Donald Trump’s decision to “walk away” from his always dubious summit with North Korean strongman/torturer/mass murderer Kim Jong-un was greeted with sighs—indeed heartfelt gasps—of relief on the part of the MIC (Military Intellectual Complex), including the editors of the National Review who rightfully pummeled Trump for his obvious and continuing affection—and indeed admiration—for Little Kim, who surely had no knowledge that his thugs were torturing Otto Warmbier, an American citizen, to death during the course of his 17-month captivity in a North Korean prison. Because how could a busy dictator keep track of all the people he’s torturing.
Yet I (naturally) can’t resist wishing that Big Donnie and Little K had gone all the way to consummate their deal o’ the century, in which Trump would have given Kim all that he wanted, including a peace treaty officially ending the Korean War, in return for vague promises about denuclearization that would have committed the North Koreans to nothing they wouldn’t have done on their own for their own purposes. Such an agreement could have significantly reduced tensions, and even (perhaps) allowed saving a few bucks through reductions of U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, and (best of all) thoroughly enraged and pissed off the entire right-wing MIC while the “liberal” MICs clucked their tongues in mingled horror and delight. Admitting that North Korea doesn’t constitute a “direct threat” to the U.S.? Now that’s an impeachable offense!
But of course that didn’t happen. These days, only bad dreams come true. Still, Trump’s palpable embrace of his little bitty North Korean buddy/killing machine naturally and deservedly left a very bad taste in the mouth of the National Review and others on the right, a reminder that, no matter how tightly you hold your nose, Trump still stinks.
Afterwords
While Trump isn’t beating the drums of war with regard to North Korea—and that puts him one up on the Obama Administration—he most definitely is when it comes to Iran, while continuing to blow both hot and cold on China—though once again I’m, yes, dreaming that he will take a dive on all his tough talk regarding all the money the Chinese are supposedly “stealing” from us and agree, as he did on NAFTA, on a face-saving agreement that doesn’t anger the Chinese, which be nice for the economy and help reduce tensions between the U.S. and China. As for Iran, well, I don’t want to dream about that one. It’s just too damn ugly.
Special Unrelated Shout-out
Virtually every mainstream/lamestream press article on North Korea contains a laundry list of all the times North Korea has violated previous agreements with the U.S. That’s why I want to give a big fat hat-tip to the often tediously mainstream/lamestream Fareed Zakaria for daring to point out that the U.S. doesn’t exactly have clean hands in the matter, linking to a longer piece by Annalisa Merelli with the self-explanatory title “It’s not just Trump. The US has always broken its treaties, pacts and promises”.
In the past I’ve loudly pooh-poohed all the “experts” who have loudly proclaimed they’re shitting their pants in fear of the all-but-inevitable Northern Korea nuclear assault on the U.S.A. since the Clinton Administration.
UPDATE
News that North Korea is rebuilding a missile-testing facility, helpfully provided, I suspect, by MIC types angry that President Trump isn't pretending to be terrified of a nuclear attack from his buddy Kim, should provoke further tongue clucking within the MIC fraternity.
