The War of the Words

As President Trump returns home after his trek to Asia, the war of words continues. From “short” to “fat” to “old,” I feel like I’m back in junior high on the playground.

This type of rhetoric does not advance what we need to do in Washington at this time – create order out of chaos, not inject more chaos into the order.

Sometimes it’s the little things one might not expect that push countries toward war, including fiery rhetoric. Reflecting on history, one example that comes to mind is World War I, which started with the assassination of an archduke in a minor Balkan state and led the world to sleep walk into one of the most disastrous times of the modern era.

I discussed this with the team at Morning Joe, which you can watch here:

The objective of Trump’s trip to Asia should have been to reassure our allies (Japan and South Korea, among others) and deter our opponents vs further inflame the situation. We need to convey to Kim that he’d better stop being so unpredictable and pay attention to what’s going on.

I think the trip was also a way to put pressure on China to, in turn, pressure North Korea. At the end of the day, what China wants to avoid is a war on the Korean peninsula, which will crack their economy. And if we can convince China to lean on North Korea, we have a far better chance of solving this diplomatically.

However, I think the biggest success of the President’s trip was to distract the public from what is happening in Washington. Listen to my thoughts on NPR:

There’s another global theater we cannot forget to pay attention to, which is Europe. Russia continues to act aggressively on its borders and in the Arctic, where military activity is increasing dramatically. As I told Defense One, in order to best deter further adventurism in Europe, we need a balanced mix of all military capabilities including increased Army heavy units, increased maritime deployments to the Baltic and Black Seas, joint NATO air patrols over NATO borders, and more attention to the Arctic.