Fox News is preparing us for war with North Korea. No matter how many times these people say they hope to avoid a war, it’s clear the Trump TV network is already working on selling it.
This morning, Fox host Rick Leventhal interviewed “Strategic Analyst” Lt. Col. Ralph Peters to discuss North Korea calling new sanctions an “act of war” and saying that it’s a “pipe dream” to think the country will give up its nuclear weapons.
Peters described North Korea as suffering from a “degenerative disease of state” that has bet everything on their “nuclear and strategic missile programs.” The country will cling to them, Peters said, because “it’s all they’ve got.” According to Peters, that is how North Korea thinks it can “blackmail the world.”
“Sanctions, hard sanctions, are the only chance left but I’m skeptical,” Peters said. Then he repeated one of his many claims to “want a peaceful solution.”
Leventhal interjected this obviously pre-prepared comment: “We’re hearing whispers, some warnings from military leaders, that conflict could be on the horizon.”
Peters said he has heard the same thing. Then he all but gave his seal of approval to war:
PETERS: It is not because the United States wants war with North Korea. It’s simply because – it’s straightforward, Rick – straightforward. We cannot allow that regime to have the capability to destroy American cities because even if there’s only one chance in a hundred that they would use it, it’s too much to take with this particular crazed, if not crazy, regime.
This just sounds way too much like the run-up to the Iraq war for my comfort. Remember when then-President George W. Bush said, on October 16, 2002, “I hope the use of force will not become necessary?” And “War is not my first choice. It’s my last choice,” on November 7, 2002? Yet Bush had already made up his mind. In March, 2002, he said to then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and three senators, “Fuck Saddam. We’re taking him out.”
We’ve got the rosy predictions, too, now.
LEVENTHAL: But this isn’t a war that anyone wants, especially South Korea. The toll could be devastating.
PETERS: Yeah, it could be but we also have to be wary of talking ourselves into being afraid. There’s assumptions out there that Seoul would immediately be destroyed. I’m just not convinced, and we have to take it into account, that the North Korean military is rotting away. We don’t know how much loyalty is left and we have the military capacity to devastate it very quickly.
Look, what we don’t want, war. If we must strike North Korea, it’s critical to do it all out with everything we’ve got because if you try to do it part way, then you put Seoul and South Korea at risk.
Leventhal’s next comment further suggested that the goal of the segment was to promote a coming “showdown.” Because Leventhal prodded such talk by ostensibly summarizing Peters’ position with a more hawkish stance than Peters had taken. Which Peters did not deny.
LEVENTHAL: And because North Korea is clinging to those nukes and won’t give them up, and because the U.S. is insisting that they do, you believe that a showdown is on the horizon.
PETERS: I hope I’m wrong. Again, we want peace, a peaceful solution and China is the key. China is toughening sanctions but still not enough. You’ve got to just bring the regime to a cold halt. And if China won’t do that, then I’m afraid that as early as 2018, we may see bloody, violent conflict on the Korean peninsula and not because we want it. We don’t.
Watch this horrifying discussion below, from the December 26, 2017 America’s Newsroom.
“Any other president would not consider attacking North Korea. Not sure about Trump. He might be crazy enough to do it……..”
Of course Rw Fan. Given the fact that Fuehrer Adolf Twitler is a perennial bully and that his poll numbers are in the toilet, he WILL try to start a war with either North Korea or Iran in order to reinforce his “kick ass” image in the eyes of his EXTREMELY IGNORANT evangelical base supporters.
https://a.disquscdn.com/uploads/mediaembed/images/1289/955/original.jpg
Just like we weren’t afraid to go to war with teeny, tiny little Vietnam, or Iraq, or even Afghanistan. Like Kevin said below, any sort of military conflict in that area will have disastrous effects on South Korea and Japan, not that Trumpaloosa gives a damn.
The US is currently at a diplomatic disadvantage here – in that we have a State Dept that’s only functioning at a fraction of its needed capacity, thanks to Pence and Tillerson’s refusal to staff it. We don’t even have an appointed Ambassador to South Korea or much of the rest of the world these days. So we don’t have the ability to have the diplomatic sideline conversations that would be needed to head off a confrontation. All we have is some ineffectual statements from Tillerson and Mad Dog Mattis, and a regular stream of offensive comments from the Pence White House’s Tweeter-in-Chief. Which just tells the North Korean leadership that they might as well respond in kind, since they are not about to submit to bullying.
Peters’ scenario about happily attacking North Korea “all out with everything we’ve got” is one that is extremely dangerous to multiple Asian nations in the area, not to mention potentially to us. In Peters’ dream situation, the US just launches this massive missile attack at North Korea and they just sit there and let us hit them. That’s the same kind of nonsense hawk thinking that nearly got everyone nuked during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The more likely scenario is that Peters gets his way and Pence orders a full launch against North Korea. North Korea sees all that hardware coming at them and immediately launches everything they have – against targets close to them and far away – including lobbing stuff in our direction. The assured result of this is massive destruction and catastrophe in Asia for certain – and potentially destruction here in the US. There would be much further consequences in terms of the US being branded a pariah state and all that, but the most important consequence is all the lives that would needlessly be sacrificed for the sake of Pence and Peters’ egos.
The one thing that can potentially help this situation is if another nation steps in and backs the US off. I just don’t see at this point who that could be, unless China decides to get more deeply involved. The impression I have is that they’ve already warned Pence not to do anything and they’re figuring that he paid attention. I don’t think they’ve calculated in the sheer recklessness and viciousness of this bunch. And the really troubling part of this is that the Pence White House has another 3 years in which they could swing this sword of Damocles.