Pic Of The Moment: It's Almost As If The 3 Previous Presidents Had A Proper Plan To Deal With NK

[EarlG]

List of North Korean missile tests

Follow @demunderground

[yallerdawg]

1. Whenever you threaten a nation with a preemptive military strike...

you're asking for trouble.

Many historians point to our Japanese oil embargo as the initiating event that made World War II a certainty.

Now we are hearing about WW III.

[unblock]

2. our japanese oil embargo caused hitler to invade poland?

[yallerdawg]

4. Hitler invading Poland did not bring us into war.

Pearl Harbor, on the other hand, was considered a retaliatory imperative on the part of Japan as a response to our oil embargo.

And THEN treaties and alliances kicked in.

I'm sure there are many who think like Trump - "Let's just kick North Korea's ass and take no shit from anyone."

Then - we have WWIII.

[unblock]

7. hitler invading poland is generally considered to be the start of world war ii.

and that's when treaties and alliances kicked in.

you're talking only about events leading up to america becoming a declared, mobilized participant in a world war that had already been raging for more than two years.

[yallerdawg]

8. Except when half the world is not active in a war...

how is that a world war?

I guess you are missing my point.

We are initiating another round of major sanctions against North Korea - provocations, not negotiations.

China and Russia have both asked us to ratchet down and back off. Both are engaged in a variety of provocative military exercises of their own, targeted at other allies of our own.

This is uncalled for brinksmanship which that jackass in the White House initiated.

The POINT is, Trump is not making us safer. He is itching for something we feared long before he found himself in the White House, and now realizes North Korea is a "wonderful distraction" - as other beleaguered presidents discovered.

[unblock]

11. i agree about donnie. horrible person to have in charge of lunch, never mind war and peace.

just correcting a point of history.

it didn't become a world war at the moment *we* formally joined it. by then war had been going on for a long time, involving many countries, in virtually all of europe and much of asia as well as africa and the middle east.

the only real debate as to when it started was the german invasion of poland in 1939 or the japanese invasion of china in 1937.

[IronLionZion]

21. The Asian part of the war started years before that

with Japan and China in 1937. USA supported China against Japan. So that history goes way back before Pearl Harbor in 1941.

[VMA131Marine]

3. Unfortunately, correlation does not equal causation.

This graphic is really weak because you would expect the DPRK missile success rate to improve as they gain experience.

[yallerdawg]

5. This is escalation.

Caused by rightwing provocation.

There is your correlation.

[TomCADem]

12. Even on DU, Trump's Foreign Policy Has Its Defenders...

...try it out for yourself. Post a critical thread about how Trump has been handling North Korea, and regardless of how outrageous Trump has acted, you will get someone posting that Trump's actions are not really having any effect one way or the other because North Korea is just crazy.

Of course, given that the Trump administration is increasing tensions with Iran, which did reach a nuclear deal under President Obama, and has launched cruise missiles into Syria on an impulse, and announced that era of strategic patience with North Korea is over, as well as threatened to rain fire on North Korea, then perhaps North Korea is actually acting in a rationale manner. Put another way, why hasn't Trump resisted the urge to launch cruise missiles into North Korea? Because North Korea might start shooting into Seoul.

If Hillary Clinton was President, she would be easing tensions with Iran as a reward for negotiating regarding their nukes, she would not be alienating key allies, and she would not be boasting about how the U.S. could turn North Korea into a crater, which pretty much invites North Korea to accelerate its nuclear testing program as a deterrent. North Korea sees how Republicans are still itching to start a war with Iran, since they have not developed a nuclear arsenal. Trump's policies reward aggression and punish diplomacy.

[dalton99a]

20. +1

[Gothmog]

6. K&R

[SunSeeker]

9. K & R

[gordianot]

10. Another milestone an ally of the United States set off a Civil Defense alert.

Not a test but shelter in place. When is the last time that happened? Could this be a Trump first?

[Corvo Bianco]

13. Great DT photo guys.

Successful companies are smart enough to know that if you have no staff you have angry customers and you lose money. Trump staffs the state department with his empty brain and Exxon, and baby Kim is unhappy.

Major failure, two thumbs down, I prefer presidencies that don't invite nuclear war.

[MyOwnPeace]

16. Great photo...........

Good point!
Kinda' looks like he'd work like a conch shell - get close enough to it and you can hear the surf!

[wryter2000]

14. I don't remember Bush being too wise

Remember "the axis of evil?"

[DallasNE]

15. No Joking Matter, Actually

This has happened for a reason and it is not reassuring - not in the least.

Trump came into office flapping his jaw and North Korea responded. Trump then escalated with his "fire and fury" comments and North Korea has responded with their first hydrogen bomb test, displayed a photo showing a hydrogen warhead sized to fit on top of a rocket and fired 2 long range ICBM missiles over Japan. So much for drawing that line in the sand. But I don't think anybody is surprised at the rapid escalation with North Korea.

The problem is that I don't see any cooler heads that can turn this around and so far only one side is bluffing and bluffing and bluffing. When you get to this point the issue becomes saving face and human ego so how can cooler heads penetrate such a dilemma. Trump is declaring victory saying the sanctions are working but, of course, offers no evidence. That will not be well received in North Korea - they will respond. Then what?

[USALiberal]

17. Well, part of it is their ability and technology to launch them is improving. n/t

[Initech]

18. ...

[Rhiannon12866]

19. In 1994, Jimmy Carter negotiated an agreement with North Korea for the Clinton administration

He's not only a diplomat, but a nuclear engineer, so he knew what he was talking about and they took him seriously. What they asked for in return was respect, which he gave them, and SoS Madeline Albright continued this successful policy which held until 2002 - when Bush* included North Korea in his "Axis of Evil." It's been downhill ever since. Sanctions and threats don't work. We need Jimmy Carter.

[judesedit]

22. But ..when Bush took office NK had 2 nukes. When he left 8

[Turbineguy]

23. The new policy is to

challenge them to build bigger and better bombs and more reliable and capable delivery systems.

“A Fool lies here who tried to hustle the East.”