SFGate/Washington Post: With 'fire and fury,' Trump revives fears about his possession of nuclear codes
As with most things Trump, the furor over the "fire and fury" has divided the nation in two - those who believe the president is a loose launchpad, impulsively blurting whatever flits through his mind, and those who believe his inflammatory talk is a wily combination of politically savvy instincts and a gut-driven populism that simply aims to please.
When President Donald Trump went off script Tuesday to deliver a startling threat to North Korea - "They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen" - it was as if the nation relived the most lurid themes of the 2016 campaign in one chilling moment.
Last fall, Hillary Clinton's campaign used as one of its final weapons a TV ad featuring a longtime nuclear missile launch officer who warned against voting for Trump: "I prayed that call would never come. Self-control may be all that keeps these missiles from firing."
Read more ....
WNU Editor: If you live long enough you will see history repeat itself. The criticisms that are levelled on President Trump were the same criticisms that were levelled at President Reagan.
11 comments:
I think the critics need to be more worried about a North Korean attack on the United States than anything Trump might or might not do. As of now, I think this is going to end with a whimper and not a bang, however, continue to undermine and undercut team Trump's attempts at negotiations as the elites have done and this thing will not end with a whimper but with a bang and a bloody mess indeed.
China having signed on to additional sanctions against North Korea will now find it difficult if not impossible to come to the aid of North Korea in this situation. They could have very easily vetoed the resolution or abstained.
Instead of worrying about POTUS having the nuclear codes, of course POTUS has such things, they should be asking what was given up to ensure Chinese and Russian cooperation on the sanctions resolution and are there caveats that the Russians and Chinese attached that might make their cooperation worthless.
Of course, if given access to such information, the elites will undermine and undercut these negotiations as they did the carefully and meticulously put together negotiations with Russia all over unproven allegations all because certain people were simply to petty to deal with reality. Had we had Russian cooperation from the start and certain crazies in Congress had not imposed additional sanctions on them and certain crazies in the media not fomented hostility dealing with North Korea would be much easier now!!
"If you live long enough you will see history repeat itself. The criticisms that are levelled on President Trump were the same criticisms that were levelled at President Reagan."
Yes, and Reagan almost got us into a war with the Russians.
And B.Poster;
TL:DR
Maybe if you can get the rant down to something manageable folks would be more willing to have a conversation with you. Just say'n.
Elites=anyone with a college degree? If not, then what
I was around at the time. When did President Reagan almost got us into a war with the Soviet Union? Times were tense .... yes. Hostile actions between powers .... yes. But war .... no. The only time that the U.S. and the Soviet the Union were on the verge of war was during the Cuban Missile crisis.
Jason.
When expressing multiple lines of related thoughts, I generally put them into one post as it is generally to cumbersome to try and put them in multiple posts. In my personal opinion, it is much easier and less cumbersome to read one post that expresses multiple lines of thought that are on the same topic than to read multiple posts. With that said, if the thoughts are unrelated or the post is to long, then it would seem to make sense to put them into multiple posts.
Since my previous post is concise and involves multiple thoughts n the same line, it made no sense to me to break it into several posts. Very respectfully anyone with adult reading skills should be able to manage what I posted.
Now, with that said, my profession is as a Certified Public Accountant specifically specializing in income tax related issues. This type of work does not usually involve a great deal of writing and, as I am very busy, sometimes my use of the proper grammar to express things can be lacking. If there is something you would like clarified in my previous post, please let me know and I will do my best to clarify it.
I had the same question as the editor has raised. When did Reagan nearly get us into war with the Russians? I was very young then and perhaps I don't missed it. What Reagan and Gorbachev did do was be instrumental in negotiating an end to Cold War 1.
President Trump had a similar idea and to this end meticulously put together a team who had solid contacts with the Russians and were trusted and respected by the Russians. These people should have been regarded as assets. Instead this careful process has been virtually destroyed by petty people who could not get over their own bitterness or something.
Fred,
When I used the term "elite" here, I was referring in general to partisan political hacks who lack real world experience, exist in a bubble where they have their own echo chamber, are to rigid in their ideology to be curious enough or open minded enough to consider different approaches especially when the track they are on is not working, will attack anyone who has a different view from them, and refuse to work constructively with anyone who does not cling to their ideology. Such people exist in both political parties and have generally acted to try and undercut POTUS at any and all areas.
I could swear Jim Jones is back from the dead.
In response to Reagan and war with Russia:
From the CIA:
"The overt phase of the war scare erupted barely a month into the second phase of RYAN. On 23 March 1983, President Reagan announced the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), quickly dubbed "Star Wars" by the media. SDI was a plan for a ground- and space-based, laser-armed antiballistic missile system that, if deployed, would create a shield for US land-based missiles. Four days after the President's announcement--and in direct response--Andropov lashed out. He accused the United States of preparing a first-strike attack on the Soviet Union and asserted that President Reagan was "inventing new plans on how to unleash a nuclear war in the best way, with the hope of winning it."67
And
"would open the floodgates of a runaway race of all types of strategic arms, both offensive and defensive. Such is the real significance, the seamy side, so to say, of Washington's "defensive conception." ...The Soviet Union will never be caught defenseless by any threat.... Engaging in this is not just irresponsible, it is insane.... Washington's actions are putting the entire world in jeopardy.70"
And
"would open the floodgates of a runaway race of all types of strategic arms, both offensive and defensive. Such is the real significance, the seamy side, so to say, of Washington's "defensive conception." ...The Soviet Union will never be caught defenseless by any threat.... Engaging in this is not just irresponsible, it is insane.... Washington's actions are putting the entire world in jeopardy.70"
Andropov's remarks were unprecedented.68 He violated a longstanding taboo by citing numbers and capabilities of US nuclear weapons in the mass media. He also referred to Soviet weapons with highly unusual specificity. And for the first time since 1953, the top Soviet leader was telling his nation that the world was on the verge of a nuclear holocaust. If candor is a sign of sincerity, then Moscow was worried."
"In the tense atmosphere generated by the crises and rhetoric of the past few months, the KGB concluded that American forces had been placed on alert--and might even have begun the countdown to war.... The world did not quite reach the edge of the nuclear abyss during Operation RYAN. But during ABLE ARCHER 83 it had, without realizing it, come frighteningly close--certainly closer than at any time since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962.86 "
https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/a-cold-war-conundrum/source.htm#HEADING1-01
Sorry it's a long read.
A better read:
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/06/able-archer-almost-started-a-nuclear-war-with-russia-in-1983.html
Of course that's from Slate, so you might not like it.
Also i saw a report about war preparations in E. Germany including Russian street signs, occupation money, pix and more. Can't link to it because i saw this in the early 90's.
B.Poster,
I never questioned your grammar. My apologies but when I see something like your original post i make assumptions about the content. Again, my apologies (especially in view of my giant post above!)
Thank you for your post Jason Johnson.
I have posted many times in this blog over the years on Able Archer .... even a reflection on my own personal experience. See here from 2013 ....
http://warnewsupdates.blogspot.ca/2013/05/how-close-did-we-come-to-nuclear-war-in.html
And as I had mentioned in 2013 .... "it was touch and go for those years". but then again the entire Cold War was touch and go .... but the Cuban Missile Crisis was special to me.
In regards to Able Danger.... it is different because the shoe was on the other foot of Russia. But I also answered why Moscow made the decision to not go to war .... summarising .... in the end that they did not believe the U.S. would do such a thing, and fortunately the better angels were listened to. And as for Andropov's warnings of nuclear war .... I do not recall this specific warning because from my experience we were always being told that the US was going to attack us with nuclear weapons .... what's another warning. And as for war preparations .... that was standard throughout the Warsaw Bloc .... you do not have to find a link to prove it .... I believe you because I saw it first hand all the time.
Jason,
Here is an incredible story from 1983, because this man saved the world on September 26, 1983
http://warnewsupdates.blogspot.ca/2015/07/this-man-saved-world-on-september-26.html
For your info,
I read Slate all the time.
Yes, I'm aware of Petrov and his level-headed response to that warning. Some story, eh?!
I have kicked myself many times for not holding on to the package that I saw. Went into a furnace or paper shredder i guess. You are quite right that the buildup of various items connected to a move west was not by itself that unusual. but what was unusual was all the various dated material carrying dates leading up to Able Archer. Also very detailed information about stop lines and such. Again not all that new (everyone pretty much knew what the strategic situation would be.) But the detail of the dated material indicated that it was reviewed recently before Able Archer.
Another interesting part of that package were many photographs of Russian airbases in E. Germany taken from hot air balloons! It seems as though there was a hot air balloon race near the former or soon to be former boarder area. Of course there was. They were blown "off course" by "unexpected winds" and some had to emergency land on the airbases. Great pictures, nothing really unexpected but the sheer amount of stockpiled weapons, spares etc. was something.
OK I've gone on enough. Great website but I must confess that I can't read it every day.
Cheers.
Jason,
I know how you feel about losing packages. I have no idea on where are my photos from 1985 - 1994. I have just a small scattering of pictures. I know I put it somewhere (probably in my parents home in the basement outside of Moscow. But darn .... these things are frustrating.
Post a Comment