saber-rattling returns as the dominant mode of communication, the odds of military crisis will rise dramatically. And, as the Cuba experience shows, once begun, a military crisis involving nuclear weapons will almost inevitably bring lots of surprisesones that could make the shocking twists and turns of the summit buildup look pedestrian by comparison.
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What about the U.S. and its leadership? Ellsberg noted the widely reported concerns about Trumps mental and temperamental fitness, and his predilection for making fiery threats. The question is, will the military hold the president back from his impulsiveness? he asked. My own guess is they cant, they wont. They can be replaced in an instant. Someone else will step in. They cant hold him back. Who has ever told the president you cant do this?
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/05/trump-north-korea-cuban-missile-crisis/554318/
RKP5637
(67,089 posts)Cary
(11,746 posts)So.what has constrained him so far? I know nothing but I hope the Republicans do have a line drawn somewhere.
RandomAccess
(5,210 posts)Who has ever told the president you cant do this?
NO one.
DemocratSinceBirth
(99,708 posts)But I am not convinced Trump isn't capable of unfathomable things.
Canoe52
(2,948 posts)FakeNoose
(32,599 posts)What about the U.S. and its leadership? Ellsberg noted the widely reported concerns about Trumps mental and temperamental fitness, and his predilection for making fiery threats. The question is, will the military hold the president back from his impulsiveness? he asked. My own guess is they cant, they wont. They can be replaced in an instant. Someone else will step in. They cant hold him back. Who has ever told the president you cant do this?
One of the generals will take out his gun and shoot him. Maybe even General Kelly would do it. I'm not advocating violence. But I mean come on, this is obvious.