Fire & Fury
Here is a quick summary of major events that took place in the past 48 hours.
- The Washington Post reported that North Korea has successfully miniaturized nuclear weapons -- the essential step to delivering one with an ICBM. (If North Korea has miniaturized nuclear weapons then Iran has miniaturized nuclear weapons.)
- U.S. intelligence reported that North Korea was loading cruise missiles onto patrol boats -- threatening our aircraft carriers and other U.S. Navy vessels.
- Official North Korean media announced that the regime is "carefully examining" a preemptive strike on Guam, home to more than 160,000 people and a major U.S. Air Force base. It also threatened the United States with "extinction."
- President Trump warned North Korea that if it dares to harm the U.S. or our allies, "they will be met with fire, fury and, frankly, power the likes of which this world has never seen before."
Okay, class, here is your only test question today: Whom did Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and John McCain (R-AZ) attack yesterday evening after these events? North Korea? No. The answer is . . . President Donald Trump.
You see, it is not deliverable nuclear warheads or cruise missiles or a third generation dictator threatening millions of Americans that has upset political elites. It is President Trump, who is refusing to follow the same failed, weak policies of the past.
Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer blasted the president for his "reckless rhetoric." Sen. Feinstein said the president's "bombastic comments" were not helpful. And Sen. McCain said this: "The great leaders I've seen don't threaten unless they're ready to act and I'm not sure President Trump is ready to act."
For these politicians to be attacking the president's rhetoric in the middle of a nuclear showdown is disgusting!
North Korea's foreign policy has been very simple for decades: To march day-by-day toward becoming a nuclear power while threatening its neighbors. The past three presidents have followed the same bi-partisan foreign policy: Ask North Korea's dictators how many billions of dollars we must give them to stop their nuclear program.
Obviously that approach has failed.
And because three previous presidents have allowed this problem to be passed on to their successors, our current president now finds himself with virtually no room to maneuver. Clinton, Bush and Obama were playing for time. Now the clock has run out.
Trump's Audience
President Trump's bold statement was directed to multiple audiences yesterday. The reason we got a 15-to-0 vote against North Korea at the U.N. Security Council last weekend is that President Trump likely said privately to the leaders of China and Russia exactly what he said publicly yesterday.
The president also has to be concerned with the people of South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan and Malaysia. If we give in again and pay the extortion North Korea is demanding because they are on the brink of a nuclear weapon, we lose all credibility in any serious confrontation with China, which already many nuclear weapons.
Of course, the president's remarks were also for Kim Jong-un's ears. He has grown up in a regime that has gotten its way year after year after year.
In spite of the comments of some politicians and big media editorial boards, the best thing that could happen in this situation is for the leader of North Korea to believe he has no idea what Donald Trump might do. Kim needs to understand that he is not dealing with Bill Clinton, George W. Bush or Barack Obama.
Trump's words were also directed at the mullahs of Iran. They got their payoff from Obama. They banked their billions, and I guarantee they are continuing their nuclear program in vast underground bunkers.
Tehran is likely to provide the next round of harrowing headlines. The bill for the appeasement policies of the last president has still not been paid in full.
Clueless Elites
Our foreign policy elites and our "leaders" in Congress are so clueless and confused that they think the problem is Trump's rhetoric. They believe that more soft talk and no action is the solution.
If they prevail, future headlines will declare that Pyongyang has 15 armed ICBMs aimed at Honolulu, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Dallas, Denver, etc., and is demanding that we withdraw from South Korea and Japan.
This is an anxiety producing time. It is also a time when we should replenish depleted weapons systems, as well as replenish our moral reservoir and our reliance on the God of Abraham.