Why is President Trump sending a great Naval Armada to threaten North Korea? What is the sense of a policy that threatens a country that arms itself because it feels threatened? What are we worried about? Nuclear weapons in the hands of nation-states are defensive weapons. Kim Jeong Un may be crazy but he is not stupid, nor is he suicidal. If we want North Korea to be less hostile and to back off of its nuclear and ballistic missile programs the US should be less hostile, not more so. Our military moves exacerbate North Korean paranoia. That is counterproductive. The best policy is to lay off the saber rattling and give North Korea some assurance that we have no need nor any intention of attacking them.
Published by The Seattle Times on April 21, 2017.