Donald Trump and North Korea

Donald Trump has made some rather imflammatory remarks in recent days threatening North Korea with "fire and fury" should the North Korean government choose to attack the United States or its interests with nuclear weapons.

Predictably those who oppose him have come out against his statements, accusing him of warmongering, being unhinged and otherwise spouting the standard stuff that Mr. Trump's opponents have been spouting for almost three years.

Mr. Trump is an ass and he really has no business being in the Whitehouse as far as I am concerned but in the case of his statements to North Korea he is correct.

It is not a secret that North Korea possesses nuclear weapons.  The number is unknown but it is not very many.  It would now appear that they have perfected a vehicle that can potentially carry them great distances.  It is still an open question as to whether they have been able to reduce the size of any nuclear warheads so that they can fit on those missile.

Regardless we can probably now consider North Korea to be a nuclear power and it is questionable if it can be trusted not to use them.  In that situation it is appropriate for Mr. Trump to remind Mr. Kim of North Korea that it is not the only nuclear power in its region.  It is appropriate to remind Mr. Kim that any use of nuclear weapons would result in him being the leader of a nuclear wasteland instead of a country, assuming he survives any nuclear counterstrike by the US.  

The only effective method for controlling the use of nuclear weapons is the threat of a swift counterstrike by another nuclear power.  During the Cold War it was called Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) and it is probably one of the biggest reasons we all came through that period with our lives and our civilization intact.  

Reminding Mr. Kim of the AD part of that acronym is not a bad idea.  It is true that Mr. Trump has done so in his usual ham fisted manner but the fact he has done it might just prevent real disaster, although it will probably lead to some more serious sabre rattling before this all dies down.