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?
Ditto.
You’re out of your tree! NON INTERVENTION? Better learn a little history before you show your ignorance. The First and Second World Wars brought this nation to greatness, not because we sat on the sidelines, but because we fought them and secured some years of relative peace for the world.
Perpetual crisis and interventions only benefit our always demanding allies and the military industrial complex that Eisenhower warned us about.
It brought misery and death, not greatness, to the American servicemen who suffered to win those wars. Sherman was right, WAR IS HELL and the president who is looking out for the US's best interest will make sure that if America has to fight, that it comes in late when the rest of the world is financially exhausted, morally exhausted and bled dry, just like we did in the world wars.
Bump! Well even a flip flopping Trump is better than Hillary, as long as we are not at war with Russia or China and as long as Jeff Sessions is running DOJ I am OK with Trump.
1. What is “sovereignty” worth if it is not restoring the nation we want?
2. So far, Trump keeps bending to the globalists, not countering them. Removing Assad is a globalist agenda. Seeing China as a state just like us is a globalist position. Watch as the wall never gets built. Watch as “criminal” illegals are the only illegals that are forced to leave. Watch as “tax reform” is just a tax mess rearranged. Watch as Trump makes “deals” that look much better than they actually turn out to be. Watch as the executive departments and agencies remain as big and powerful as ever, merely with different marching orders. Watch as the national debt continues to grow, not shrink.
Never realized Pat was such an isolationist. Sadly, previous administrations have either caused these problems, made them worse or kicked them down the road for someone else to deal with.
If NK is indeed getting close to having ICBMs that will reach Cali and a leader that desires to do that and is nutty enough to do that, how can we ignore it? Even if Cali secedes(which prob won’t happen), they’re still attached to us, upwind of half of us. It would still be teotwawki.
10,000,000 muslims have been displaced and the previous admin, along with several euro leaders and the UN decided to disperse them among the West. SUPPOSEDLY, the plan, according to the UN, is to repatriate them when their “homelands” are safe to go back to. Trump wants to send them back and in fact has done so with a few thousand Somalis.
Trade with China will get better for us. That’s been Trump’s biggest issue since the 80s. He’s not going to forget that regardless of whether or not he uses some official label.
How can America be great again until we take care of some loose ends?
Guess we could build up some massive defense systems(skynet?) and ignore the world. Between Iran, China, Russia, NK, we’d probably need a dome over the entire USA. Minus Cali if they secede.
When you’re up to your ass in alligators, it’s hard to remember that your primary objective was to drain the swamp.
Trump has been blocked at almost every turn by the opposition. He faithfully tried to reform the immigrant vetting program...was blocked by three, Obama-appointed federal judges.
Speaker of the house, Paul Ryan, submarined him on health care.
Demonstrations, and violence plague him everyday.
And let’s don’t forget the media, America’s greatest enemy.
The very premise of leadership (or a ships capital, or an airplane pilot, or even a driver) is to prepare for, and try to prevent tragedies. Whether you’re a corpororate CEO, or the President, there will always be fires to put out...especially when the arsonists of the left are relentless in setting them.
Pointless delays in vetting and approving his Cabinet, by Congress, have stalled his delays in instigate his policies.
You have to break a few eggs to make an omelet, but when you order an omelet at the restaurant, you’re waiting for the delicious results, and not a lecture on how the eggs were broken. The big picture is what counts. The dems, and other skeptic nit-pickers out there want to see step-by-step descriptions on everything the man does.
You gave Obama eight, long, years to screw everything up, you could be decent enough to give Trump at least a year or two to work on fixing it. Or, do you relish the thought of someone standing behind you, watching you work, and criticizing, and second-guessing everything YOU o?
Hey Buchanan if you hadn’t gone to China with Nixon and Kissinger and helped drag them into the 20th century maybe we wouldn’t have this problem with them
Geezers Pat...I mean currency manipulation is soooo much more important than a crazy man getting nukes and a delivery system
The coming war won’t last long. Nukes pretty much end all conversation
Trump is staying out of Syria.....or do you just pick and choose what you look at
My Lord just stop already
Trump has kept more of his promises than either Bush or Clinton or obozo. We are three months in. This is not a dictatorship nor a monarchy. He does have to deal with congress
Your FUD is noted.
President Trump has not gone globalist nor is he “bending to the globalists”. The wall WILL be built & illegals are being deported every day as ICE is now allowed to do it’s job after being unleashed by President Trump. Tax reform will get done & I predict you won’t be satisfied. President Trump’s cabinet is already planning on eliminating programs & departments that are redundant & useless.
Haven’t you been paying attention to what is actually being accomplished while the media & the rest of the world focuses on the Nork situation?
Defeatism is just as sick as liberalism.
Pick up the phone Ron and Alex want to chat
“Not exactly what he ran on.”
Did you think that all the bad things that OBozo did were going to all of a sudden go away?
If you do the stupid is strong with you.
You apparently are fighting the last war.
You’ve lived in the northeast too long
Very well put......
The coming war won’t happen at all if we maintain our nuclear deterrent, do a better job controlling immigration and stop being the world’s policeman. No great power in world history has ever enjoyed the inherent safety that the USA has today but the war industry has succeeded in frightening people into a constant state of panic.
Pat has ALWAYS been an isolationist. He is only slightly tobthe left of Ron Paul
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