“White House National Security Council senior director for Asian affairs Matthew Pottinger reportedly said in a recent closed-door meeting with US experts on Korean Peninsula issues that a limited strike on the North might help in the midterm elections.”
From the same editorial in the Hankyoreh, “the most trusted news organization by Korean journalists for nine consecutive years”, are additional concerns regarding the true motivation behind Trumps recently floated “bloody nose” strategy towards North Korea.
According to Cha’s Washington Post piece, some ultra-hardliners have argued that the risk of endangering the lives of the 230,000 Americans living in South Korea if the bloody nose strategy escalates is worth taking in terms of “long-term interests” and the “safety of Americans living in the continental US.” The fates of 50 million South Koreans don’t even warrant a mention.
And
Meanwhile, the Russia scandal is raising the possibility that Trump not only faces a difficult road to re-election but could end up impeached. Depending on how the mid-term elections in November turn out, he could find himself a lame duck. This raises the troubling question of whether he might consider a strike against North Korea as a way out of his domestic political crisis.
And
To begin with the idea that North Korea “wouldn’t dare” strike back against the US is both sad and dangerous. It’s based on a US-centered mindset that equates a North Korean counter-strike with the end of the Pyongyang regime. But with Trump administration hardliners describing Kim Jong-un as “irrational and unpredictable,” it’s not clear how they are predicting he would reach the same military conclusion as them. It’s a gamble where the stakes are millions of lives.
The people advocating the bloody nose approach are either hardliners with military backgrounds or laypeople in terms of military and security issues. In most cases, their
understanding of the Korean Peninsula or North Korea is close to zero. These people seem to possess authority that far outstrips their abilities.
They’re also arrogant and rash.
So we have a bunch of ignorant, arrogant and rash advisers advocating a “bloody nose” strategy for North Korea risking 260,000 Americans and millions of Koreans to an unstable and increasingly cornered Trump who is also looking at starting a fight with North Korea as a means to wag the dog in the upcoming midterms. This is some scary shit.
What could possibly go wrong?