President Trump.

[unclebulgaria67]

North Koreans against Kim would be too frightened of a painful death. Therefore opponents tend to leave the country.

 

At some stage, if North Korea attacks another country, then i would expect a quick reaction. US and allies will already have targets to hit. They will go for command posts of the regime first as a warning.

[renegadeimp]

Nkwont attack anyone. Its all hot air. They want trump to attack first, which he is likely to do because hes a full on war mongerer and is a self admitted lover of nuclear weapons. They will goad trump into firing first, then china and russia will back NK, giving NK the ok to start full blown war, and the US gets the blame.

[Guest]

wonder whether KJY will just press the button, as major kong's nemesis.

[honeybee13]

Trump is dangerous. Several journalists are saying that he can press the nuclear button without anyone like generals or advisers being involved.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/11/trump-nuclear-threat-deep-state-fantasy-north-korea

[Surfer01]

Trump is dangerous. Several journalists are saying that he can press the nuclear button without anyone like generals or advisers being involved.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/11/trump-nuclear-threat-deep-state-fantasy-north-korea

 

Demonstrates just how stupid some journalist really are and I am surprised that any one believes them any more. It is probably easier for the leader of N. Korea to press a button and nuke the US than it is for US president to do the same. The N. Korea leader is totally off his rocker and if he attacks the US, should the US just ignore the fact that millions of its citizens have been nuked?

[honeybee13]

I don't think that's necessarily true, Surfer. There are a lot of articles online from serious newspapers in the US and others by academics and they all say the same thing.

 

HB

[tobyjugg2]

I don't think that's necessarily true, Surfer. There are a lot of articles online from serious newspapers in the US and others by academics and they all say the same thing.

 

HB

Too true HB

The simple fact is that the US president can launch at a moments notice and no-one can legally stop him, in fact all those involved are 'legally' obliged to make it happen should he choose to do so (in the most straight forward definitions of their roles and responsibilities and penalties under law should they fail to do so).

 

The only check is the purely administerative 'two man rule' requiring a second authorisation - but the second party (secretary of defense or dep) ONLY has the right to approve it, not veto it and can be instantly fired by the president.

But of course the secdef could refuse to co-authorise in which case he can simply and lawfully be instantly fired by the Pres - as he already has done with a number of people.

 

You are then into personalities and their interpretations of their duty - whether to obey the President or not

 

The Vice President could theoretically declare the pres bonkers, if he knows whats going on, but would need the support of the majority of the cabinet - a real can of worms in the case of a quick brain fart by trump (and the VP hasn't declared him bonkers yet).

 

 

Would they do it if Trump went nuclear bonkers rather than just crazy ego bonkers??

Who knows - some of the people he is putting in place certainly might.

[ericsbrother]

One problem for Trump is that there arent any nukes at the end of his button/telephone,

it requires the commander of whatever sub or ground station to follow a series of protocols to expidite the launch

and who knows if any of them actually have the determination to turn the keys to send the rockets flying if they believe that Trump is off his rocker?

 

The war of words between N Korea and anyone who listens to them has its own conventions and Trumps threat have done what they were intended to achieve and that is getting Russia and China to take a less passive position.

 

 

N Korea is not harmalees, they have rocketed and shelled S Korea, sunk ships in international waters, kidnapped Japanese citizens in Japan, poisoned and killed critics in foreign countries etc but until now China and Russia have entertained all of this because they know that if the regime falls it is they who will get masses of refugees and migrants crossing their borders,

 

 

possibly get missiles launched at their soil for appearing to support the west and anyway,

it has all tied up a massive amount of people and money that S Korea and japan would otherwise spend boosting their economy at China and Russia's expense as a regional player.

 

So will Trmp order a first strike?

I doubt it, as it is a ploy used by Johnson and Nixon over Vietnam.

 

 

China saw no incursions over the borders from that direction but the US and others did use Taiwan as a place to cause a nuisance to them militarily via their islands close by.

 

 

Russia's supply chain to N Vietnam was attacked when they used ships and when they used rail the Chinese stole a lot of it anyway.

Keeping an eye on the low level stuff will be more telling as that is more likely to create a real diplomatic incident that cant be brushed aside by more shouty slogans.