Of the two things that most scare us, North Korea would be 1A and the national debt would be 1B. The thing is, if the national debt crashes the American economy, and thus the global economy, or if dollars become so worthless that 401(k)s are no good, or if the interest paid each year to service the debt takes away from other federal programs including safety nets, then all we'll have is destitution. That beats nuclear war.
Somebody really needs to have a sit-down with this new president of the United States and explain that North Korea isn't like any other nation. Somebody described it as an ant colony. And ant colonies, as Charles Krauthammer noted, don't have good checks and balances. The man in charge in Pyongyang is a known psychopath who may or may not be sober at this moment.
There are whole organizations and offices around the world, from Washington to Seoul, who watch and read the news from North Korea just to study minor changes in wording in an attempt to gauge what the hermit kingdom's leadership is thinking. And word around the campfire is that there are whole offices in Pyongyang that parse America's news to gauge what the Americans are thinking.
Last week, after North Korea fired off an ICBM, President Trump tweeted that it was hard to believe that South Korea and Japan would put up with it. And of Kim Jong Un he said, "Does this guy have anything better to do with his life?"
Now, insulting the Germans or French or Chinese or Russians or Liechtensteiners is one thing. They might launch a press release. Whereas North Korea has thousands and thousands of artillery shells aimed at 10 million people in Seoul. And there's no telling what Kim Jong Un is likely to make out of the latest insulting tweet. What if he takes one insult as more than it is? Like, say, a declaration of war?
Margaret Thatcher once said being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to claim to be, you aren't.
Mr. President, this isn't WWE wrestling. On this level, insults might actually mean something. And your words could lead you--and the rest of us--down an awful path.
Editorial on 07/09/2017