War? With Puerto Rico Disaster Breathing Down Trump's Neck,

[MineralMan]

watch for him to ramp up plans to attack North Korea this week. By tweeting that Tillerson should give up communications with that nation, he looks like he's signalling that something is about to happen.

At the least excuse, he's likely, now, to pull the trigger on some sort of attack, perhaps as soon as this week. He desperately needs something to take attention away from the growing disaster in Puerto Rico, which will be coming to a head as this week passes and thousands are about to be reported as dead on the island.

Sadly, I know of no way to prevent the madman from taking a moronic, dangerous action against a nation led by a man who is, incredibly, even more stupid and bellicose than Trump.

[moriah]

1. Well, people in Guam should be happy, seeing....

... how much Trump cares for the welfare of US territories!

[MineralMan]

3. Yes, Guam's in the bullseye for Kim.

Now, it's impossible to say whether a missile launched from PRK would actually reach Guam with the accuracy needed to hit it, but I'm sure Kim would love to try his toys out on the island.

The whole thing is a powderkeg with a very, very short fuse. I'm very worried.

[Lochloosa]

15. He only has to come close

[MineralMan]

17. That's true, especially as a trigger for Trump

to attack north of the DMZ. I'm sure that contingency plans for several options have already been created and are ready to implement. That's how the military works. We should be worried about something happening sooner than later.

[HipChick]

2. K&R

[tblue37]

4. Kim Jong Un is as bellicose as Trump, but he doesn't seem anywhere near as

stupid or ill-informed.

[dalton99a]

8. The Kim dynasty is not known to be suicidal

[Mrs. Overall]

5. Look what he just tweeted!

Link to tweet

[MineralMan]

9. Yes. That's what prompted this OP, actually.

It's a stupid, stupid thing to Tweet on a Sunday morning. Kim Jong Un is likely to take it as an immediate threat and do something that will exacerbate the situation.

We should all be very concerned about this outburst from Trump.

[Mrs. Overall]

14. Agreed. His uncontrolled bluster and desire to evade other issues is going to cause an incident.

I know that most of his tweets amount to nothing, but they still occasionally put my stomach in a knot.

This is one of those tweets.

[RKP5637]

19. We've been around long enough to see where this is likely headed. Congress must remove Trump

from office, but I won't hold my breath. Too many of them are enjoying their benefits and frankly I'm now thinking many are made out of the same piece of cloth as Trump. We are in a tragic state of affairs.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. I'm not convinced Trump's NK counterpart really is more stupid and bellicose

than he is.

[MineralMan]

11. You could be right about that.

Trump has painted himself into a corner on this Puerto Rico thing and it's going to force him to walk out of the room with paint on his shoes. A shooting war in Korea would be just the thing to keep people from noticing the tracks.

[dalton99a]

7. He'll be visiting Asia next month

[MineralMan]

13. Well, that's the current plan, anyhow.

Plans change all the time.

[RKP5637]

10. So pathetically sad we now have a congress wherein many prioritize themselves above the country and

do not care about the future of America as long as they are OK.

[Girard442]

12. I have no idea where North Korea's ballistic missiles can reach exactly, but...

...if Trump is indifferent to the fate of 3.4 million American citizens in Puerto Rico, it's not much of a reach to think he wouldn't much care what happens to those liberals on the west coast either.

[MineralMan]

16. The West Coast of the US is at the very limit of

their missiles' range. Kim would be much more likely to go after a closer target, like Guam, I think.

[Girard442]

20. From a quick glance at a globe, it appears that the shortest ballistic path from NK to the US...

...passes over the Kamchatka Peninsula -- Russian territory. If either Kim or we use land-based ICBMs, there's an enormous risk of getting the Russians involved.

Mutually Assured Destruction isn't dead. It's not even sleeping.

[MineralMan]

22. I don't think such an attack is the most likely event, really.

Kim is far more likely to lob a missile with a conventional warhead toward Guam, perhaps thinking he could get away with that in this pissing contest. Right now, though, such a launch would probably trigger one of the scenarios already planned for a retribution attack.

Hair-trigger time.

[Girard442]

25. Actually, if I were Kim...

...I'd drop a not-too-subtle hint that if there's a nuclear exchange between the US and NK, my last nuke would be randomly targeted -- no way of knowing who'd get it.

[Not Ruth]

29. The missiles don't just go left to right on a US map

The better/shorter trip is more up and over, which puts just about the entire US in range

[MineralMan]

30. Thanks. I am aware of great circle routes.

I think the range of Kim's missiles are overstated, though. Plus, we know nothing about their accuracy so far. All of the tests have ended in the ocean and we have no idea what their aim point actually was.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

18. From the information that we've seen so far,

it doesn't look like NK could get to the US mainland. Guam, maybe. But I doubt Trump cares any more about Guam than he does Puerto Rico.

[MineralMan]

21. Yes, but an attack on Guam, successful or not, would

give Trump an excuse to send in the bombers on Pyongyang. He's itching to do that, I'm sure.

[Takket]

23. I almost feel bad for Kim.......

He keeps trying to impress the world with all his missiles but drumpf is so fucked up Kim can't stay on the front page for more than a day.

[guillaumeb]

26. Necessary to divert from Russia and Puerto Rico,

but one hopes that he will content himself with attacking the large, frightening NFL players instead of focusing on North Korea.

[cilla4progress]

27. Time to storm the...

Bastille?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

28. I'd say he thinks diplomacy is just another version of one of his business deals.

Bully and lie until you get your way, then stiff the contractors, declare bankruptcy at the drop of a hat with no concern about its effects on anyone else.

And chances are he thinks if the Federal debt gets too large he can just declare bankruptcy and walk away from the obligations because he simply doesn't understand that running a government or a company is not even remotely like running a business.