I’m going to make this fairly short, but something struck me this morning. Amid the myriad of issues plaguing the inept and often treasonous president, the heightening tensions with North Korea seem to continually get pushed to the limelight and then washed away again. Russia seems to be what most of us think will be his undoing, but a new article today by the Washington Post has me thinking the Cheeto-in-chief might just be his own undoing. (link to their article here)
According to sources in Bern, Switzerland, North Korea has been trying to contact Republican leadership (not those currently serving in any official capacity though) to start diplomatic talks on how to reign in Trump’s war mongering behavior. North Koreans exhibited an encyclopedic knowledge of Trump’s tweets and seem generally puzzled as to why the president says one thing and his Secretary of State and other staff will then go on to directly contradict him. According to the WaPo article, North Korea currently has seven (unofficial) requests for information and talks. This seems to point to the idea that they do not want a war with the US. And even though we’re all pretty consistent in our thoughts of how much Republicans in general start wars, I’m confident a full scale nuclear war with North Korea is not in that list of wars to start.
This now begs the question: if GOP leadership cannot get Trump to calm down and stop his threats, will this finally be the last straw? Trump is not known for backing down on his stances, and if he refuses, will we all have North Korea to thank for helping take out the worst president and one of our greatest shames?
Republicans for all their short-sighted and delusional rhetoric and legislation, would not be too happy about starting a conflict with a country we’ve already faced in our (not too distant) history. That war was not pretty even then. Now we’re looking at a very different situation and one that seems completely one-sided. North Korea has to show itself publicly to be strong (how else would a dictator stay in power?), but as last week’s South Park pointed out, they do not want a war with us. Tensions are one thing, but the US military is massive and the best funded in the world. But Trump’s own threats are beyond what is acceptable for the North Korean leadership to just stand by and take without some kind of retaliation. I think the recent missile tests have been not-so-subtle shows of power in direct response to the threatening tweets (on top of the sanctions and our refusal to recognize them as a nuclear power). But starting a war with the US wouldn’t be pretty for either side.
So this is all just food for thought, but it’s worth considering that the current president may just get ousted by his own party if he cannot be pushed to tame down his threats and resume some kind of normal diplomatic relations… whatever that really means in regards to North Korea.