"The fact that you think this was a success means you are a monumental idiot who knows nothing..."

[kpete]

@SteveSchmidtSES
by the way this is from Lt. Col Fred Wellman. Graduate of West Point and a veteran of more tours in more places than I can count. He knows something of the world.

Link to tweet

@FPWellman
The fact that you think this was a success means you are a monumental idiot who knows nothing about North Korea or an extraordinary liar. Either way no one with half a brain thinks DPRK repeating lies of the past while we unilaterally give up joint exercises is a “win”.

Link to tweet

[Eyeball_Kid]

1. And where are those courageous GOPers who are enraged at Trumpy's antics?

There aren't even crickets around to chirp. The GOP is a Dead Zone.

[DemocracyMouse]

2. Really well put, Eyeball Kid!

[Sophia4]

3. It's a bad deal, but then, we've tried having joint exercises and isolating North Korea

for well over 50 years, and the people of North Korea are still oppressed and without hope.

South Korea has the industrial strength to defend itself as well without us as with us, and we will not be far away from their country, capable of entering at any hint of a breach of the agreement by North Korea.

So maybe not all is lost.

I am optimistic that the Korean people will stand up for themselves. I have Korean neighbors. If there is war, it will be between North and South Korea at least at the beginning. Their fate is now up to them as I see it.

I don't trust Trump at all, and I realize this is a huge gamble. But sooner or later something has to change in that situation. And it will be now easier to know what is going on in North Korea.

[olegramps]

4. I served in South Korea along the DMZ.

If a war did break out Seoul would be wiped out the matter of minutes with the massive conventual artillery that in dug in along the entire border between South and North Korea. It is dug in to the mountains and could withstand for a large part any attempt to neutralize it. Believe me that the troops stationed anywhere near the border would suffer tremendous causalities. This is a fact, not speculation. The only thing that has deterred North Korea to not destroy the South is our presence. Watch for what the North Koreans start to demand in the negotiations.
After signing the truce to the end of the Korean War they will push for reduction of US troop deployments. I may be wrong but, I will be very surprised if they actually give up their nuclear weapons.

[smirkymonkey]

5. Thanks for your perspective.

Very frightening.

[Sophia4]

6. All true. But what is the alternative?

[olegramps]

7. Unfortunately, perhaps that we will have to live with their nuclear capabilities.

Where it will all end is anyone's guess. The nations that now have nuclear weapons has escalated with more believing that they are a necessary deterrent from being attacked. When the world comes to its senses and agrees to complete disbarment is not in the foreseeable future.

It is at best a precarious situation that we can only hope is not triggered by error or intent. I fear that Trump is unstable and not capable of serious reflection. The presidency has become nothing more than a third rate reality show that is like a trip through Alice's wonderland. This administration looks like a cast straight out of Lewis Carroll's fantasy with Trump playing the Queen of Hearts yelling "Off with their heads" as he cast one after the other out the door. We can only hope that we are not all sweep away in a"River of tears" in a madcap race run in a circle with no winners. This summit, if one can go so far to call it that, was like a scene out of the Mad Hater's Tea Party slapping each other on the back, smiling like a pair of Cheshire Cats. Now we have Republican Tribe exclaiming from the roof tops how their glorious leader adverted a disaster of his own making and the Koreans congratulating their diminutive Goliath of his victory over the capitalistic swine. The surrealism of this fiasco would have astounded Carroll.

Yes, I hope for the sake of mankind that the threat is reduced or even eliminated, but I am not holding my breath. The North Koreas are truthful as the president.

[Sophia4]

10. All very true. But what is our alternative?

Two egomaniacs. It is a gamble either way.

Trump went overboard emotionally. But it only changes the reality slightly.

If we ignore Kim Jong Un, we could easily find ourselves attacked and in a terrible war. At the very least, we don't have much impact on his sneaking around. And then there is Russia. We have to take care of our problem with Russia and Trump before we can deal with a lot of other things.

If we do what Trump is doing (although he is clearly overdoing it), we can buy some time to take care of other things including watching N. Korea very carefully.

So, this is not a good situation. But what, really, are our choices? I just wish we had a sane president. Trump overplayed the harmony and praise. But he does not know what he is doing.

North Korea is out of control. But so is Trump.

That is my opinion.

Now we have to be very careful and encourage a situation in which the North Korean people learn as much about what is going on in other countries as possible.

[anneboleyn]

8. Trump is doing this for his master Putin. I have no idea why you think that stopping our joint

military exercises with our ally is anything other than an utterly bizarre gesture (from the American viewpoint) and blatant caving in to what Putin wants (in fact there is another thread detailing that Putin told Trump to do this very thing a few months ago).

What in the hell have we gained? We made quite an outrageous promise that undermines our ally (anyone with knowledge of how an actual breakout of war would look there knows that an American military presence makes quite a massive difference), and took our military leaders by surprise, something that was suggested by Putin ffs, and what amazing things did we get in return? A “promise” to start doing “something” at some point?

Trump is not only a disaster; he is showing how dangerous he is on all levels.

[Sophia4]

9. Good points. N. Korea has nuclear weapons. What is the alternative? War?

Or maybe something else?

[olegramps]

12. Perhaps we live with exactly what we live with China and Russia. The threat of mutual destruction.

Either side knows that to launch a nuclear war would also seal their absolute destruction. If Korea was to launch missiles they know that their country would cease to exist. Even if they managed to hit some US cities within minutes they would be totally annihilated That is the fact. Could it be disastrous? Absolutely. The same scenario exists between India and Pakistan. It is a new form of stalemate.

[maxsolomon]

11. Trump is lying.

He laid on the salesman/con man shtick, blowing smoke up Kim's ass, papering over decades of systemic brutality to get his "win".

Kim is also lying. That's why they get along so well.

Fucking Sociopaths.