Mike Bloomberg wants more engagement with Iran, North Korea and China

[brooklynite]

Washington Post

THE BIG IDEA: Mike Bloomberg thinks that maybe “an emergency phone” line should be installed so that Iranian and American officials can easily get in touch, like the red teletype hotline that connected the Pentagon with the Kremlin after the Cuban missile crisis. This, he hopes, could avoid misunderstandings that might lead to full-scale war.

The billionaire former mayor of New York, running for the Democratic presidential nomination, believes broadly in the value of engaging with American adversaries. “We should talk to the North Koreans. I think [President] Trump is right on that,” Bloomberg said during a half-hour interview last night. “We need China,” he added.

Bloomberg called to discuss the economic plan that he will roll out today at a community college in the South Side of Chicago, on a soybean farm in rural Minnesota and at a converted tire factory in Akron, Ohio.

But he grew most animated when discussing World War I. When I asked how he’d handle the current Iran crisis if he were in the Oval Office, Bloomberg mused at length about the “emotion” and “miscalculations” a century ago in Europe that spiraled into a four-year conflict, bringing down monarchies and forever changing the nature of combat. He said the best book he’s read in a while is “Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War,” by the British journalist Max Hastings.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

1. I thought Trump was already engaged to North Korea's Kim Yung Un.

Didn't Fat Donnie tell us he was in love with the dictator because he wrote "beautiful letters"?

[crazytown]

2. " I think [President] Trump is right on that," Bloomberg said

[Bradical79]

3. Never ever say "Trump was right"

Outside of the occasional very broad concept, Trump is never right. He is always wrong when it comes to his methods, goals, and follow up.