Posted by Tina
Secretary of Defense James Mattic echoed President Trump’s dire warning of “fire and fury” to North Korea after Kim Jong-un’s reckless threat’s of missile strikes on Guam, Hawaii, and the mainland of America. His comments serve both as a warning to North Korea and as assurance to our allies in the area that the US will not hesitate to act in our mutual defense:
“The DPRK must choose to stop isolating itself and stand down its pursuit of nuclear weapons,” he explained in an official statement. “The DPRK should cease any consideration of actions that would lead to the end of its regime and the destruction of its people.”
“The United States and our allies have the demonstrated capabilities and unquestionable commitment to defend ourselves from an attack,” Mattis said. “While our State Department is making every effort to resolve this global threat through diplomatic means, it must be noted that the combined allied militaries now possess the most precise, rehearsed and robust defensive and offensive capabilities on Earth.”
“The DPRK regime’s actions will continue to be grossly overmatched by ours and would lose any arms race or conflict it initiates,” he added.
Before some of you start screaming about the strong (firm) language consider that diplomatic negotiations and peaceful appeals brought this to our doorsteps!:
Back in 1994, President Clinton prepared to confront North Korea over CIA reports it had built nuclear warheads and its subsequent threats to engulf Japan and South Korea in “a sea of fire.”
Enter self-appointed peacemaker Carter: The ex-prez scurried off to Pyongyang and negotiated a sellout deal that gave North Korea two new reactors and $5 billion in aid in return for a promise to quit seeking nukes.
Clinton embraced this appeasement as achieving “an end to the threat of nuclear proliferation on the Korean Peninsula” — with compliance verified by international inspectors. Carter wound up winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his dubious efforts.
But in 2002, the North Koreans ‘fessed up: They’d begun violating the accord on Day One. Four years later, Pyongyang detonated its first nuke.
George W. Bush approached the problem with six nation talks that resulted in a plan for NK to abandon it’s nuclear weapons ambitions. In 2008 Bush announced he would lift US sanctions on NK after NK met the first agreed upon obligation:
North Korea turned over an accounting of its nuclear work to China, which is a member of the six-party talks set up to pressure North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
Bush called the move, which comes six months late, an important breakthrough in the 5-year-old negotiations, but cautioned it was only the first step in a series of commitments North Korea must fulfill.
“We will trust you only to the extent you fulfill your promises,” Bush said. “I’m pleased with the progress. I’m under no illusions. This is the first step. This isn’t the end of the process. It is the beginning of the process.”
Specifically, Bush said the U.S. would erase trade sanctions under the Trading With the Enemy Act, and notify Congress that, in 45 days, it intends to take North Korea off the State Department list of nations that sponsor terrorism.
“If North Korea continues to make the right choices it can repair its relationship with the international community…
Enter Barack Obama, man of appeasement, tolerance, and enemy promotion. In 2009 NK conducted a nuclear test in violation of it’s six nation agreement. In 2012 Kim Mak of the Daily Beast quotes nuclear experts:
“It meant that the administration didn’t want to be driven by a DPRK-orchestrated sense of crisis, and would respond in its own time to North Korean initiatives,” said Scott Synder, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
“The Obama administration came into office with a healthy skepticism of North Korea’s ability to follow through on its commitments.,” explains Daryl Kimball, publisher of Arms Control Today. Given the breakdown of the denuclearization agreement reached under Bush, the Obama administration “came in with the view that before talks began again North Korea should recommit to taking steps to show that they were committed to meeting that pledge.”
It is a strategy that has proven to be a failure, given the most recent nuclear test. North Korea has simply accepted sanctions and international isolation as the cost of a slow and steady expansion of its nuclear weapons program.
This reflects Obama’s overall contempt for the former administration as well as his own boastful position that he alone had the answers to deal with aggressors regimes. More importantly it reflects the reality that Kim Jong-un has no desire to join the international community.
In 2017, Obama drew one last red line in the sand as he leaves the stage and hands over the mess to Trump…Newsweek reported, “Obama In Seoul: North Korea Has ‘One Last Chance’ to Engage With the West”
Ego driven maniacal aggressors like Jong-un laugh at appeasers and deals. They negotiate with a smile and then go about their business with no intention to comply or refrain from aggressive ambitions. The only thing they understand or respect is strength and power. Big Dog America, under Trump, responded to Lil’ Kim with words he understands. Good!
I’ll betcha Tillerson quits.