Donald Trump has made numerous threats to attack North Korea recently. He said their threats would be met with "fire and fury", and later said the U.S. Military was "locked and loaded".The obvious inference was that he has a viable military option, and was ready to use it. Was he just blowing smoke -- trying to threaten North Korea in hopes they would knuckle under? Was he just being a bully -- his favorite (and only) "diplomatic" maneuver? Or is he really crazy enough to believe he actually has a viable military option?
Hopefully, it was the latter -- just lies and bullying (even though that is useless against North Korea). The last thing we need is another war -- one that could kill millions.
One of Trump's closest advisors in the White House, Steve Bannon, seems to think it was just Trump blowing smoke. Bannon, in an interview with The American Prospect, said the following:
“There’s no military solution [to North Korea’s nuclear threats], forget it. Until somebody solves the part of the equation that shows me that ten million people in Seoul don’t die in the first 30 minutes from conventional weapons, I don’t know what you’re talking about, there’s no military solution here, they got us.”
I believe that is true, although it's rather frightening to think that Bannon may be the voice of reason in the White House. Hopefully, the Pentagon is telling Trump the same thing.
The question though is whether Trump has enough sense to listen, or whether he'll let his temper get the best of him in spite of advice to the contrary.
