Tillerson urges calm on North Korea, says no imminent threat

[Julian Englis]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged calm and said Americans should have “no concerns” after North Korea and President Donald Trump traded fiery threats, insisting Wednesday he doesn’t believe there is “any imminent threat.”

“Americans should sleep well at night,” Tillerson said.

In more tranquil terms, Tillerson sought to explain the thinking behind Trump’s warning to Pyongyang that it would be “met with fire and fury like the world has never seen” if it made more threats to the United States. Tillerson said Trump was trying to send a strong and clear message to North Korea’s leader so that there wouldn’t be “any miscalculation.”

“What the president is doing is sending a strong message to North Korea in language that Kim Jong Un can understand, because he doesn’t seem to understand diplomatic language,” Tillerson said. “I think the president just wanted to be clear to the North Korean regime on the U.S. unquestionable ability to defend itself, will defend itself and its allies.”

Read more: https://apnews.com/931769550f3b433ca64f6c5e633da23b/Tillerson-urges-calm-on-North-Korea,-says-no-imminent-threat?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP_Politics

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Link to tweet

[Danmel]

1. "sleep well at night??"

I haven't slept well since November 7th. (And really since he got the nomination). How can I sleep well when everything and everyone I care about is in that idiots hands?

We are one temper tantrum or paranoid delusion away from nuclear holocaust.

And even if cooler heads prevail, we still face climate change, human rights, health care, and on and on and on.
To paraphrase Shakespeare "Trump hath murdered sleep. Danmel shall sleep no more.'

[SunSeeker]

7. Exactly. nt

[Donkees]

2. ''Full of Sound and Fury, Signifying nothing''

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Macbeth → Act 5 Scene 5

[Eugene]

3. How long until the Orange One contradicts him via Twitter?

[Javaman]

5. count down till the orange menace contradicts him with a tweet...3..2..1..nt

[KRISITNA]

6. Meanwhile this morning

45 ramps up his tweets....My first order as President was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before....Tillerson calls for calm, 45 beats the war drum, we are so fucked.

[leon8822]

8. Someone needs to tell this idiot it only takes 1

Nuclear weapon to launch to cause severe destruction.This Trump is a fucking idiot

[xor]

10. Wow, he actually said that.

What world does he live in that has him thinking that he could have initiated any program that "modernized" our nuclear arsenal in only seven months?

[KRISITNA]

11. another day, another lie

[Igel]

15. Not the grammar.

Let's parse "he said that his first order as president had been to 'renovate and modernize' the U.S. nuclear arsenal" and save the outrage until after we understand the language used.

Did he say that the nuclear weapons program was modernized? No. He said an order was given to accomplish that. Now that's a past tense verb and the easy thing to do is assume that everything after it is also in the past. It's like "John's mother said he had to finish high school." That doesn't even suggest that John's finished high school. If John's 23, then the inference is he did. If John's 17, the likely correct inference is he doesn't want to attend but is still in high school.

So there's no evidence in what he said that should lead us to think, just on the basis of what he said, that the nuclear arsenal was modernized in just seven months. That's a false claim, and if we like accuracy and truth, then the falseness of the claim should be rejected. Whatever else you think about Trump and Tillerson, saying something that's false isn't good, even if you think it's true, even if it wins a rhetorical argument with the falsehood as the basis for winning (and winning's always good, right--what matters isn't morality, ethics, truth, but sheer power to bully and compel others). That's called a straw man.

What Tillerson claimed that what happened was a speech act, an order, and the reasonable argument has to be, "Did Trump issue such an order?"

Don't know. Depends on how you define "order" and what's implied by what was done and what you think will happen next. Other presidents have been criticized for calling less "an order" and yet others nailed for not calling even less an order. Words shift meanings when we need to win an argument; having words shift meanings without taking that into account is no less a fallacy than a straw man. Both stake critical thinking through the heart; in this case, critical thinking sucks the blood out of the arguments and leaves them pale, shaking, and feeble.

https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2017-03/news/trump-questions-us-nuclear-policies
https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/USNuclearModernization
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/07/why-modernizing-us-nuclear-arsenal-may-find-more-bipartisan-support.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-nuclear-future-idUSKCN11W2IW (it's what HRC would have done)
http://billmoyers.com/story/the-trillion-dollar-question-the-media-have-neglected-to-ask-presidential-candidates/ (so it's sort of the next step in thinking that began in 2016)

[xor]

16. I took the part where he said it's now stronger than ever

to imply that he wants the public to believe it was his order/actions/words/praying/whatever that made it stronger than it was before. Which falls squarely inline with the "Obama gutted the military and now Trump is fixing it" narrative that is constantly being pushed by the right-wing pundits and politicians. Which is in turn parroted by their followers who take it as gospel.

My first order as President was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before....

[ansible]

9. For someone chosen by Trump, Tillerson sounds a hell of a lot more reasonable than Trump himself

I wonder how long until Trump stabs him in the back too

[pangaia]

12. jeeze, rex. Whatever the fuck would we do without you?

Eh, just go back to your shit can.. errr, oil can.

[uppityperson]

13. Uh. Huh.

to Tillerson

[DK504]

14. Rexxon says what?

" ... urged calm and said Americans should have “no concerns” after North Korea and President Donald Trump traded fiery threats, insisting Wednesday he doesn’t believe there is “any imminent threat.”

We were told they were months if not a year away from something like this. Telling the lunatic of NK we will come after him is an invitation for him laucn against us and our allies. These are the most dangerous and incompetent people in the world in charge of the top 2 nuclear arsenals, staying calm is the last fucking thing we should do.

[BumRushDaShow]

17. He won't sleep well if

Kim Jong-Un suddenly aimed some missiles at the nearest oil fields.