The nuclear war tweet heard 'round the world

[riversedge]

The nuclear war tweet heard 'round the world




http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/03/politics/blake-farenthold-paying-back-funds/index.html
Stephen Collinson Profile

Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN

Updated 7:17 AM ET, Wed January 3, 2018
Trump launches Twitter tirade first day back


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...........................But before Trump, no US President has made such public and cavalier threats, apparently relishing the power he wields as the person who could, by himself, deploy America's earth-shattering nuclear arsenal within a matter of minutes.
Trump's gambit is all the more risky since it is likely to alienate US allies, anger key world powers like Russia and China that Washington needs to resolve the standoff and because no one knows how the unpredictable Kim will respond.
"To call it juvenile would be an insult to children for what he did tonight," retired Adm. John Kirby, a former State Department and Pentagon spokesman told CNN's Jake Tapper on Tuesday.


"I do think in the halls of the Pentagon and the State Department, there has got to be a lot of concern over this, because he is the President of the United States. His tweets are going to be taken as official policy," said Kirby, now a CNN analyst. "There is no question they are going to lead to miscalculation and confusion over there."


Trump's salvo raised questions about how far he appreciates the gravity of the standoff with North Korea that Adm. Mike Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned Sunday is heading ever closer to nuclear war.


It will inevitably ratchet up fears in Northeast Asia that raging tensions between the US and North Korea could trigger a miscalculation that could quickly lead to the most ruinous conflict in many decades.



And his intervention also appears likely to undermine what has been his successful effort to get world powers to line up alongside the US to impose themes punitive sanctions yet on the Stalinist North.
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Trump's behavior raises questions of competency
It illustrates how he has turned the United States from being a bulwark of stability and sobriety in the international system into an agent of disruption and unpredictability in his own volatile image.
It also undercuts the idea that his unpredictable instincts are reined in by more experienced administration officials, such as Defense Secretary James Mattis.