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« Reply #1 on: August 30, 2017, 05:25:04 PM » |
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The Patriot Post Digest 8-30-2017
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Security Council heaped sanctions on North Korea already for its missile launches earlier this month. Keeping China on board for tougher measures will be vital23, as Kim’s fellow communists are pretty much the only friends he has — well, besides the Iranian mullahs.
PJ Media’s Claudia Rosett recaps24 the history briefly: “North Korea launched a ballistic missile over Japan on Tuesday, an act that all by itself qualifies as a stunning provocation. This followed a bout of North Korean threats earlier this month to girdle Guam with missile strikes. Those threats followed North Korea’s successful tests last month of two intercontinental ballistic missiles. Those tests followed an 11-year span from 2006-2016 in which North Korea conducted five nuclear tests, prepared to conduct a sixth — which could come anytime now — and in 2010 unveiled a uranium-enrichment program to complement its production of plutonium for bomb fuel.”
Some have speculated that Kim is trying to push the U.S. and its allies to sit down for negotiations, though he almost certainly won’t come to the table without first sufficiently demonstrating his capability of striking the U.S. mainland. It’s hard to see anything coming of negotiations, though — at least not anything better than has come out of a quarter century of such dialogue. Trump has vowed to keep North Korea from developing long-range nuclear capability. And Kim has sworn he won’t give up his nuclear program. Beyond that, what else is there left to discuss?
We’ve been to this rodeo many times. The stakes are higher now, though, with North Korea’s growing nuclear capability. As The Wall Street Journal observes25, “The intermediate-range missile test will further roil the politics of security in Northeast Asia and is another prod toward Japan acquiring its own nuclear deterrent.” Trump recognizes that, but what’s to be done about it?
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was short-sighted26 enough to say just days before this latest launch that we were actually making progress with North Korea. “I am pleased to see that the regime in Pyongyang has certainly demonstrated some level of restraint that we’ve not seen in the past,” he said last week. “We hope that this is the beginning of this signal that we’ve been looking for that they are ready to restrain their level of tensions, they’re ready to restrain their provocative acts, and that perhaps we are seeing our pathway to sometime in the near future having some dialogue.”
His boss was little better. Trump declared last week that Kim was “starting to respect” the U.S.
Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon27 went so far as to say there is no military solution to the problem in North Korea because of the inevitable damage to Seoul, South Korea, just 30 miles from the border. Bannon may be right that it’s at least a costly option, but it’s one of those things an administration shouldn’t say out loud.
Trump has noted that “all options” remain on the table, and in order for that threat to deter Kim, he has to believe it. Force is the only language dictators understand. A display of power in Asia will let North Korea know that we will protect our allies. Trump standing side by side with South Korea and Japan will also demonstrate that we will protect our allies. After eight years of “leading from behind” and apologizing for American greatness, the international community needs to be reminded that we will not tolerate acts of aggression.
MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST
Militarizing Law Enforcement Deserves Careful Scrutiny28 — We should be very hesitant to turn local police into a paramilitary force to be directed by partisan political interests.
Free Speech or Not?29 — What role do governments and private companies play in allowing people to say what they want?
This Land Is Whose Land?30 — The Left’s politically correct chickens come home to roost in a land dispute at Brown University.
BEST OF RIGHT OPINION
Ben Shapiro: What Hurricane Harvey Teaches Us About Humanity31
John Stossel: Price Gouging32
Walter Williams: Racial Lies and Racism33
For more, visit Right Opinion34.
OPINION IN BRIEF
Ben Shapiro: “Whenever disaster strikes, we’re always inspired by images of human beings helping one another. Disaster often brings out the best in us: our capacity for care, our bravery in risking our lives to help others. Then we’re inevitably disappointed in our unending ability to leave those qualities behind the moment disaster ends. We’ll rush into burning buildings to save each other, but we’ll club each other on the head at political rallies. Why? Because there are certain enemies we hold in common. We hold death in common; we’ll help all but our worst enemies escape the grave. We hold natural disasters in common as an enemy; we’ll react to them by helping out our neighbors. And we hold civilizational threats in common; we’ll fight together against the Nazi scourge or the Soviet threat. But what about when there is no civilizational threat? What about when we’re so powerful that serious threats seem unserious? Former President Obama informed us routinely that radical Islamic terrorism didn’t threaten our civilization. It’s no wonder, then, that so few Americans see radical Islam as a threat worth unifying against. President Trump tells us that Russia isn’t a civilizational threat, and neither is global warming. Without a credible existential threat, Americans don’t unify. But there is a credible existential threat to Americans. The problem is that it’s internal.”
SHORT CUTS
Insight: “A man’s admiration for absolute government is proportionate to the contempt he feels for those around him.” —Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859)
Non Compos Mentis: “Hurricane season, if you want to say there is a hurricane season any longer because we see these things in all seasons, lasts for a couple more months.” —MSNBC’s Katy Tur (Yep, the hurricane that struck the East Coast last January was just horrible.)
Dezinformatsiya: “Houston doesn’t showcase ‘America at its best.’” —Slate headline
Grasping for straws: “There was no acknowledgment from the White House that the first lady’s storm attire was at all off-key.” —Politico taking issue with Melania Trump’s decision to sport stilettos during her trip to Texas
Braying Jenny: “I am no longer sorry [for holding a faux severed head of Trump]. The whole outrage was BS, The whole thing got so blown out of proportion. … Stop acting like my little picture is more important than talking about the actual atrocities that the president of the United States is committing.” —"comedian" Kathy Griffin
A blind squirrel finds a nut: “The question is whether [Trump] can learn and change. If so, I believe he can be a good president.” —Sen. Dianne Feinstein
Hell hath frozen over: “Our democracy has no room for inciting violence or endangering the public, no matter the ideology of those who commit such acts. The violent actions of people calling themselves antifa in Berkeley this weekend deserve unequivocal condemnation, and the perpetrators should be arrested and prosecuted.” —Nancy Pelosi
And last… “Antifa chants, ‘No Trump, no wall, no USA at all.’ The label ‘anti-American’ is not a pejorative, it’s just descriptive.” —Jim Geraghty
Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Managing Editor Nate Jackson
Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform — Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen — standing in harm’s way in defense of Liberty, and for their families. |
