TPM - Marshall - "Trumps Korea Policy is a Fast-Forward, Stupider Version of Bushs"

[NRaleighLiberal]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trumps-korea-policy-is-a-fast-forward-stupider-version-of-bushs#more-1068384

By JOSH MARSHALL Published JULY 5, 2017 3:23 PM

I wanted to share a few thoughts on the mounting atmosphere of crisis between the US and North Korea. This is really an extreme fast-forward and stupider version of what we saw in the 2001-03 era under George W. Bush.

Simply put, President Trump came into office asserting that he’d stop North Korea’s missile program in its tracks through some mix of will and threat.

North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the U.S. It won’t happen!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2017

But that hasn’t worked. Trump has tried threats. He tried enlisting China. None of that has worked. He said so today with what amounted to a shrug. And now the North Koreans have launched a missile which still only could theoretically deliver a warhead to parts of Alaska but shows the North Koreans to be well on their way to creating a serious nuclear deterrent against the United States. Trump had virtually no understanding of the North Korea issue, thought he did, and has now been exposed as having no policy at all. Even worse, he’s shown himself on the international stage to be someone who casually issues threats he almost never follows through on. In other words, he’s a paper tiger, a fact that further devalues the generalized deterrent threat the US always carried with it virtually everywhere in the world.

But there’s another layer of this – what I referred to earlier as the fast-forward version of the 2001-03 era. In the Post’s Daily 202 morning newsletter we find this paragraph as part of the explanation of Trump’s naivete.

The past three presidents have tried to negotiate, only to learn that Pyongyang can never be trusted. Reflecting the hubris of someone who believes he alone can fix things, Trump’s “it will not happen” tweet came two months after Barack Obama warned him privately that North Korea would likely be the single most urgent problem he confronted as president. Several aides from the last administration also told their incoming counterparts that the missile program should be their top national security priority.


snip - more to read at the link

[Iliyah]

1. You mean Un might out smart t-rump?

Same thing happened when the Clinton Adm. tried to warn the Bush Adm.

GOPers don't care about the country.