Analysis by Kyle A. Lohmeier
The Commander-in-Chief of the United States’ vast military, the so-called leader of the so-called free world, a man who has performed inside of a professional wrestling ring on national television, declared Tuesday evening via Twitter that North Korea is “looking for trouble.”
Just how a hermit kingdom that can’t keep its own lights on goes “looking for trouble,” never mind why they would, wasn’t explained by the American head-of-state, who instead tried to goad China into “helping” with the “problem.”
“I explained to the President of China that a trade deal with the U.S. will be far better for them if they solve the North Korean problem!” Trump tweeted at 7:59 EDT on April 11. “North Korea is looking for trouble. If China decides to help, that would be great. If not, we will solve the problem without them! U.S.A.,” he added four minutes later.
The suggestion that China is unwilling to “help” “solve” the North Korea “problem” is in itself somewhat odd given that on April 7 China’s customs department issued an order to enforce an import ban on North Korean coal passed back on February 26 in response to North Korean missile tests. The order on April 7 sent some two million metric tons of coal that had been sitting at Chinese ports back across the gulf to North Korea.
Despite China’s ostensible willingness to do something about its noisome neighbor, the US Navy is sending a supercarrier battle group – the USS Carl Vinson and its escorts – to the Korean peninsula from Australia where it was conducting exercises. Trump kept up the bellicose tone as he discussed this deployment with Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo on Wednesday.
“We are sending an armada, very powerful. We have submarines, very powerful, far more powerful than the aircraft carrier … We have the best military people on Earth. And I will say this: he (North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un) is doing the wrong thing.”
I mean, the man sounds like someone told him about what Ohio class submarines do just five minutes before that interview. And yes, Kim Jong Un, by virtue of being a collectivist is, of course, doing “the wrong thing” rather comprehensively when it comes to ruling his serfs. Sadly, the same can be said for all the rest of the world’s leaders, so I am again failing to see where this is the United States’ “problem” to “solve” or why.
Of course, announcing that the United States is sending an “armada” to the Korean peninsula is just the sort of thing that is guaranteed to make Kim Jong Un’s day. After all, the Kim dynasty has kept North Koreans constantly wary of imminent US invasion for several decades now; that threat is among the communist regime’s most effective narratives for rationalizing its existence.
Welcoming the news of the carrier group’s approach, Pyongyang officials provided a statement saying the situation would justify “self-defensive and pre-emptive strike capabilities with the nuclear force at the core… We will make the US fully accountable for the catastrophic consequences that may be brought about by its high-handed and outrageous acts,” CNN reported.
Bizarrely, or maybe not so bizarrely given the players involved here, US Defense Secretary, Marine Corps General Jim “Mad Dog” Mattis sounded like the voice of reason yesterday when he commented on the Carl Vinson’s new deployment.
“She is just on her way up there because that is where we thought it was most prudent to have her at this time,” Reuters reported.
Of course, the “problem” with North Korea is the same one the West has had with it for years now – the nation’s dogged pursuit of a nuclear weapons program. The impoverished nation has managed to detonate a series of nuclear devices with increasing degrees of success while also improving its ballistic missile capability. Whether or not North Korea has the technology to mount a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile remains to be seen; most experts agree they do not yet have that capability, something White House Spokesman Sean Spicer pointed out.
“’I think there is no evidence that North Korea has that capability at this time,’ he said. ‘Threatening something that you don’t have the capability of isn’t really a threat,’” Reuters quoted him as saying.
So, then Trump is goading China to do more than it already is to help “solve” a decades-old “problem” of North Korea threatening other nations with capabilities it doesn’t have; yet, for some reason the situation has recently grown so dire that we have to send an “armada” to Korea as a “prudent” “show of force.” And, all of this is somehow necessary even though probably nothing will ever convince the Kim dynasty to give up its nuclear weapons program.
“’No matter what we do there is this move by North Korea to build missiles and put weapons on top of missiles… This is what they count on for regime survival. … The best we can do is box it where it is right now… I don’t think we can make them give up the program,’” CNN quoted Michael Hayden, a retired General and former head of the CIA and National Security Agency, as saying about North Korea.
Despite that, moving carrier groups around and talking trash to and about world leaders on social media makes for entertainment, anyway. Much like a pro wrestling match, there will be a lot of blow and bluster and posturing, but ultimately, no one is likely to get hurt; which is, of course, a good thing.
As Monday’s deadline for paying your pre-emptive bail approaches, just remember: if you were allowed to keep your earnings, a reality TV star wouldn’t be able to engage in nuclear pseudo-brinkmanship with a goofy little despot for our entertainment.
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