Posted on 04/18/2017 5:03:06 AM PDT by Kaslin
"Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem?" tweeted President Donald Trump on Easter Sunday.
Earlier, after discovering "great chemistry" with Chinese President Xi Jinping over "the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake" at Mar-a-Lago, Trump had confided, "I explained ... that a trade deal with the U.S. will be far better for them if they solve the North Korean problem!"
"America First" thus takes a back seat to big-power diplomacy with Beijing. One wonders: How much will Xi end up bilking us for his squeezing of Kim Jong Un?
Trump once seemed to understand how America had been taken to the cleaners during and after the Cold War. While allies supported us diplomatically, they piled up huge trade surpluses at our expense and became virtual free-riders off the U.S. defense effort.
No nations were more successful at this than South Korea and Japan. Now Xi is playing the game -- and perhaps playing Trump.
What is the "North Korean problem" Beijing will help solve in return for more indulgent consideration on future U.S.-China trade deals?
North Korea's nuclear arsenal. As 80 percent of Pyongyang's trade comes through China, Trump believes that Beijing can force Kim to stop testing missiles and atomic bombs before he produces an intercontinental ballistic missile that could hit the U.S.
But what is to prevent Xi from pocketing Trump's concessions and continuing on the strategic course China has long pursued?
For in many ways, Pyongyang's goals parallel China's.
Neither could want an all-out war on the Korean Peninsula. For Kim, this would devastate his country, bring down his regime, and cost him his life. For China, war could mean millions of Koreans crossing the Yalu into Manchuria and a disruption of Beijing's march to Asian hegemony.
A continuing crisis on the peninsula, however, with Trump and the U.S. relying on Beijing's help, could leave Xi in the catbird seat.
And now that North Korea has declared its goal to be building missiles with nuclear warheads that could hit all U.S. bases in Asia -- and even California -- the clock is running for the White House.
"It won't happen," Trump has said of North Korea's developing an ICBM that could hit the United States. "If China is not going to solve North Korea, we will."
"The threat is upon us," says outgoing deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland. "This is something President Trump is going to deal with in the first year."
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Vice President Mike Pence have declared that our policy of "strategic patience" with Pyonyang is at an end.
National security adviser H.R. McMaster said Sunday the U.S. has "to take action, short of armed conflict, so we can avoid the worst" in dealing with "this unpredictable regime."
With a stunning parade of missiles in Pyongyang on Saturday, the North's failed firing of a solid-fueled missile that same day, and the promise of new missile tests weekly, Kim is forcing our hand.
Either he backs away from building atomic bombs and long-range missiles or Trump and his generals must make good on their warnings.
How did we get to this point?
Why, 64 years after the Korean War, a quarter-century after the Cold War, are we still obliged to go to war to defend South Korea from a North with one-half the South's population and 3 percent of its gross domestic product?
Why are we, on the far side of the Pacific, still responsible for containing North Korea when two of its neighbors -- Russia and China -- are nuclear powers and South Korea and Japan could field nuclear and conventional forces far superior to Kim's?
How long into the future will containing militarist dictators in Pyongyang with nuclear missiles be America's primary responsibility?
Another issue arises. Before the U.S. launches any pre-emptive strike on North Korea, Congress should be called back into session to authorize any act of war against the North.
Perhaps this time, Congress would follow the Constitution.
Though Korea is the crisis of the moment, it is not the only one.
Not since 9/11 have the Afghan Taliban been stronger or controlled more territory. The United States' commanding general there is calling for thousands more U.S. troops. Russia and Iran are reportedly negotiating with the Taliban. Pakistan is said to be aiding them.
To counter Vladimir Putin's Russia, we have moved U.S. and NATO troops into Poland, the Baltic States, Romania and Bulgaria. We have fired missiles into Syria. We are reportedly preparing to back the Saudis in the latest escalation of their war on the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Twenty-four years after "Black Hawk Down," the weekend brought reports of U.S. troops returning to Somalia.
The promise of a Trump presidency -- that we would start looking out for our own country and own national interests first and let the rest of the world solve, or fail to solve, its own problems -- appears, not 100 days in, to have been a mirage.
Will more wars make America great again?
If you want Peace, prepare for War.
Not exactly what he ran on.
Trump does seem to want war, whatever his reasons.
With China, and domestically in his own “economic” plans, Trump is behaving every bit just LIKE the Chinese - managing a nationalist mercantilist economy. That is not a “small and limited government” idea. Trump appears poised to USE the massive and deep regulatory state as he wants to, not to dismantle it.
It’s 100 days in — all that stuff that he really did “run on”? He can still do those things. Nothing happening right now endangers the agenda that candidate Trump talked about.
No one in their right mind campaigns on things like Syria and North Korea. Voters mostly don’t care. It makes you look like a war-monger. The media would eat it up. So ... candidate Trump didn’t “run on” North Korea or Syria. But that doesn’t mean the President of the United States can ignore these things.
No candidate (except a sitting president) has full insight into the world. Things change when you sit in the Oval Office and suddenly some things that you might have wanted to avoid now seem unavoidable.
I voted fro Trump. I support Trump. I’m nowhere near second-guessing this man. I think he’ll do fine.
for later
Want a little whine with that. NORKs and China may well be playing for better positioning of China even if Un hasn’t been informed. The only thing is with a hostile American Press we are seeing some of the international sausage made. Trump will do fine with this negotiation.
The world’s problem and talk of war are the result of odumbo and his ilk because odumbo failed to even consider talking tough or carrying a big stick. How many times did he draw a “red line” only to have the enemies of this country cross those lines? Trump on the other hand will NOT be so easy and let them threaten us, obviously a big difference. The liberals and dishonest media are anxiously hoping for something to happen so they can all shout “we told you so” that Trump was/is dangerous for this country.
“Not exactly what he ran on.”
I swear to Christ you people that keep saying that seem to have no clue WHY you say it.
Do you think the presidency consists of a singular list of stuff only enumerated in the campaign? That any outside events or circumstances that may (WILL) arise are to be left dormant with being addressed in order to spare the thin skin of some supporters?
We have a ton of troops in S. Korea, and for 60 years we have had to furnish protection in the form of money and manpower for their protection while this nut to the north keeps making problems for all of its neighbors.
Now finally we have someone that is getting China on-board to at the least nudge this clown away from his toys of mass-destruction, and yet we get the “Not exactly what he ran on” caucus screaming bloody murder.
Maybe he should leave them alone, let them develop those long-rang rockets, and then have folks in the U.S. become direct targets of a nation that makes it a part of their national soul to want to “destroy the U.S.”?
Would that make you guys FEEL better?
The best way to prepare for war is to stay out of war. The US became the world's superpower because it was the last great power to join the two general wars of the 20th Century. Non-intervention, not endless war and crisis, is what made our nation powerful.
THE SWAMP is slowly engulfing President Trump.
Inch by inch he is being pulled into the muck and mire where the establishment thrives.
It happens to every Crusader who dares cross the beltway with reform on their mind.
To save himself and America he must resist and reassert himself and his agenda.
He said from the beginning his focus was going to be on domestic at first, but there were some trouble spots he would have to deal with right away.
All those years of DIPLOMACY have FAILED and we have paid dearly. Time has run out!
Either we SOLVE the problem or it will end in disaster for us. No more kicking the can down the road. I am sick and tired of the Neville Chamberlains who want more diplomacy until we suffer enormous losses of life and fortune.
We have to set some backfires to save the forest.
Chicken Littles can hide in their safe spaces while America Firsters solve the problem.
Thank you guys for two intelligent posts. Saved me the trouble of making one long one.
Yeah...I think we can blow a few things right to hell, without "going to war". No more "boots on the ground".
We should have executed "Operation Shock and Awe" on the sowdies, and not ceased bombing in the mountains of Afghanistan.
You have to play the hand with the cards you are dealt. America has been betrayed for decades by our “leaders” who have sold us down the road to any and every foreign power that would pay them.
Trump did not create the problems we are facing. He is, however, forced by circumstances to solve at least some of them if we are to survive a a SOVEREIGN NATION.
The Globalists DO NOT WANT US TO REMAIN SOVEREIGN. Look at what Gr. Britain is going through with the European Union just because they want their sovereignty back.
Wake up, people. Support our president and pray for the best. Continuing down the muddy road of “diplomacy” blindfolded will lead to nothing but tragedy and the end of America.
Yep!
I voted fro Trump. I support Trump. I’m nowhere near second-guessing this man. I think he’ll do fine.
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So do I.
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