North Korea has fired another ballistic missile as an act of defiance against President Trump after he put North Korea on a list of state sponsors of terrorism. This missile was launched higher and farther than any other missile North Korean has launched before. This suggests that North Korea is continuing it's plan to strengthen it's nuclear arsenal in order to possibly attack the US. Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un have been exchanging insults to each other during this entire struggle. Trump has called Kim "rocket man" and has threatened to use "fire and fury" on North Korea. Kim has called Trump degrading names such as "a mentally deranged U.S dotard". This whole situation between the US and North Korea has been gaining a lot of tension recently and I think that a lot of it is the fault of Donald Trump. I think Trump has a tendency to get too involved in foreign affairs. From attacking Syria in response to their use of chemical weapons to his aggressive handling of North Korea, I think Trump need to have more of a peaceful approach to the world because I think war should be avoided at all costs since war does little to no good if not fought for a worthy cause. Trump's attitude towards other nations I think is threatening to the safety and security of our country as it greatly increases the chance of us getting into violent confrontations with other countries.
How do you guys think Trump is doing with regards to his approach to conflicts with other nations?
What should we do about this situation with North Korea?
Is Trump indeed being a "dotard"?
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13 comments:
"Dotard" is such a great SAT vocab word. Too bad they don't have the vocab section any more. Trump is definitely not a Dotard. He's not physically weak, and while I am skeptical of his intelligence, I think that it's well established that he has acted the same way for years, and thus old age is not responsible.
I think that Trump should stop undercutting his Secretary of State. Yes, it's true that a diplomatic solution to the North Korean issue is unlikely, but I think we can agree that there is little harm in trying and it is obviously preferable to any military options.
Trump believes that using diplomacy shows weakness, and that we should lean on our military instead. I disagree that diplomacy shows weakness.
I am not very worried about the way Trump addresses foreign threats. I don't believe he looks for violence; I think he just has a tendency to represent the strength of our nation. He wants other countries to fear us. This is a little different from the way Obama used to manage foreign affairs, and although I believe it is a more radical approach, I believe it could yield positive results.
I agree with Nico in that Trump doesn't really look for violence, but that doesn't mean that he has to act recklessly with regards to other countries. Instead of "representing the strength of our nation," he's making our nation look like fools by starting fights all over the place. Of course, at this point it's not really surprising and it's barely worth commenting on, but yeah.
With North Korea, I don't know what the proper way to handle things is. It seems that whether we take Obama or Trump's approaching, they will still continue their missile testing. With that being said, I believe Trump needs to tone down his aggressive ways.I think diplomacy is the way to go and I agree with Michael that diplomacy doesn't show weakness. I don't see a reason for Trump to show off how strong the US is. North Korea is well aware that whether or not we talk about it and show off, we still by far spend the most on our military and have the most nuclear weapons.
I think there are two optimal (and peaceful) solutions to the North Korea problem. One route is to diplomatically secure peace with North Korea. As they have advanced dramatically with their defense systems, they may be more inclined to meet with American diplomats to discuss terms of peace from a more secure platform. However, this still presents the problem of North Korea actually having weapons. The other is to strengthen sanctions against North Korea, although this will require the support of China and Russia, which may not be easy to get without some large incentivizing event (say, for example, a North Korean nuclear strike outside of its borders).
I agree with Nico and disagree with Chris and Michael. I think Trump is representing U.S. power well and North Korea is obviously afraid or else it wouldn't be acting this way. I don't think diplomatic action would work at all, and it is most likely to turn into an appeasement situation like before WWII, which would make things significantly worse. There's no harm in letting North Korea know what it's in for, as long as we are talking with important nations like China and Russia, which Max mentioned.
In terms of foreign policy decisions, this new missile changes nothing. Previous to this missile launch, North Korea was still able to do enough damage to the US mainland to deter an attack; America would have difficulties justifying a first strike with or without these missiles. If America doesn't want to start a devastating war with Pyongyang, they only have two real options: maintain a defensive strategy or negotiate with China. Despite Trump's desire to be a "great negotiator," he fails to see the Chinese perspective, instead implying that they will do what he wants out of altruism. Based off this, I don't believe any serious action in regards to North Korea will be taken.
With regards to Trump's interaction with other countries, I believe that he isn't doing enough damage to change anything, or rather I haven't heard of news of such yet. I certainly don't think it is helping out relationships, like that one time I believe he was calling out Germany for some reason. Not the best diplomat. Also, North Korea can't really do much. I'm thinking we let it slide until they do something very threatening. Launching missiles is a threat, but is it big enough? Doubtful. Even the great supreme leader of NK has some sort of self preservation. As much as he would like to see some particular countries be blown off the face of the earth, I doubt he has the resources and he doesn't strike me as a martyr anyways. Trump isn't a dotard. Old, yes, but insane? No. He just has different beliefs that aren't consistent with some of ours. Is he insane because of that? No.
I agree strongly with Michael's comments. While we have been consistently pushing for more sanctions on North Korea in the past as a solution to the problem, it is clearly not working. As a matter of fact, a recent CNN interview with a defected, high-ranking North Korean official illustrates that the sanctions were essentially pointless; North Korea had too many back-door sources of income that could not be curbed. Trump's "tougher talk" is good in the sense that it conveys American outrage, and provides a strong warning towards North Korea that they cannot continue nuclear tests without more danger. Members of the House and Senate have advocated more sanctions, but again, it is time we refocus our attention away from sanctions and try a new approach. Time will tell how the developments shift, but I look forward to a collapse of the North Korean regime in the future.
When it comes to choosing an approach for which to handle North Korea with, I don't think there is a right or wrong answer. If you handle it aggressively they will retaliate and keep testing missiles and if you go the peaceful "lets talk it out" they will most likely ignore us and keep testing. The one wrong thing you could do is antagonize Kim Jong Un with tweets about his height. Because of this I don't there's one solution to this problem, and it cant be resolved anytime soon.
There is a fine line between showing national strength and provoking other leaders. Trump, who is a newcomer to the political scene, is relying on his cabinet to help him navigate him through this. If his cabinet, a group of qualified people, believe what he is doing is right then we should not fear. I believe people attribute to much negativity to whatever Trump does and should look a little deeper before hanging on every word he says.
If Trump was actually getting somewhere with his current approach to dealing with North Korea, I wouldn't see why he would stop. However, his approach hasn't really done anything to better the relationship between North Korea and the US. Because of this, I think Trump ought to change his approach and try to be more diplomatic because he has not made enough progress to continue with his current idea.
I believe that this interaction between the North Korean government and Trump administration is doing little to solve the different views of each side. The communication between our two countries currently is minimal and I believe that attempts to strengthen our communication could result in improved relationship. However, the current way which Trump has communicated with Kim Jong Un, insulting him over Twitter should end.
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