Well, isn’t this just so special? Don’t get me wrong, I really appreciate the Chinese President in wising President Trump up on the the thousands of years history between China and Korea in a phone call yesterday. Here is his actual statement on North Korea after the call;
“After listening for 10 minutes, I realized it’s not so easy,” the president told the Journal. “I felt pretty strongly that they had a tremendous power [over] North Korea. ... But it’s not what you would think.”
Trump went on to state that “It’s not as simple as people think”. That’s funny, it’s pretty much the same thing that he said when his “repeal and replace” bill for the ACA was going down in flames. He must have been contemplating the “most beautiful piece of chocolate cake you’ve ever seen” for 13 months while Obama busted his ass to get the ACA passed. What I want to know is who is going to church him up on international affairs and diplomacy? And will he listen to them?
Rachel Maddow had a sobering, and even terrifying report on the impact of Trump’s ignorance last night. She reported that we have flown thousands of raids over Syria since 2014, sometimes in uncomfortably close proximity to Russian fighters while bombing ISIS, yet not one US plane has been shot down, not by the Russians, not by the Syrian air force, not one anti aircraft gun has been fired, nor one surface to air missile launched. We have had Special Forces troops on the ground in Syria, even more recently, now over 1,000 of them, occasionally performing raids themselves when they cornered a high value target, but usually “advising” Syrian rebels on raids against ISIS, and training them up to be more effective. Not one Russian or Syrian round has been fired at them.
Why? because of a tacit understanding all around. We were not at war with Syria, we were exclusively fighting ISIS, although on Syrian soil and over Syrian airspace. But when the first missile hit the Syrian airbase on early Friday morning Syrian time, that dynamic ceased to exist. We were now in an active armed conflict with Syria, all bets were off.
In consternation, the US command ordered a group of US Special Forces to abandon their remote outpost in Southern Syria, right on the Iraq and Jordanian border for fear of Syrian retribution, either by air or ground forces. The Syrians never came, but ISIS did. They stormed the compound, engaging Syrian rebels left behind at the base. When the US learned of the attack, the screamed back to the base, and a 3 hour close quarters firefight ensued, with no US fatalities but the loss of 3 Syrian rebels. Maybe now Trump is starting to understand that Russia and Syria are not quite as easy as he thought either. Syria is just a little more complicated than licking his nuts and lobbing some missiles onto a deserted airfield.
This is the direct result of Presidential stupidity and ignorance. With one petty, futile, ineffective action he has placed US troops in Syria in even graver danger than they already were. Trump loves to be “unpredictable” in foreign affairs. Unpredictable is fine when your wife shows up in the bedroom unexpectedly with two glasses of wine, and dressed in a teddy. When she takes off unannounced for Vegas with the debit and credit cards, not so much. In foreign affairs, unpredictable will get people killed, especially when coupled with stupidity.
Apparently Trump has had a Come to Jesus moment of comprehension on China’s views regarding North Korea. But what about how complicated North Korea itself is, who will tutor our imbecile President on that one? We have tens of thousands of US troops in and around the DMZ in South Korea, along with thousands more in the carrier group Trump just dispatched to a position off the Korean peninsula to rattle his sabre at the North.
How do you discipline, threaten or coerce an insular kingdom run by an insane dictator? By not I’m pretty sure that Kin Jung Un has heard about the options that the military gave to Trump for consideration, including the one about sending him to join his ancestors. What if he decides that the carrier group is a blatant provocation and direct threat by the US, the start of a military action and starts shelling the US and South Korean troops in the DMZ, possibly shelling Seoul itself, or lobbing ballistic missiles at Tokyo, despite warnings and threats from Beijing? How do you defuse a situation that threatens to envelop the entire region into conflict, especially when one of the parties is ready to fight to the death for it’s nonexistent “honor”?
I am hoping like hell for two things right now. I’m hoping that China can convince North Korea that the US carrier group is just empty posturing by the US, and I’m hoping like hell that Trump pulls that fucking carrier group back to calm North Korea. Because right now, Trump is dealing with the only world leader on the [planet that is as ignorant of foreign policy and unexpected consequences as he himself is. And that is a dangerous, and possibly deadly combination. Here is the Rachel segment, which goes into much more detail on the Syria situation.