Is a Trumpian foreign policy beginning to emerge?

Submitted by Alligator Ed on Sun, 04/16/2017 - 9:56pm

Even the most ardent Trump-haters have to admit that DJT has his work cut out for him, in part thanks to the die-hard Trump-haters. One of his campaign promises was to wipe-out ISIS. Many campaign promises were made but two of the most important were to end ISIS and start no more new wars--perhaps ending old one's inspired by Obama-Klinton-Soros.

Trump has to navigate a minefield to accomplish a long-range plan. Many of us are skeptical that Trump is even capable of long-range planning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xspgfa7D-Q

Lots of people are being distracted, some of this being done purposefully by the MSM/PTB, by the unsettled power shifts in the WH. I previously offered some contrarian views about Trump:

essay 1 and essay 2. I have not yet found sufficient evidence to contradict me.

First let's get all the competing personalities aside (Kushner, Mattis, Bannon, McMaster, Tillerson, Haley). Ultimately they do not call the shots--at least officially. Time will tell if they do.

Campaign propaganda and counter-propaganda needs to be considered. Lots of boasting and B.S.--on both sides (assuming there are only two sides; which actually is not true) but only two sides have the major power bases: Trumpistas and Clintonistas (which includes by reference Deep State/Obama/neocons).

Activities in Yemen and Somalia make no sense to me strategically, so I cannot place this in my thesis.
The main external symbols so far are:
1. Air strike against Syrian government's Al-Sharyat airbase
1A. made during a state dinner with Xi Jinping
2. Two carrier groups within close proximity to North Korea
2A. China sending 150,000 troops to North Korea's border
3. Dropping M.O.A.B. on ISIS stronghold in Afghanistan

1. The very weak and ludicrous assertion that Syria's Assad was once again gassing his own citizens provided the "excuse" for the Al-Sharyat bombing. This sent a signal to his enemies, including Putin, that he was not Russia's co-conspirator--a bullshit claim from its inception. This gave him breathing room as well as applause from the neocons and MSM, which I continue to believe is true.

1A. The Chinese were impressed enough to react in the way mentioned above plus now Trump tweeting that We and China are cooperating. This seemingly drives a small wedge into the Sino-Russian realignment.

2. The carrier group deployment was saber-rattling done more effectively than spineless Obama, even though I do not approve of this measure. During Obama's second term, allies and enemies correctly saw Obama as a weak-kneed ventriloquist dummy for America's empire. Will Trump turn out to be a stronger version of the ventriloquist's dummy? Only time will tell.

2A. See point 1A.

3. The Afghani mother of all bombings did strike a blow against ISIS: M.O.A.B. effectiveness The embedded video is explanatory.

As noted, one of Trump's major campaign pledges was to smash ISIS. This bombing seems to fit right into that effort without bringing into question a wider war. After all, we've been screwing over Afghanistan for 14+ years--why stop now?

The major question, and one which will not be rapidly forthcoming, if at all, will be to halt Saudi funding of ISIS/Al-Qaeda and all the other offshoots of Daesh. One simple solution, if Trump really does stand by his promise to halt all foreign aid, will be to stop weapons being sold to Saudi. If something like this does indeed happen, then that will be proof-positive that Trump is overcoming the Deep State.

It is hard to advance a policy while simultaneously backing away from entrenched counter-policies. These are interesting times.

Tags:

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Foreign Policy

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Comments

Submitted by ggersh on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 8:57am

From what I get from this article trump

is no different from O, Dubya, clinton, Sr, raygun, etc.etc.etc.

We could have peace if DC wants it, silly us DC doesn't want it

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/04/17/the-problem-is-washington-not-nor...

APRIL 17, 2017
The Problem is Washington, Not North Korea
by MIKE WHITNEY
Email
Photo by Stefan Krasowski | CC BY 2.0
Photo by Stefan Krasowski | CC BY 2.0
Washington has never made any effort to conceal its contempt for North Korea. In the 64 years since the war ended, the US has done everything in its power to punish, humiliate and inflict pain on the Communist country. Washington has subjected the DPRK to starvation, prevented its government from accessing foreign capital and markets, strangled its economy with crippling economic sanctions, and installed lethal missile systems and military bases on their doorstep.

Negotiations aren’t possible because Washington refuses to sit down with a country which it sees as its inferior. Instead, the US has strong-armed China to do its bidding by using their diplomats as interlocutors who are expected to convey Washington’s ultimatums as threateningly as possible. The hope, of course, is that Pyongyang will cave in to Uncle Sam’s bullying and do what they are told.

But the North has never succumbed to US intimidation and there’s no sign that it will. Instead, they have developed a small arsenal of nuclear weapons to defend themselves in the event that the US tries to assert its dominance by launching another war.
There’s no country in the world that needs nuclear weapons more than North Korea. Brainwashed Americans, who get their news from FOX or CNN, may differ on this point, but if a hostile nation deployed carrier strike-groups off the coast of California while conducting massive war games on the Mexican border (with the express intention of scaring the shit of people) then they might see things differently. They might see the value of having a few nuclear weapons to deter that hostile nation from doing something really stupid.

And let’s be honest, the only reason Kim Jong Un hasn’t joined Saddam and Gadhafi in the great hereafter, is because (a)– The North does not sit on an ocean of oil, and (b)– The North has the capacity to reduce Seoul, Okinawa and Tokyo into smoldering debris-fields. Absent Kim’s WMDs, Pyongyang would have faced a preemptive attack long ago and Kim would have faced a fate similar to Gadhafi’s. Nuclear weapons are the only known antidote to US adventurism.

The American people –whose grasp of history does not extend beyond the events of 9-11 — have no idea of the way the US fights its wars or the horrific carnage and destruction it unleashed on the North. Here’s a short refresher that helps clarify why the North is still wary of the US more than 60 years after the armistice was signed. The excerpt is from an article titled “Americans have forgotten what we did to North Korea”, at Vox World:

“In the early 1950s, during the Korean War, the US dropped more bombs on North Korea than it had dropped in the entire Pacific theater during World War II. This carpet bombing, which included 32,000 tons of napalm, often deliberately targeted civilian as well as military targets, devastating the country far beyond what was necessary to fight the war. Whole cities were destroyed, with many thousands of innocent civilians killed and many more left homeless and hungry….

According to US journalist Blaine Harden: “Over a period of three years or so, we killed off — what — 20 percent of the population,” Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay, head of the Strategic Air Command during the Korean War, told the Office of Air Force History in 1984. Dean Rusk, a supporter of the war and later secretary of state, said the United States bombed “everything that moved in North Korea, every brick standing on top of another.” After running low on urban targets, U.S. bombers destroyed hydroelectric and irrigation dams in the later stages of the war, flooding farmland and destroying crops……

“On January 3 at 10:30 AM an armada of 82 flying fortresses loosed their death-dealing load on the city of Pyongyang …Hundreds of tons of bombs and incendiary compound were simultaneously dropped throughout the city, causing annihilating fires, the transatlantic barbarians bombed the city with delayed-action high-explosive bombs which exploded at intervals for a whole day making it impossible for the people to come out onto the streets. The entire city has now been burning, enveloped in flames, for two days. By the second day, 7,812 civilians houses had been burnt down. The Americans were well aware that there were no military targets left in Pyongyang…

The number of inhabitants of Pyongyang killed by bomb splinters, burnt alive and suffocated by smoke is incalculable…Some 50,000 inhabitants remain in the city which before the war had a population of 500,000.” (“Americans have forgotten what we did to North Korea“, Vox World)

The United States killed over 2 million people in a country that posed no threat to US national security. Like Vietnam, the Korean War was just another muscle-flexing exercise the US periodically engages in whenever it gets bored or needs some far-flung location to try out its new weapons systems. The US had nothing to gain in its aggression on the Korean peninsula, it was mix of imperial overreach and pure unalloyed viciousness the likes of which we’ve seen many times in the past. According to the Asia-Pacific Journal:

“By the fall of 1952, there were no effective targets left for US planes to hit. Every significant town, city and industrial area in North Korea had already been bombed. In the spring of 1953, the Air Force targeted irrigation dams on the Yalu River, both to destroy the North Korean rice crop and to pressure the Chinese, who would have to supply more food aid to the North. Five reservoirs were hit, flooding thousands of acres of farmland, inundating whole towns and laying waste to the essential food source for millions of North Koreans.10 Only emergency assistance from China, the USSR, and other socialist countries prevented widespread famine.” (“The Destruction and Reconstruction of North Korea, 1950 – 1960”, The Asia-Pacific Journal, Japan Focus)

Repeat: “Reservoirs, irrigation dams, rice crops, hydroelectric dams, population centers” all napalmed, all carpet bombed, all razed to the ground. Nothing was spared. If it moved it was shot, if it didn’t move, it was bombed. The US couldn’t win, so they turned the country into an uninhabitable wastelands. “Let them starve. Let them freeze.. Let them eat weeds and roots and rodents to survive. Let them sleep in the ditches and find shelter in the rubble. What do we care? We’re the greatest country on earth. God bless America.”

This is how Washington does business, and it hasn’t changed since the Seventh Cavalry wiped out 150 men, women and children at Wounded Knee more than century ago. The Lakota Sioux at Pine Ridge got the same basic treatment as the North Koreans, or the Vietnamese, or the Nicaraguans, or the Iraqis and on and on and on and on. Anyone else who gets in Uncle Sam’s way, winds up in a world of hurt. End of story.

The savagery of America’s war against the North left an indelible mark on the psyche of the people. Whatever the cost, the North cannot allow a similar scenario to take place in the future. Whatever the cost, they must be prepared to defend themselves. If that means nukes, then so be it. Self preservation is the top priority.

Is there a way to end this pointless standoff between Pyongyang and Washington, a way to mend fences and build trust?

Of course there is. The US just needs to start treating the DPRK with respect and follow through on their promises. What promises?

The promise to built the North two light-water reactors to provide heat and light to their people in exchange for an end to its nuclear weapons program. You won’t read about this deal in the media because the media is just the propaganda wing of the Pentagon. They have no interest in promoting peaceful solutions. Their stock-in-trade is war, war and more war.

The North wants the US to honor its obligations under the 1994 Agreed Framework. That’s it. Just keep up your end of the goddamn deal. How hard can that be? Here’s how Jimmy Carter summed it up in a Washington Post op-ed (November 24, 2010):

“…in September 2005, an agreement … reaffirmed the basic premises of the 1994 accord. (The Agreed Framework) Its text included denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, a pledge of non-aggression by the United States and steps to evolve a permanent peace agreement to replace the U.S.-North Korean-Chinese cease-fire that has been in effect since July 1953. Unfortunately, no substantive progress has been made since 2005…

“This past July I was invited to return to Pyongyang to secure the release of an American, Aijalon Gomes, with the proviso that my visit would last long enough for substantive talks with top North Korean officials. They spelled out in detail their desire to develop a denuclearized Korean Peninsula and a permanent cease-fire, based on the 1994 agreements and the terms adopted by the six powers in September 2005….

“North Korean officials have given the same message to other recent American visitors and have permitted access by nuclear experts to an advanced facility for purifying uranium. The same officials had made it clear to me that this array of centrifuges would be ‘on the table’ for discussions with the United States, although uranium purification – a very slow process – was not covered in the 1994 agreements.

“Pyongyang has sent a consistent message that during direct talks with the United States, it is ready to conclude an agreement to end its nuclear programs, put them all under IAEA inspection and conclude a permanent peace treaty to replace the ‘temporary’ cease-fire of 1953. We should consider responding to this offer. The unfortunate alternative is for North Koreans to take whatever actions they consider necessary to defend themselves from what they claim to fear most: a military attack supported by the United States, along with efforts to change the political regime.”

(“North Korea’s consistent message to the U.S.”, President Jimmy Carter, Washington Post)

Most people think the problem lies with North Korea, but it doesn’t. The problem lies with the United States; it’s unwillingness to negotiate an end to the war, its unwillingness to provide basic security guarantees to the North, its unwillingness to even sit down with the people who –through Washington’s own stubborn ignorance– are now developing long-range ballistic missiles that will be capable of hitting American cities.

How dumb is that?

The Trump team is sticking with a policy that has failed for 63 years and which clearly undermines US national security by putting American citizens directly at risk. AND FOR WHAT?

To preserve the image of “tough guy”, to convince people that the US doesn’t negotiate with weaker countries, to prove to the world that “whatever the US says, goes”? Is that it? Is image more important than a potential nuclear disaster?

Relations with the North can be normalized, economic ties can be strengthened, trust can be restored, and the nuclear threat can be defused. The situation with the North does not have to be a crisis, it can be fixed. It just takes a change in policy, a bit of give-and-take, and leaders that genuinely want peace more than war.

—

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Submitted by Alligator Ed on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 11:35am

What we really did to North Korea was a closely held secret

@ggersh because of the MSM. I had no idea of the extent of extra-malicious, spiteful damage rained down on NK besides the strictly military attacks.

The Trump team is sticking with a policy that has failed for 63 years and which clearly undermines US national security by putting American citizens directly at risk. AND FOR WHAT?

To preserve the image of “tough guy”, to convince people that the US doesn’t negotiate with weaker countries, to prove to the world that “whatever the US says, goes”? Is that it? Is image more important than a potential nuclear disaster?

The answer is yes. And I agree, after reading your comment that NK NEEDS the nuclear weapons to prevent another U.S. led offensive against them. Like the Russians, Koreans on both sides of the DMZ know war--and they don't like it.

Our country has either reneged on negotiated treaties or failed to sign those initiated by others.

is no different from O, Dubya, clinton, Sr, raygun, etc.etc.etc.

We could have peace if DC wants it, silly us DC doesn't want it

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/04/17/the-problem-is-washington-not-nor...

APRIL 17, 2017
The Problem is Washington, Not North Korea
by MIKE WHITNEY
Email
Photo by Stefan Krasowski | CC BY 2.0
Photo by Stefan Krasowski | CC BY 2.0
Washington has never made any effort to conceal its contempt for North Korea. In the 64 years since the war ended, the US has done everything in its power to punish, humiliate and inflict pain on the Communist country. Washington has subjected the DPRK to starvation, prevented its government from accessing foreign capital and markets, strangled its economy with crippling economic sanctions, and installed lethal missile systems and military bases on their doorstep.

Negotiations aren’t possible because Washington refuses to sit down with a country which it sees as its inferior. Instead, the US has strong-armed China to do its bidding by using their diplomats as interlocutors who are expected to convey Washington’s ultimatums as threateningly as possible. The hope, of course, is that Pyongyang will cave in to Uncle Sam’s bullying and do what they are told.

But the North has never succumbed to US intimidation and there’s no sign that it will. Instead, they have developed a small arsenal of nuclear weapons to defend themselves in the event that the US tries to assert its dominance by launching another war.
There’s no country in the world that needs nuclear weapons more than North Korea. Brainwashed Americans, who get their news from FOX or CNN, may differ on this point, but if a hostile nation deployed carrier strike-groups off the coast of California while conducting massive war games on the Mexican border (with the express intention of scaring the shit of people) then they might see things differently. They might see the value of having a few nuclear weapons to deter that hostile nation from doing something really stupid.

And let’s be honest, the only reason Kim Jong Un hasn’t joined Saddam and Gadhafi in the great hereafter, is because (a)– The North does not sit on an ocean of oil, and (b)– The North has the capacity to reduce Seoul, Okinawa and Tokyo into smoldering debris-fields. Absent Kim’s WMDs, Pyongyang would have faced a preemptive attack long ago and Kim would have faced a fate similar to Gadhafi’s. Nuclear weapons are the only known antidote to US adventurism.

The American people –whose grasp of history does not extend beyond the events of 9-11 — have no idea of the way the US fights its wars or the horrific carnage and destruction it unleashed on the North. Here’s a short refresher that helps clarify why the North is still wary of the US more than 60 years after the armistice was signed. The excerpt is from an article titled “Americans have forgotten what we did to North Korea”, at Vox World:

“In the early 1950s, during the Korean War, the US dropped more bombs on North Korea than it had dropped in the entire Pacific theater during World War II. This carpet bombing, which included 32,000 tons of napalm, often deliberately targeted civilian as well as military targets, devastating the country far beyond what was necessary to fight the war. Whole cities were destroyed, with many thousands of innocent civilians killed and many more left homeless and hungry….

According to US journalist Blaine Harden: “Over a period of three years or so, we killed off — what — 20 percent of the population,” Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay, head of the Strategic Air Command during the Korean War, told the Office of Air Force History in 1984. Dean Rusk, a supporter of the war and later secretary of state, said the United States bombed “everything that moved in North Korea, every brick standing on top of another.” After running low on urban targets, U.S. bombers destroyed hydroelectric and irrigation dams in the later stages of the war, flooding farmland and destroying crops……

“On January 3 at 10:30 AM an armada of 82 flying fortresses loosed their death-dealing load on the city of Pyongyang …Hundreds of tons of bombs and incendiary compound were simultaneously dropped throughout the city, causing annihilating fires, the transatlantic barbarians bombed the city with delayed-action high-explosive bombs which exploded at intervals for a whole day making it impossible for the people to come out onto the streets. The entire city has now been burning, enveloped in flames, for two days. By the second day, 7,812 civilians houses had been burnt down. The Americans were well aware that there were no military targets left in Pyongyang…

The number of inhabitants of Pyongyang killed by bomb splinters, burnt alive and suffocated by smoke is incalculable…Some 50,000 inhabitants remain in the city which before the war had a population of 500,000.” (“Americans have forgotten what we did to North Korea“, Vox World)

The United States killed over 2 million people in a country that posed no threat to US national security. Like Vietnam, the Korean War was just another muscle-flexing exercise the US periodically engages in whenever it gets bored or needs some far-flung location to try out its new weapons systems. The US had nothing to gain in its aggression on the Korean peninsula, it was mix of imperial overreach and pure unalloyed viciousness the likes of which we’ve seen many times in the past. According to the Asia-Pacific Journal:

“By the fall of 1952, there were no effective targets left for US planes to hit. Every significant town, city and industrial area in North Korea had already been bombed. In the spring of 1953, the Air Force targeted irrigation dams on the Yalu River, both to destroy the North Korean rice crop and to pressure the Chinese, who would have to supply more food aid to the North. Five reservoirs were hit, flooding thousands of acres of farmland, inundating whole towns and laying waste to the essential food source for millions of North Koreans.10 Only emergency assistance from China, the USSR, and other socialist countries prevented widespread famine.” (“The Destruction and Reconstruction of North Korea, 1950 – 1960”, The Asia-Pacific Journal, Japan Focus)

Repeat: “Reservoirs, irrigation dams, rice crops, hydroelectric dams, population centers” all napalmed, all carpet bombed, all razed to the ground. Nothing was spared. If it moved it was shot, if it didn’t move, it was bombed. The US couldn’t win, so they turned the country into an uninhabitable wastelands. “Let them starve. Let them freeze.. Let them eat weeds and roots and rodents to survive. Let them sleep in the ditches and find shelter in the rubble. What do we care? We’re the greatest country on earth. God bless America.”

This is how Washington does business, and it hasn’t changed since the Seventh Cavalry wiped out 150 men, women and children at Wounded Knee more than century ago. The Lakota Sioux at Pine Ridge got the same basic treatment as the North Koreans, or the Vietnamese, or the Nicaraguans, or the Iraqis and on and on and on and on. Anyone else who gets in Uncle Sam’s way, winds up in a world of hurt. End of story.

The savagery of America’s war against the North left an indelible mark on the psyche of the people. Whatever the cost, the North cannot allow a similar scenario to take place in the future. Whatever the cost, they must be prepared to defend themselves. If that means nukes, then so be it. Self preservation is the top priority.

Is there a way to end this pointless standoff between Pyongyang and Washington, a way to mend fences and build trust?

Of course there is. The US just needs to start treating the DPRK with respect and follow through on their promises. What promises?

The promise to built the North two light-water reactors to provide heat and light to their people in exchange for an end to its nuclear weapons program. You won’t read about this deal in the media because the media is just the propaganda wing of the Pentagon. They have no interest in promoting peaceful solutions. Their stock-in-trade is war, war and more war.

The North wants the US to honor its obligations under the 1994 Agreed Framework. That’s it. Just keep up your end of the goddamn deal. How hard can that be? Here’s how Jimmy Carter summed it up in a Washington Post op-ed (November 24, 2010):

“…in September 2005, an agreement … reaffirmed the basic premises of the 1994 accord. (The Agreed Framework) Its text included denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, a pledge of non-aggression by the United States and steps to evolve a permanent peace agreement to replace the U.S.-North Korean-Chinese cease-fire that has been in effect since July 1953. Unfortunately, no substantive progress has been made since 2005…

“This past July I was invited to return to Pyongyang to secure the release of an American, Aijalon Gomes, with the proviso that my visit would last long enough for substantive talks with top North Korean officials. They spelled out in detail their desire to develop a denuclearized Korean Peninsula and a permanent cease-fire, based on the 1994 agreements and the terms adopted by the six powers in September 2005….

“North Korean officials have given the same message to other recent American visitors and have permitted access by nuclear experts to an advanced facility for purifying uranium. The same officials had made it clear to me that this array of centrifuges would be ‘on the table’ for discussions with the United States, although uranium purification – a very slow process – was not covered in the 1994 agreements.

“Pyongyang has sent a consistent message that during direct talks with the United States, it is ready to conclude an agreement to end its nuclear programs, put them all under IAEA inspection and conclude a permanent peace treaty to replace the ‘temporary’ cease-fire of 1953. We should consider responding to this offer. The unfortunate alternative is for North Koreans to take whatever actions they consider necessary to defend themselves from what they claim to fear most: a military attack supported by the United States, along with efforts to change the political regime.”

(“North Korea’s consistent message to the U.S.”, President Jimmy Carter, Washington Post)

Most people think the problem lies with North Korea, but it doesn’t. The problem lies with the United States; it’s unwillingness to negotiate an end to the war, its unwillingness to provide basic security guarantees to the North, its unwillingness to even sit down with the people who –through Washington’s own stubborn ignorance– are now developing long-range ballistic missiles that will be capable of hitting American cities.

How dumb is that?

The Trump team is sticking with a policy that has failed for 63 years and which clearly undermines US national security by putting American citizens directly at risk. AND FOR WHAT?

To preserve the image of “tough guy”, to convince people that the US doesn’t negotiate with weaker countries, to prove to the world that “whatever the US says, goes”? Is that it? Is image more important than a potential nuclear disaster?

Relations with the North can be normalized, economic ties can be strengthened, trust can be restored, and the nuclear threat can be defused. The situation with the North does not have to be a crisis, it can be fixed. It just takes a change in policy, a bit of give-and-take, and leaders that genuinely want peace more than war.

Submitted by native on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 11:22am

So far, I see plenty of theater

but not much in the way of substance. Steady as she goes, but turn up the volume. Trump adopts a threatening posture but my guess is, it's mostly for show.

—

native

Submitted by Alligator Ed on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 11:36am

Precisely my point!

@native

Submitted by ggersh on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 2:24pm

My question is

@native Is he in charge or not, my guess after the Syria fiasco is
that he has relinquished all control of the military to the
generals in his cabinet.

Like wtf has North Korea done?

One slip up here and everything changes as in say goodbye to the
Korean Peninsula?

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-04-17/us-deploys-two-more-aircraft-ca...

—

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Submitted by Alligator Ed on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 2:43pm

It is still premature to portray Trump as a Pentagon prisoner

@ggersh The comment may be correct in its assertion. If Trump knows anything about Sun Tsu, he is acting crazy. On the other hand he may actually be crazy. We need more time to see where this is going. As I have said before, he is navigating through a minefield. Flynn and Bannon were sent out in front of him, and, oh well, landmine fodder.

Submitted by Big Al on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 3:10pm

More time for what?

@Alligator Ed Do you still actually believe Trump plans on taking on the "deep state"?

Submitted by Alligator Ed on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 4:15pm

This has not been disproven.

@Big Al When contradictory information arrives, I would change my opinion.

Submitted by native on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 4:23pm

Appearances can be deceiving,

@ggersh

and I'm as likely to be deceived by them as anyone else. But my guess is that Trump is now using bluster, bluff, and threat as a deliberate tactic. That has long been a favorite MO of his. He is by nature a reckless man -- he habitually takes calculated risks -- but he is neither crazy nor suicidal. There's no doubt that ramping up the pressure on NK is risky, but I doubt that Trump's intention is to actually attack it. And I don't think that either McMaster or Mattis, both of whom are far more sober than Trump, would ever agree to go along with that.

There is of course the possibility that Kim Jong-un might over-react to this provocation, and start shooting first... in which case, it's bye-bye Seoul. But I don't think that is likely to happen, and apparently neither do our own, not-so-dear Leaders.

—

native

Submitted by CB on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 5:01pm

I really don't think that Trump truly knows what HIS true

@native
'intention' is. He is in way over his head. Someone else is pulling the strings as he plays along. It all depends on who has his ear. We could see the jockeying for position in the last several months. I don't think Trump has many (any?) powerful allies in Washington. He will go where he is pushed.

Submitted by Big Al on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 5:18pm

Here's a latest tweet.

@CB "Our military is building and is rapidly becoming stronger than ever before. Frankly, we have no choice!"

Maybe he means "I have no choice!"

However, he's been saying this since he started campaigning. I read an article comparing him to Reagan. Pretty much. He's just continuing the path set for him.

I imagine he is easily led, just use his ego.

Submitted by Alligator Ed on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 6:44pm

On that point I agree

@Big Al

I imagine he is easily led, just use his ego.

Of course a lot of his responses depend upon his assessment of being the one in charge. The more he is self-assured, the more likely the foreign policies will be his own.

Submitted by ggersh on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 7:29pm

Why is it that the other guy

@native i.e. Hussein, Gaddafi, Assad, Kim Il, Putin,etc.etc.etc.always the
guy who is the nut, while all bad characters they from where I sit are
mild mannered compared to what, Raygun, Sr, clinton, dubya, O are and have done.

You say he trump isn't suicidal or crazy but he has bombed Syria for no good
reason, has dropped MOAB in Afghan for show, killed children in Yemen in his
first 80 days, that seems crazy in spades to me. trump is nothing but a bully
and the only way to stop a bully is stand up to him/her and maybe someone just
will, so I really can't agree with you here.

As for his generals they didn't get there by being peacemakers.

—

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Submitted by Alligator Ed on Tue, 04/18/2017 - 1:07am

Trump is insecure, overly reactive, and not up to the job

@ggersh @ggersh

You say he trump isn't suicidal or crazy but he has bombed Syria for no good
reason, has dropped MOAB in Afghan for show, killed children in Yemen in his
first 80 days, that seems crazy in spades to me. trump is nothing but a bully

From your point of view, and mine also, all this killing is done "for no good reason". But Amerikkkan politics is cruel, arrogant, boastful, and most of all insensitive to its citizenry. The whole concept is flawed. Indeed with the lack of appreciation for reality, it implies delusions--a sign of craziness. In that regard, sad to say, Trump is no better (or worse) than the rest of them (HRC excluded--THE worst).

Submitted by eyo on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 11:41am

How to "devastate" mad bombers

Take away their fodder? From the airforcetimes mouth: 'It'd be devastating': Air Force chief sounds the alarm on how budget cuts will affect you

Squadrons across the Air Force will be grounded. Moves will be put on hold, throwing families into turmoil.

New recruits won’t be able to start basic training. Bonuses for critical personnel could be deferred.

And that’s just the beginning. [...]

Good one! Keep going.

But to meet its global national security commitments, the Air Force has had to fly at higher levels than last year, said Col. Patrick Ryder, an Air Force spokesman. The service took the risk of assuming a 2017 budget would be passed, “which is a reasonable expectation,” he said.
...
And time is running out for the current CR, which expires on April 28.

Bzzt! The End, imagine that. Et tu Bernie? I guess he'll soon speechify to an empty Senate chamber, per usual. Thanks.

Peace & Love

Submitted by Alligator Ed on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 12:07pm

I feel so sad for the mad-bombers--NOT!

@eyo It's all about the money. So sad, too bad, we can't fly as many bombing missions in the M.E.

Submitted by Sunspots on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 1:41pm

Oh, my God!

Nobody "deserves" what's going to happen to us, but if anyone did, it would be those maniacs doing and encouraging these horrors.

Too bad we who oppose them can't be left out of the repercussions, but we can't and won't be.

Submitted by Linda Wood on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 1:52pm

Again,

I want to thank you for keeping the subject of Trump foreign policy in the perspective of discernment, not fear. Also, I don't want to change the subject from ggersh's link to the great article by Mike Whitney about North Korea, which I hope will be read far and wide, especially wide.

But the most important part of your essay for me is this:

The major question, and one which will not be rapidly forthcoming, if at all, will be to halt Saudi funding of ISIS/Al-Qaeda and all the other offshoots of Daesh. One simple solution, if Trump really does stand by his promise to halt all foreign aid, will be to stop weapons being sold to Saudi. If something like this does indeed happen, then that will be proof-positive that Trump is overcoming the Deep State.

If one reads about the close relationship between private industry and the Saudi death squads and private industry and the North Korean acquisition of nuclear technology, which led to nuclear weapons, one learns that the private industry of arming enemies of the United States is extremely profitable. Perhaps requiring the private companies that profit from this threat-creation to pay for the costs of refugee asylum worldwide would be a start. Perhaps finding out which companies bought ISIS-smuggled oil would be a start. Perhaps finding out which companies have sold weapons to ISIS would be a start. Perhaps bringing them to justice would be a start, including contractors in North Korea.

But you'd think that, even from the perspective of pretending we don't know any of this happens, we would at least like to know what in the name of God we're doing in Yemen. Is it because even people like Bernie Sanders said Saudi Arabia wasn't doing enough to help in Syria? Is it because the Saudis can't take part in Syria because they would have to attack our forces at some point? So is the assault on Yemen just a place for them to bomb, a place to exhibit their need for offensive weapons, without their having to get into a conflict with the United States?

Submitted by Alligator Ed on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 2:50pm

Linda, your last point is quite astute

@Linda Wood

But you'd think that, even from the perspective of pretending we don't know any of this happens, we would at least like to know what in the name of God we're doing in Yemen. Is it because even people like Bernie Sanders said Saudi Arabia wasn't doing enough to help in Syria? Is it because the Saudis can't take part in Syria because they would have to attack our forces at some point?

Yes, it's the old "Let's You and Him Fight" routine.

As far as the initial part of your comment about bringing offenders, thieves, corruptocrats to justice, I am not optimistic. After all Bill and Killary are still walking free as is Dubya and Darth Cheney.

I want to thank you for keeping the subject of Trump foreign policy in the perspective of discernment, not fear. Also, I don't want to change the subject from ggersh's link to the great article by Mike Whitney about North Korea, which I hope will be read far and wide, especially wide.

But the most important part of your essay for me is this:

The major question, and one which will not be rapidly forthcoming, if at all, will be to halt Saudi funding of ISIS/Al-Qaeda and all the other offshoots of Daesh. One simple solution, if Trump really does stand by his promise to halt all foreign aid, will be to stop weapons being sold to Saudi. If something like this does indeed happen, then that will be proof-positive that Trump is overcoming the Deep State.

If one reads about the close relationship between private industry and the Saudi death squads and private industry and the North Korean acquisition of nuclear technology, which led to nuclear weapons, one learns that the private industry of arming enemies of the United States is extremely profitable. Perhaps requiring the private companies that profit from this threat-creation to pay for the costs of refugee asylum worldwide would be a start. Perhaps finding out which companies bought ISIS-smuggled oil would be a start. Perhaps finding out which companies have sold weapons to ISIS would be a start. Perhaps bringing them to justice would be a start, including contractors in North Korea.

But you'd think that, even from the perspective of pretending we don't know any of this happens, we would at least like to know what in the name of God we're doing in Yemen. Is it because even people like Bernie Sanders said Saudi Arabia wasn't doing enough to help in Syria? Is it because the Saudis can't take part in Syria because they would have to attack our forces at some point? So is the assault on Yemen just a place for them to bomb, a place to exhibit their need for offensive weapons, without their having to get into a conflict with the United States?

Submitted by CB on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 4:30pm

I don't think that Trump has managed to drive a wedge

between China and Russia. The leaders of these countries have always played their cards close to the chest. Both countries are responding to Trump's bloviations in the same manner - moving their troops and equipment towards the NK border. They have also sent their navy's out to shadow the US fleet in the North Pacific. If anything, Trump's actions will bring China and Russia closer together. Both Xi and Putin consider Trump a wild card, prone to erratic, knee-jerk decision making whereas they value security, stability and moderation. If truth be told, Trump and Kim Jong-un have much in common.

China, Russia Dispatch Naval Vessels To Track USS Carl Vinson To Korean Peninsula
Video has been released allegedly showing a mass military mobilization in Vladivostok, Russia, just eight miles from the border with North Korea, as the world edges towards war.
...
Furthermore, As the following footage shows (beginning at aorund 1:20 below) Chinese military assets are also being moved to the North Korean border...
...
In addition to military forces, AP reports China and Russia have dispatched intelligence-gathering vessels from their navies to chase the USS Carl Vinson nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, which is heading toward waters near the Korean Peninsula, multiple sources of the Japanese government revealed to The Yomiuri Shimbun.

Submitted by eyo on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 4:47pm

The BRIC economy scaring them shitless

@CB that's what I think. While U.S. guv was been busy planning and executing imaginary property profits for rentier society, Brazil, Russia, India, China have been busy building infra like inter-Continental high-speed rail, plus alternatives for every other single groovy U.S. thing in sight, includes technology sector. Last thing to go is global trade on the dollar standard, I guess. I'm not smart, but I can read. That writing has been on the wall for some time now, it is unimaginable.

Killing a bunch more brown people ain't gonna help, but it wags the dog like crazy when poo hits fan.

Submitted by CB on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 5:18pm

You've got a point there. Russia has gained a tremendous

@eyo
amount of military might as has China in the last decade and a half. In addition the economic rise of the BRICS and China's One Belt One Road Initiative all spell the eventual demise of American global hegemony.

Submitted by riverlover on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 7:02pm

BRIC may now be RIC. I am sure CIA was not involved/s

@CB They (rest of world) will be coming after us soon. Especially with Trump banging around. Or whoever is doing the banging while he plays golf.

—

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Submitted by Alligator Ed on Tue, 04/18/2017 - 1:13am

Another point in BRIC's (or RIC's) favor

@eyo is that the level of corruption has not reached the trillions of dollars in overcharges, redundant equipment, and outright fraud (the missing 3 trillion dollars during 9/11) etc. Thus BRIC gets a lot more bang for the buck. The US is becoming a Sumo wrestler, too fat and bound up to maneuver easily.

Submitted by Alligator Ed on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 6:48pm

Both Xi and Putin are more level-headed the Trump.

@CB Putin articulates in plain language what his thoughts are. American politicians are, like Loretta Lynch, incapable of answering any question in an understandable fashion.

Submitted by CB on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 4:39pm

The neocons have a firm grip on Trump's nethers and they

are squeezing them real good.

Neocons Have a Long List of Endless-War Ideas for Donald Trump to Implement
Posted on Apr 17, 2017
After slapping Donald Trump around for several months to make him surrender his hopes for a more cooperative relationship with Russia, the neocons and their liberal-interventionist allies are now telling the battered president what he must do next: escalate war in the Middle East and ratchet up tensions with nuclear-armed Russia.
...
“But,” Kagan added, “Thursday’s action needs to be just the opening salvo in a broader campaign not only to protect the Syrian people from the brutality of the Bashar al-Assad regime but also to reverse the downward spiral of U.S. power and influence in the Middle East and throughout the world. A single missile strike unfortunately cannot undo the damage done by the Obama administration’s policies over the past six years.”
...
On His Knees

To put this message in the crude terms that President Trump might understand, now that the neocons have forced him to his knees, they are demanding that he open his mouth. They will not be satisfied with anything short of a massive U.S. military intervention in the Middle East and a full-scale confrontation with Russia (and perhaps China).
...
It’s also suddenly clear how thoroughly liberal Democrats were taken for a ride on the war train by getting them to blame Russia for Hillary Clinton’s defeat. The liberals (and even many progressives) hated Trump so much that they let themselves be used in the service of neocon/liberal-hawk endless war policies. Now, it may be too late to turn the train around.

Submitted by Alligator Ed on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 6:52pm

Observations about Trump's obsequiousness to Neocon-ism

@CB may be true. Maybe not. If he leaves NK along, after his saber rattling and only attacks ISIS in the M.E., nothing is proven about the intransigent bellicosity of the Neocon maniacs influencing Trump.

Submitted by native on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 7:33pm

Robert Kagan is another one

@CB

of those Skull and Bones creeps. There's something very wicked about that club.

—

native

Submitted by LeChienHarry on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 4:20am

Robert Kagan belongs to all the best groups...

@native @native
Link to his profile....
Wiki Article

Wonder what he spews in his books.

—

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Submitted by Alligator Ed on Wed, 04/19/2017 - 12:50pm

Thanks for the gallows humor, Harry

@LeChienHarry "Liberal interventionist", as he calls himself is an enabler of war-criminals.

In May 2016, Kagan wrote an opinion piece in the Washington Post regarding Trump's campaign entitled "This is how fascism comes to America".[7] Kagan has said that "all Republican foreign policy professionals are anti-Trump."

What then do we call corporate/governmental war-mongers, like Kagan, who endorses and cheers for death and destruction? The word "fascist" comes to mind.