Trumps Threat to North Korea Was Improvised

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/09/us/politics/trump-north-korea.html

BRIDGEWATER, N.J. — President Trump delivered his “fire and fury” threat to North Korea on Tuesday with arms folded, jaw set and eyes flitting on what appeared to be a single page of talking points set before him on the conference table at his New Jersey golf resort.

The piece of paper, as it turned out, was a fact sheet on the opioid crisis he had come to talk about, and his ominous warning to Pyongyang was entirely improvised, according to several people with direct knowledge of what unfolded. In discussions with advisers beforehand, he had not run the specific language by them.

The inflammatory words quickly escalated the confrontation with North Korea to a new, alarming level and were followed shortly by a new threat from North Korea to obliterate an American air base on Guam. In the hours since, the president’s advisers have sought to calm the situation, with Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson assuring Americans that they “should sleep at night” without worrying about an imminent war.

But the president’s ad-libbed threat reflected an evolving and still unsettled approach to one of the most dangerous hot spots in the world as Mr. Trump and his team debate diplomatic, economic and military options.





What could go wrong?

[riversedge]

1. And most repugs think it was genius!!

[Chemisse]

5. And they would think it was a great move if Trump nuked N. Korea.

They are a brainless people, those Trump devotees.

[Gothmog]

2. Who is surprised by this?

Everything trump does is improvised which is code for pulling it out of his ass

[Kingofalldems]

3. Trump is this kid:

[jpak]

4. Oopsie - I just started a war with NK

Now watch this drive.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

6. The comments sections on new sites were rather discouraging

wingnuts seem to be eager to see Trump nuke NK (without any consideration of consequences, of course).

[maryellen99]

13. They don't realize the fallout will drift over here.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

18. Of course not

they are not thinking past the immediate "rush" they will get watching everything unfold on live TV.

[mr_lebowski]

19. I would think any appreciably sized strike has the potential to sicken and maybe kill ...

depending on where the strike(s) are ... thousands if not 10's of 1000's (and millions, long term) ... of our allies in SK, our allies in Japan, our trade partner & nuclear power China, and possibly even Russia.

These morons obviously have NO CLUE how much of an International SHIT STORM would occur if we were to drop Nukes on NK.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

7. Ya think so?

His words certainly weren't well chosen.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

8. A POTUS simply does NOT "improvise" or "ad-lib" things like this

His/Her words have meaning and consequence well beyond that of a blowhard Fox host like Sean Hannity or your crazy wingnut uncle. We can only hope that Trump/Kim stop triggering each other before one of them pushes "the button".

[bdamomma]

9. trump needs to be locked up

permanently. He is a threat to himself and others.

[Wellstone ruled]

10. Well NYT,time to take this phoney to the Wooe shed once and for all..

The Idiot plagiarized your paper.

[area51]

11. Once again, Trump keeps repeating his words because his vocabulary is getting smaller,

which I believe is evidence of his dementia. Plus, crossing your arms in front of you is a defensive posture, which makes him look weak.

[Orsino]

12. *Everything* trump does is improvised.

Everything that's not cut-and-pasted, that is.

Every time he opens his mouth, he's bluffing, because he has no idea what he's doing and is utterly dependent on handlers to make things come out sort of right.

[Glimmer of Hope]

17. Yeah, he is just "winging it". What could go wrong?

[Initech]

14. Improvised Explosive Head?

[GoCubsGo]

15. Yeah, no kidding.

Most of what he says and does is reactionary. I'm not sure he's even capable of things like foresight and planning.

[Alhena]

16. But Mattis just released a similar statement - link

A bit more measured, but not much.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/mattis-warns-north-korea-end-regime-destruction-people/story?id=49116627

[longship]

20. As Rachel Maddow speculated last night.

Hell, we don't even know for sure if the DPRK even has a deliverable nuke. Building one is no wee task, especially one that can survive reentry and explode at a target.

Given DPRK's credibility on previous occasions, I have my doubts. But then again I do not have the intelligence at my fingertips, presuming that such information even provides a definitive answer, which is likely wise for one to similarly doubt.

Regardless, the USA should probably posture as if the DPRK had such weapons. I don't know what that might entail. Hopefully not gamesmanship.