A LOT OF PEOPLE, mostly liberal/leftists around the globe and Democrats in the U.S. are wringing their hands and woe-is-me’ing that President Trump is responding to North Korea’s Kim in kind.
“Oh my, you mustn’t respond to a bully; you need to hide you face and let the bully escalate the attack from words to actions.”
That’s what the Brits did in 1936 and look what it got them.
Bombs on London, a death toll of (382,600 military plus 67,100 civilians) 449,700,1, not to mention the economic losses and the fact that the U.S. had to, once again, save the tiny island.
All because Neville Chamberlain2 caved before Adolph Hitler’s bullying.
”There will be peace in our time” – in a pig’s eye.
EUROPE SUFFERED, THE WORLD SUFFERED because the Brits and most of western Europe cowed before the nazi bully, a bully that, by most accounts, could have been stopped before he got started . . . if only someone stood up to him.
Around the turn of the (20th) century, Theo. Roosevelt, a Republican by the way, assembled probably the most powerful armada the world had known, the Great White Fleet and had it sail around the globe, flying the flag and quietly warning the world’s self-proclaimed great powers that the United States was not anyone's patsy. Shades of Gadsden’s Don’t tread on me flag.
It might be that the Trump-Kim Twitter exchanges are, as cartoonist Gary Varvel suggests, like two toddlers trying to out-shout each other, and I will concede that while President Trump’s tweets and other off-the-cuff pronouncements often give me pause, at least the president is warning Kim that he is treading on thin ice.
Gary Varvel is one of the few editorial cartoonists who pokes fun at politicians right and left.
Unfortunately, Kim has nothing to lose – his country is poor, his people are starving, and North Korean lives on Chinese handouts – if he loses a few million people to a nuclear attack (by any country in the “N club”) North Korea might be better off.
Unlike Iran, the people have no will to demand freedom from the Kim dynasty of despots. Even during the UN’s“Korean Police Action,” the south Koreans showed little willingness to defend their country, preferring to let the UN (mostly U.S.) troops bear the brunt of the fighting.
Short of firing the first shot, what is expected of the president?
The leftist/liberals and most Democrats would have him wave a white flag a la Chamberlain and allow Kim & Company free rein to continue threatening the U.S. until they do what the liberals/leftists consider "unthinkable": attack the U.S.
Alternatively, the U.S. military could “test” its anti-missile defense systems by shooting down one of Kim’s missiles, preferably while the weapon still is over North Korea. Shooting down a North Korean missile over Japan could cause Japanese casualties. Even as “collateral damage,” that is not an option. Shooting down one of Kim’s missiles over water could still endanger ships at sea; waiting until the missile is over the U.S. or Canada, also is not acceptable.
As President Trump allegedly said – fake news being what it is – he has a bigger “red button” than Kim.
Someone suggested that Kim’s nuclear warheads are not the weapons to fear. Rather, the suggestion went, we should fear Kim’s chemical and biological weapons. Anthrax, small pox, etc. A little chemical or biological weapon packed into a warhead on a missile headed anywhere could potentially cause more damage than several N-tipped missiles.
Consider influenza. It spreads at “the speed of flight.”
The influenza or flu pandemic of 1918 to 1919, the deadliest in modern history, infected an estimated 500 million people worldwide–about one-third of the planet's population at the time–and killed an estimated 20 million to 50 million victims.4
One more reason to down Kim’s missile over North Korea rather than wait until it is over Japan or North America.
MEANWHILE, President Trump’s “My button is bigger than your button” may have had a positive influence on Kim; the North Korea crazy has reopened a communications link with South Korea after years of no contact. Even the leftist/liberals and Democrats should appreciate that.
1. British WW2 casualties: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_casualties_of_war
2. Neville Chamberlain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_for_our_time
3. Gadsden flag: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadsden_flag#Variations_in_appearance
4. Influenza: www.history.com/topics/1918-flu-pandemic
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
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