These guys are crazy, and its about time somebody bitch- slapped some sense into them. Hey, I’m all in favor of diplomacy and sanctions and working through our allies and the world community, blah blah. But we’ve been trying that for half a century now and not only has it not worked, its only encouraged these dingbats to escalate. Like all bullies, they always mistake restraint for weakness, and once that concept is established and reinforced you have to move on to more forceful measures.

Yeah, I’m well aware of all the things that could go wrong here, war could erupt by accident even if both sides are determined to prevent it, but its likely now that the DPRK’s allies have started to realize that not only have they miscalculated, but that they could be the next victims of blackmail. It’s in their interest to put a stop to the Kims, or the Uns, or the Parks, or whatever the hell they call themselves. And besides, its highly unlikely that Korean nuke/ICBM tech is fully operational. In a few years, it will be. Now is the time to act.

The situation is analogous to how we have handled the Castros in Cuba. Our policy there seemed like the smart thing to do at the time, but after half a century of it getting us nowhere, maybe its time to try something else. Maybe its time for us to reverse course in Korea, too.

Trump has done a good job of establishing himself as a loose cannon capable of doing something really stupid; and that perception may actually turn out to have a positive influence on events. I hope they do, because that dodge won’t work in the future if he chickens out on us now.

Of course, his public pronouncements on the subject have been very ill-considered. He could have said the same things quietly and privately through diplomatic channels and they would have been more effective but with much less risk for embarrassment if they had to be dialed back later. Still, what’s done is done, and maybe we’ll get away with it this time. It won’t work again. We have now committed ourselves to a strategy with less wiggle room, but that might be just what we need to sound more convincing.

Should we rely on our nukes? Certainly not, UNLESS the N Koreans use theirs, in which case we should use ours. Being hit (or letting one of our allies get hit) with nuclear weapons must not go unanswered. The only thing worse than not having nuclear weapons is having them and being afraid to use them. Yes, I know the possibilities of an accidental nuclear exchange are terrifying, but the possibility of us being perceived as a nation NOT willing to use them when fully justified dilutes their deterrent value completely. As for any conventional attack employed by the DPRK, we should respond with an order of magnitude greater escalation (short of nukes)

I know these are hard choices, and I don’t trust Trump to guide us through them wisely, but let’s face it, he wasn’t the one that got us into this mess. This has been a thoroughly bipartisan clusterfuck on our part, and our attempts to be “adult” about dealing with it have only contributed to having Trump being the one left holding the bag. We brought this one on ourselves.