CNN: Mattis: If North Korea hits Guam 'then it's game on'
(CNN)Secretary of Defense James Mattis issued a strong warning to North Korea Monday: "If they shoot at the United States, I'm assuming they've hit the United States. ... If they do that, then it's game on."
"You don't shoot at people in this world unless you want to bear the consequences," Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon.
The American defense secretary said that the US military would be able to determine "within moments" after launch whether or not a North Korean missile was headed for US territory, including Guam. He later added that the US would "take it out" if the missile was determined to be headed for any US territory.
But he also made clear that while the military was poised to protect Guam from the North Korean military threat, a declaration of war was a decision that remains with President Donald Trump and Congress.
Read more ....
Update: Mattis says if North Korea fires at U.S. it could "escalate to war" quickly -- CBS
WNU editor: A declaration of war can only be made by the U.S. President and Congress .... but such a North Korean missile strike on Guam .... even as a test that went wrong .... will be hard to contain from escalating into a major conflict.
Update #2: Cold feet? .... North Korea's Kim Jong Un says will watch U.S. bit longer before acting: KCNA (Reuters).
12 comments:
"Cold feet"? May be yes.
It could be possible that NK is rethinking the risk of a technical incident which could escalate badly.
Or may be, NK is watching if SK and US are going to make a war game this month. That's a way to tell the West: don't do your war game and I don't launch any missile.
We shall see
Trump will declare war without congress,it is within his powers.
He has to have the Congress approval within 60 days.
How do you put the genie back in the bottle?
They never say no.
It's what can happen when your bluff is called.
To early to say but Trump may have pulled of a strategic coup that is beginning to pay dividends
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/executive_power
Basically like those before him, Trump can commit the u.stop war without a declaration or congressional approval.
This is no "game" general. In a war with North Korea, America will probably "win" but 10s of millions of Americans will die. DO NOT refer to this as a game!!
Chess is a game, don't buy into the millions dead propaganda, Trump is calling Kim's bluff causing him to rethink his strategy towards the u.s.
10s of millions lol...... more like 600 million possibly 12 billion Americans dead!!!
12 billionaire? make it a even 100 trillion.
Maybe he couldn't get proper assurances that one of the missiles WOULDN'T veer off course and on to Guam proper.
/not to mention the whole Nork Missile Crisis got summarily knocked off the US radar by the fiasco in VA.
BLEEDS,
LEADS,
R
America's population is approximately 300 million. As such, there aren't 600 million or 12 billion Americans. There aren't even 12 billion humans on earth.
I think someone was trying to be funny. I am not laughing. War is very serious business and very respectfully it is in appropriate to make jokes when discussing it.
The estimate of 10s of millions of Americans I am thinking of are somewhere between 20 million to 40 million dead. This could happen if multiple metropolitan areas are hit with nuclear weapons or some type of "dirty bombs." NK would not even need to launch missiles. They very likely already have operatives in the country who could do tremendous damage. With that said the estimate of 10s of millions of American casualties is probably on the high side but this is something that if the conflict became hot all Americans would know it.
While there still remains much that can go wrong, we appear to have avoided hot conflict THIS TIME. A combination of factors likely helped THIS TIME. 1.)Trump or someone got China and Russia to agree to sanctions against North Korea. 2.)Trump or someone got China to pledge neutrality. 3.)Trump and his team called North Korea's bluff. all of these factors working together put North Korea in a bad spot where it would be problematic for them to continue on their bellicose path. Again, there is still much that can go wrong and we may not be free and clear just yet.
With regards to one and two provided to much was not given up this is the stuff of diplomatic brilliance on the part of the US and team Trump. Perhaps POTUS really is the "deal maker."
I will also add to this another couple of points. 1.)In the event of hot conflict it is going to be South Korea and the United States who will bear the brunt of North Korean reprisals. As such, it would be much appreciated if citizens of other countries refrain from making snide remarks. 2.)I have noticed that South Korea has been rather quite throughout this whole process. During the campaign Candidate Trump questioned the veracity of this "alliance" with South Korea pointing out that there is a gap between what we are paying for and what we are getting. He was/is 100%. He was vilified for this at the time. By communicating this to the South Korean leadership he sent a message loud and clear that America is not to be trifled with by them nor will America allow itself to be used as a pawn by South Korea in the power struggle with North Korea. This minimizes the risk of SK doing something stupid and very likely helped to defuse tensions.
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