Obama knew about those little North Korean nukes
The Obama administration was aware of the threat by 2013. But it didn’t go with the narrative, you see:
It was clear what Obama officials were doing in 2013. The DIA report represented inconvenient facts that threatened President Obama’s North Korea “strategic patience” policy — a policy to do nothing about North Korea and kick this problem down the road to the next president. Obama officials tried to downplay the DIA assessment to prevent it from being used to force the president to employ a more assertive North Korea policy.
Apparently, there has also been a lot of pressure and wheeling-dealing going on behind the scenes by the Trump administration vis a vis China:
I believe Trump officials timed the release of the North Korea missile warhead information to bolster their efforts to pressure China to abide by new sanctions imposed on North Korea last weekend by the UN Security Council. If so, this is a good strategy to highlight to Beijing the urgency that it abide by these sanctions and also implement other kinds of diplomatic and economic pressure against North Korea that it has so far refused to employ.
I hope it works.
In more current North Korea news, China has some warnings for both parties:
Clarifying it’s position in the nuclear stand-off, China said it will stay neutral if North Korea launches an attack that threatens America. But if the US strikes first in an attempt to overthrow Kim Jong Un’s government, China will step in to stop them…
“China should also make clear that if North Korea launches missiles that threaten US soil first and the US retaliates, China will stay neutral,” it added. “If the US and South Korea carry out strikes and try to overthrow the North Korean regime and change the political pattern of the Korean Peninsula, China will prevent them from doing so.”
China has long worried that any conflict on the Korean peninsula, or a repeat of the 1950-53 Korean war, could unleash a wave of destabilising refugees into its northeast, and could end up with a reunified county allied with the US.
The headline to the article from which that quote comes is rather misleading, by the way, and makes the Chinese statement seem more anti-Trump and anti-US than it actually was.
you missed the 2016 where they violated the treaty for a country and decided that the violation wasnt a violation since the non treaty but executive order was too vague to hold them to anything…
oh, and all china did was say, let the wacko make the firs tmove, and of course trump will do that… and thats that. press all the buttons you want, and say all you want..
and if kim tries.. and we shoot it down
we get to act.. (and even more interesting)
wait till we see joint china and US action….
not only will that blow the lefts mind
but it will scare the bejeesus out of russia
Kim’s breakout is being financed by Tehran — and Barry’s $150,000,000,000 gift.
That’s why Xi no longer has the whip hand over Kim — a fella that he does not care for, whatsoever.
And, vice versa.
Kim’s whole crew was and is aligned with Xi’s opponents… who are still being purged within the CCP.
To put pressure on Pyongyang, Xi must continue his purge. That’s a slow process — that grinds to a halt when America drops into the picture.
The larger story is that Red China is trying to break out — Hitler style – without Hitler’s results.
Hence Beijing is having dust-ups with India, Japan, Vietnam, Taiwan, South Korea… the list is L O N G.
The only serious player that is treated with kid gloves — so far — is Putin. He’ll be eaten last.
China has said two things; that if Kim is crazy and stupid enough to launch an attack upon the US, China cannot deny that America has a right to retaliate. Gee, thanks.
While also saying that an American attack upon N. Korea will draw China into the conflict and risk it escalating into WWIII.
So in other words, America should continue to allow Kim to keep assembling a nuclear ICBM arsenal. That America should hope that Kim is not crazy and place at risk millions of innocent lives on the chance that he’s not crazy.
THAT tells us all we need know about the game China is playing.
China knows full well that if Kim drops his pursuit of nukes, we’ll give China whatever written, formal agreement that is needed to assure China that we will not ever attempt regime change. THAT would fully address China’s expressed concern but no they want us to trust that Kim is not a nut job and will not actually use his nukes. Right.
I heard about the 2013 DIA report mentioned in the opinion piece Neo links to in the first paragraph. But my understating is that the report was wrong, and thus was not the consensus of the intelligence community…unlike say “Russia interfered in the US Presidential election in order to hurt Hillary Clinton”.
Recent developments appear consistent with this assessment. I mean, the DIA is now saying that N.Korea can miniaturize a nuke…which means they must have been wrong in 2013, I guess.
The only way I can see to square this with the opinion of the FoxNews columnist and his speculation about Obama’s motives is if the DIA report in the news today is actually 4 years old. That would be News! And probably more fit for Fox’s Hard News division.
Why wasn’t this report leaked back in 2013?
The big thing for me is that we don’t repeat the same mistake with Iran. Thank God Trump is President and Tillerson is at State. Susan Rice at State would have been a disaster.
Cornhead,
You need to get up to speed on Tillerson. He, along with McMaster and Mattis pressured Trump to once again recertify Iran’s compliance with the ‘deal’. Tillerson undercut and gelded the Gulf nations that were finally putting pressure on Qatar to end its financial support for Islamic terrorism.
He’s now pushing for bringing back N. Korea to the negotiating table because… this time it will be different.
More ‘negotiations’ will give N. Korea the remaining time they need to complete their mastery in the development of nuclear ICBMs.
These factors demonstrate that Tillerson is not a ‘Statesman’, which by definition requires a deep understanding of the world’s geopolitical actors and their motivations and machinations. A Statesman understands and does not shy away from the role that force in its various manifestations plays in leveraging otherwise recalcitrant nations to accommodate our national interests.
Instead he’s proven to be just another businessman who thinks that successfully making business deals has qualified him to practice State craft.
Of course, that characterization has and can be made of Trump. The difference is in their agenda. Tillerson is an establishment Republican. He fits right into the GOPe mold. He looks the part but his POV betrays Trump’s. That’s a fundamentally dishonest position for an employee to take.
Trump lacked any knowledge to be POTUS. Thus he did not touch down running and has suffered hurdles at every tweet. Too bad Cruz did not defeat the Shrew Queen.
Of course the messiah knew, he just did not give a care about what comes out of the south end of a northbound horse. It was all about the narrative. Big surprise. In a sane country, ruled by laws, he would have been impeached. Strangely we must hope the twitter POTUS can turn it around. Not holding breath.
Just called for 5 more cords to be delivered to the northen Minnesota family lakeside retreat. We are all going for a second meet up on Labor Day. Fishing, talking, deer hunting, card and board games. Family is everything.
IMO, the problem is that no one believes that the U.S. will actually do anything in this standoff. After all, this little drama has been going on for 24 years and the U.S. has never called the Nork’s bluff. Trump is trying to get the attention of both China and Kim with his stance. He has already authorized more aggressive military ops than Obama did in eight years. His attitude is (and I agree), why are we spending so much money on our military if we are afraid to use it?
The nattering nabobs of negativity cry that war isn’t the answer. Except that sometimes it is the answer – if it is used with the objective of winning decisively.
We want no territory. We want no tribute. We want only peaceful coexistence. Why can’t the leaders of North Korea, Iran, and ISIS get that message? Why do they threaten us? Why do they attack us? Is it because we have been too careful, too loathe to unleash our true capabilities, unwilling to fight to win, and it is seen by them as weakness? If the leaders of Russia and China were threatening us like Kim and Iran do, what would we do?
If it comes to war (And I don’t think it will.), I think Trump and Mattis are ready to go full Genghis Kahn and it will be over in a matter of days or even hours. The battle plans have been ready for years. They have been refined and made stronger in the last few months. If I could use a word to describe them it would be “Blitzkreig.” Everything but the kitchen sink used all at once – missiles, bombers, artillery, Special Ops, fighters, cyber, and if necessary, tactical nukes. Quick and total decapitation while preventing the shelling of Seoul – that’s the goal. I believe our military is fully capable of doing it, if they are unleashed.
Why wasn’t this report leaked back in 2013?
Cornhead,
May 22, 2013:
http://www.heritage.org/asia/report/does-north-korea-have-missile-deliverable-nuclear-weapon
“If the US and South Korea carry out strikes and try to overthrow the North Korean regime and change the political pattern of the Korean Peninsula”
If the U.S. carries out military strikes aginst NK, it will NOT be to “overthrow” or “change the political pattern”, it will be to destroy NK’s nuclear and missile capabilities.
“We want no territory. We want no tribute. We want only peaceful coexistence.
Why can’t the leaders of North Korea, Iran, and ISIS get that message?”
They got the message from the start. It boils down to a simple proposition; what we want prevents them from acquiring what, in their minds… they must have.
N. Korea’s dominant societal imperative is the reunification of Korea under the only rightful ideology, Communism. In order to achieve that societal imperative, a means of deterring the US must be obtained. That means is a nuclear ICBM arsenal and the establishment in the minds of Americans that they will use them if provoked or obstructed.
Allah has commanded Iran and ISIS to act as they do.
“Why do they threaten us? Why do they attack us? Is it because we have been too careful, too loathe to unleash our true capabilities, unwilling to fight to win, and it is seen by them as weakness?”
Of course. Islam’s agents don’t threaten the Russians and Chinese because militant Muslims KNOW that, if they become too troublesome neither will hesitate to nuke Mecca.
G.B.: “They got the message from the start. It boils down to a simple proposition; what we want prevents them from acquiring what, in their minds… they must have.”
Quite right. Why do midgets think they can whip the biggest guy in the room? Delusion? Not if the biggest guy in the room acts like a fraidy cat. Then the midget’s ambitions seem plausible. Such psychological parameters have been pretty common throughout history. We don’t learn from history.
“We don’t learn from history.” J.J.
Someone recently pointed out that, while those who fail to learn history’s lessons are doomed to repeat them… those who do learn from history are fated to watch the dullards repeat the same lessons over and over again. 🙁
For the same reason modern liberals cannot restrain themselves.
Their life-way ideology does not include the option of leaving others alone, unless it is part of short term tactical move intended to undermine the opposition ideology.
I guess we have to repeatedly ask ourselves, “What part of ‘materialist totalitarian collectivist aims’ , ‘attention (tribute) must be paid or else!’, and “By any means necessary’ , is it that we do not get?”
Well, what we don’t get is the “mentality”. And we don’t get the mentality, because the man who is trained up to recognize limits and boundaries as part of his concept of a moral universe, cannot for long keep in mind the fundamental anthropological attitude of those others for whom reality is just a field in which power is directed and welling appetites are satiated.
It is probably good we cannot see into the self-worshiping but ultimately nihilistic minds of much of humankind.
If we could, we would probably all be convinced that devils really did exist … and in the flesh.
Geoffrey,
Russia plagued by Islamic terror attacks
Manju,
I well remember Beslan, the Chechen war and Chechens seizing that Moscow theater filled with nearly 1,000 people in October of 2002.
Russia crushed the Chechen resistance.
Islamic separatists in the Caucasus region are the new thorn in Putin’s side and if they get too troublesome, Putin will crush them as well.
Russia will tolerate low level attacks but Islam will never be allowed to become a mortal threat to Russia. The day that Russia’s oligarchs believe that has become the case is the day that Mecca ceases to exist.
What are the odds that every few years since the halt of the Korean War, someone has stated attacking North Korea will be too devastating?
How’s that working out?