A few days ago the New York Times ran a long piece on the North Korea problem ( usually characterized as rogue nation threatens US and world peace). North Korea has apparently been making impressive progress developing nuclear missiles capable of bombing the West Coast of the U.S., (Silicon Valley. Hollywood). According to the story, that possibility may be imminent.
A lot of the story detailed Obama’s worries about that and some of the steps he took to slow down North Korea’s nuclear trajectory, such as disrupting the supply chain their program depends on. Apparently the steps taken have not helped a whole lot and Obama left office very concerned about this as perhaps the biggest threat to the US (and, incidentally, the rest of the world). The article concluded by noting that the North Korea problem is now one of the main items on Trump’s plate.
What I wonder is what do Trump opponents (progressives, liberals, Democrats) offer as our solution to this problem? We have our arguing and fighting points worked out on healthcare, on immigration and the Muslim ban, on taxing (or not) the wealthiest, on climate change, on Roe v Wade. But what about North Korea? According to the NYT piece, Obama was stumped. Checking online, I discovered that during his run for the nomination, Bernie Sanders had a less than totally reassuring response to North Korea questions: we should lean on China to lean on North Korea.
I like to think of Senator Warren has having creative, progressive ideas but couldn’t find anything from her on North Korea.
We worry that Trump has a loose nuclear trigger finger. Might he decide that the solution to the NK problem is to “bomb ’em back to the stone age,” that infamous solution to the NV problem proposed by one American general. Who knows what Trump will do? But in this case what do we think he should do? What’s our solution? To what we fear Trump may cook up, what alternative do we, the opposition, propose?
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