Understandably, any American who has been paying attention to the North Korea escalation of nuke threats should be highly concerned.
Heck, as a third grader in elementary school in the early 1960’s, I certainly can recall drills with ear-piercing blaring sounds that sent us down to the basement area of the schools where we were told to huddle alongside the walls and hold some books over our heads…as if that would afford us any kind of protection from a nuclear strike from the crazy communists of the Soviet Union! But I digress…
IMHO, readers here could benefit by reading a blog called “The Last Refuge.” [a.k.a. “The Conservative Treehouse.”] The content is often spot on and the comment section often adds even more to the original post discussion.
Today I read More Granules – “Friends With Benefits” – Quiet Activity Appears After Phone Calls… Really good post! However, we find out even more valuable information via some of the comments there.
First, a video of Donald Trump being interviewed by Tim Russert in 1999:
Here’s the transcript:
Donald Trump outlines strategy against North Korea in ’99 Interview.
Tensions between the United States and North Korea have reach a boiling point. President Trump threatened to use ‘fire and fury’ against North Korea. The Hermit Kingdom responded by threatening to strike Guam.[NOTE: I do not own this video. No copyright infringement intended. All rights reserved to NBC and its subsidiaries.]
In an interview with NBC’s Tim Russert in 1999, then businessman Donald Trump voiced his support for a pre-emptive military strike against North Korea. The businessman told Russert on Meet The Press if he was President, a Trump administration would ‘negotiate like crazy’ to ‘get the best deal possible.’ If a deal was not possible, Trump said he would order a pre-emptive strike.
TIM RUSSERT[:..] “One is North Korea. And you say that you, as president, would be willing to launch a pre-emptive strike against North Korea’s nuclear capability.”
DONALD TRUMP: “First, I’d negotiate. I would negotiate like crazy. And I’d make sure that we tried to get the best deal possible. Look, Tim, if a man walks up to you on a street in Washington because this doesn’t happen, of course, in New York. But if a man walks up and puts a gun to your head and says, “Give me your money,” wouldn’t you rather know where he’s coming from before he had the gun in his hand? And these people in three or four years are going to be having nuclear weapons.”
“They’re going to have those weapons pointed all over the world and specifically at the United States. And wouldn’t you be better off solving this really potentially, unbelievable and the biggest problem. I mean, we can talk about the economy, we can talk about Social Security. The biggest problem this world has is nuclear proliferation.”
“And we have a country out there, North Korea, which is sort of wacko, which is not a bunch of dummies. And they are going out and they are developing nuclear weapons. And they’re not doing it because they’re having fun doing it. They’re doing it for a reason. And wouldn’t it be good to sit down and really negotiate something and ideally negotiate. Now, if that negotiation doesn’t work, you’d better solve the problem now than solve it later, Tim. And you know it and every politician knows it, and nobody wants to talk about it. Jimmy Carter, who I really like, he went over there. It was so soft. These people are laughing at us.”
TIM RUSSERT: “The former general of the Air Force, Meryl McPeek, the former secretary of defense, Les Aspin, said you could not launch a pre-emptive strike against North Korea because the nuclear fallout could be devastating to the Asian peninsula.”
DONALD TRUMP: “I’m not talking about I’m not talking about us using nuclear weapons. I’m saying that they have areas where they’re developing missiles.”
TIM RUSSERT: “No, but taking out their nuclear potential…”
DONALD TRUMP: “Do you know that this country, Tim…”
TIM RUSSERT: “…would create a fallout.”
DONALD TRUMP: “Tim, do you know that this country went out and gave them nuclear reactors, free fuel for 10 years? We we virtually tried to bribe them into stopping, and they’re continuing to do what they’re doing and they’re laughing at us. They think we’re a bunch of dummies. I’m saying that we have to do something to stop. Ideally…”
TIM RUSSERT: “But if the military told you, ‘Mr. Trump, we can’t do this’…”
DONALD TRUMP: “You give me two names you’re giving me two names. I don’t know. Do you want to do it in five years when they have warheads all over the place, every one of them pointing to New York City, to Washington and every one of our cities…is that when you want to do it, or do you want to do something now?”
[End Transcript]
Examples of great comments from “The Last Refuge” blog post:
Sylvia Avery says:
August 9, 2017 at 1:28 am
It all kind of makes my head spin, but it does all seem to tie together.
Some talking heads were totally freaking out today over NK. Understandable. I have been waking in the middle of the night to check the news to see if NK had nuked us yet since before the election.
However, I heard retired General Jack Keane a couple of times today on FOX. (Remember he had turned down an opportunity to be on PDJT’s team because of the death of his wife.) He has been saying essentially the same thing that SD has laid out with regards to NK, China, and the power of the economic sanctions.
Everyone waives their hands and dismisses sanctions, and Gen. Keane said, “yes, but not like what President Trump is considering.” He believes this NK issue will be handled through economics. I almost fall over laughing when I look at the expressions on the faces of the talking heads. Incredulous barely covers it. They really need to attend Sundance University.
Dana Perino asked Gen. Keane what people should tell their children who didn’t grow up in the Cold War like we did and are anxious. He said people need to understand that although President Trump hasn’t been in this line of work before, he has unbeatable instincts for the nuances of foreign affairs and he has put together the best national security team around him perhaps ever.
He said they are intelligent, experienced, measured men. He was VERY emphatic in saying we are in the best possible hands. I felt like saying something mature, like “take THAT Dana Perino you Bush loving fool.”
wolfmoon1776 says:
August 9, 2017 at 2:47 am
I want sundance’s hope to be true. I really do. Peace must be our goal.
But I am prepared for the downside. 100% prepared. Dirty Harry, Unforgiven, Josey Wales prepared.
Kim’s a victim of three generations of untreated mental illness. He’s been egged on by China, who buys his guns and pays his bail. He’s never has to pay a price for anything he’s done, and every time he thinks he might have to, he kills enough people to make the problem go away. Only this time, he’s up against a good man who won’t back down.
If Kim starts a big fight, he’s a hero to all these scum-of-the-earth Clinton progs who built him up with full intention, as a proxy for China to hold a gun on us. A fifth column, right here in America, already cheering for Fat Boy Kim against the President.
spit
So will Kim back down? No. That was never in the cards. Obastard knows it, too.
Kim will keep lobbing stuff and escalating. The proggies hope that Trump jumps in at the lowest Kim escalation possible, and wrongly, so that they can maximize political blame, “Bush” him, and win 2020. They will also carry out actions here under the cover of Kim’s antics.
Remember how cunning China is. Never forget.
SPIT
The way to beat them is to choose the right time, the right place, and the right response.
Obama’s lying “strategic patience” was to build Kim up.
Trump’s true strategic patience – should Kim choose war – is to bring him down.
Total victory. Political. Economic. Military. TOTAL.
End it. Empty his death camps. Then walk China past the ovens by breaking down their firewalls and make their citizens see what their own sick communist leaders did.
Make our proggies see it too.
As for what you are expecting, I hope I’m wrong, but to borrow some words….
“I reckon so.”
A2 says:
August 9, 2017 at 2:16 am
Forgive me as I am posting this again for all who haven’t read it if you are interested in the Trump/Ross/Mnuchin/Tillerson approach and sanctions on NK. “Risky Business: A System-Level Analysis of the North Korean Proliferation Financing System” (It is 38 pages , but many of the answers to questions you may have are there.)
It shows how economic sanctions may work and why Secs Ross and Mnuchin are implementing targeted trade bans and why they work.
Click to access 2f630-riskybusiness-c4ads.pdf
[Note from Christine: The above link is in PDF form and is 38 pages. Here is a live link: SquareSpace.com: Risky Business PDF]
This is not sound-bite analysis favored by the ‘News’. It shows how looking at the economic aspect and using that leverage may change behavior. Equally applies to Russia.
Yes! Here is hoping that the economic sanctions WILL work and that Crazy Kim will back down!
We all need to keep this dangerous situation in our prayers!
Talk Wisdom 
August 9, 2017 at 5:08 pm |
This is too funny!
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August 9, 2017 at 6:39 pm |
First of all, Conservative Treehouse got the timeline wrong.
Trump’s ‘fire and fury’ line is a result of the North Korean threat against Guam. A USAF bomber squadron flew over Korea last week in a show of force, as a result of the most recent launch of a North Korean missile that could reach as far as Guam. Those bombers operated from Guam, and Kim wanted to show that they were still vulnerable.
Of course, a missile strike would not stop a bomber flight that was already airborne.
For you, it probably would have been protection, since a theoretical attack would have targeted Manhattan, and you lived quite a ways from there. You would have ‘only’ had to be concerned about falling masonry and, later, radioactive clouds—unlike the ‘lucky’ ones who were instantly vaporized.
Trump’s always claimed he knows how to ‘deal’—he even campaigned on that. Well, here’s his chance.
I’m surprised you actually want him to succeed, ’cause you never said anything hopeful about economic sanctions when The Black Guy was doing them.
Heck, all we have to do is throw a few dozen Tomahawks at Kim, like we did with Assad a few months ago. That should shut him—oh, wait…Assad wasn’t “crazy”…and he didn’t have nukes, either.
Maybe we’re once again in a situation where our twisted egomaniac with nukes is up against another twisted egomaniac with nukes. Now that’s something to pray about!
Are we great again yet?
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