Preface to last week's post: The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced that they have made great strides in reducing the time it takes to get a patent examined and approved. They are down to a little less than a year and four months....and hope to get that down to under 15 months by the end of 2019. It could take years to prove that North Korea was actually giving up their nuclear ambitions even if they gave us access. There is a mountain (Mt Paektu) with thousands of tunnels on the North Korean/Chinese border that is their main fortress. (half of it is in Communist China) I wish that I could say that Kim Jong-un is just buying time but it is probably much worse than that. What is happening is very similar to what Churchill experienced over years in warning his own parliament about what Hitler was really doing. We should not want to react as some reacted today with the North Korean carefully crafted statements. This isn't progress....this isn't even good....at this time....it is nothing. It's the absurdity of what Kim Jong-un would have us believe (Oh...and I'm not going to sell nuclear technology to any bad guys any more) that should spark most of our interest.
I wouldn't call it euphoria but there is a general feeling of an impending peace with North Korea. Here's a surprise....I don't share that feeling. President Trump could not possibly have come into a more difficult situation. Ultimately there's only one question.....does America permit North Korea to not only keep it's nuclear capabilities but complete development of a ballistic missile system and even submarines that can carry nuclear warheads.....or does America prohibit this from coming about? If we negotiate or wait much longer then the question will become moot....so one way or another we'll get our answer in the not too distant future.
Our military can destroy Pyongyang and stop any further progress on nuclear weapons but in the process Seoul might effectively be destroyed....the world's economies might be in turmoil....and other wars may very well have started in the confusion. That is unless one believes that North Korea would not respond with at least attacks on the South....if not attempt a nuclear attack on the United States. It doesn't get any worse than this.
In 1999 our Secretary of Defense visited North Korea in an attempt to do what we are trying to do today....get an agreement where the North gives up it's nuclear ambition. Kim Jong-il waited a year to get back to us and then our Secretary of State visited the North and actually met with the North Korean leader. President Clinton was hustling in his attempt to get that agreement before he left office. George W. Bush assumed office and the show then went off Broadway. It turned out that Kim Jong-il wasn't being truthful all along....who was surprised here?
So it's almost twenty years later and our....possibly soon to be Secretary of State....visited with Kim Jong-un to set up a meeting with President Trump to get a similar agreement. Incredibly....newly appointed National Security Advisor John Bolton was peripherally involved in the outcome of the first set of meetings....and will be even more involved in the upcoming meeting. In 2000 he was instrumental in the George W. Bush victory in the Florida chad fiasco.
There is one thing today that may be different. President Trump in effect said that if he smells a rat the deal is off.....which would put us in the same position that we were in last June. We know these two things for sure....John Bolton is good at smelling a rat.....and Kim Jong-un is a rat.
There's something else similar to 1999....an election is coming up in the United States. Nuclear war and a world-wide economic collapse aside....nothing is more important than keeping that almighty majority status in the Congress. Kim Jong-un knows this....President Xi Jingping knows this.....the mullahs know this.....Putin knows this.....everyone seems to know this except us.
When President Trump announced Neil Gorsuch as his nominee for the Supreme Court he invited his second choice to be present at the ceremony ....it made for good drama.....like a reality show.....and the winner is! This upcoming meeting has reality show written all over it. The United States has to go into this meeting expecting it to fall apart. This is no place for theatrics. If Kim Jong-un is serious then the President should not have to be there. If people around the world start celebrating 'peace and safety'.....then we might want to think about a whole different set of circumstances.
"While they are saying, 'peace and safety!' then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief.....so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be sober and alert." (1 Thessalonians 5: 3,4,6)
I wouldn't call it euphoria but there is a general feeling of an impending peace with North Korea. Here's a surprise....I don't share that feeling. President Trump could not possibly have come into a more difficult situation. Ultimately there's only one question.....does America permit North Korea to not only keep it's nuclear capabilities but complete development of a ballistic missile system and even submarines that can carry nuclear warheads.....or does America prohibit this from coming about? If we negotiate or wait much longer then the question will become moot....so one way or another we'll get our answer in the not too distant future.
Our military can destroy Pyongyang and stop any further progress on nuclear weapons but in the process Seoul might effectively be destroyed....the world's economies might be in turmoil....and other wars may very well have started in the confusion. That is unless one believes that North Korea would not respond with at least attacks on the South....if not attempt a nuclear attack on the United States. It doesn't get any worse than this.
In 1999 our Secretary of Defense visited North Korea in an attempt to do what we are trying to do today....get an agreement where the North gives up it's nuclear ambition. Kim Jong-il waited a year to get back to us and then our Secretary of State visited the North and actually met with the North Korean leader. President Clinton was hustling in his attempt to get that agreement before he left office. George W. Bush assumed office and the show then went off Broadway. It turned out that Kim Jong-il wasn't being truthful all along....who was surprised here?
So it's almost twenty years later and our....possibly soon to be Secretary of State....visited with Kim Jong-un to set up a meeting with President Trump to get a similar agreement. Incredibly....newly appointed National Security Advisor John Bolton was peripherally involved in the outcome of the first set of meetings....and will be even more involved in the upcoming meeting. In 2000 he was instrumental in the George W. Bush victory in the Florida chad fiasco.
There is one thing today that may be different. President Trump in effect said that if he smells a rat the deal is off.....which would put us in the same position that we were in last June. We know these two things for sure....John Bolton is good at smelling a rat.....and Kim Jong-un is a rat.
There's something else similar to 1999....an election is coming up in the United States. Nuclear war and a world-wide economic collapse aside....nothing is more important than keeping that almighty majority status in the Congress. Kim Jong-un knows this....President Xi Jingping knows this.....the mullahs know this.....Putin knows this.....everyone seems to know this except us.
When President Trump announced Neil Gorsuch as his nominee for the Supreme Court he invited his second choice to be present at the ceremony ....it made for good drama.....like a reality show.....and the winner is! This upcoming meeting has reality show written all over it. The United States has to go into this meeting expecting it to fall apart. This is no place for theatrics. If Kim Jong-un is serious then the President should not have to be there. If people around the world start celebrating 'peace and safety'.....then we might want to think about a whole different set of circumstances.
"While they are saying, 'peace and safety!' then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief.....so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be sober and alert." (1 Thessalonians 5: 3,4,6)
