(This week's "Meet The Press" is preempted by the French Open.)
As you're reading this, President Trump is on the ground in Singapore readying to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, in which Mr. Trump said that he'd be able 'size him up' in the first five minutes about whether Mr. Kim is serious about denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
But let's be clear, North Korea has the ability to hit the United States with a nuclear weapon so anything less than getting 97% of their nuclear capabilities out within 10 years, which include a stringent inspection regime would be a worse deal than the Iran nuclear deal.
The U.S. should make no conciliatory steps in 'good faith' with the North Korean leader such as lifting sanctions or pulling U.S. troops out of South Korea unless the aforementioned conditions are met. The reasoning behind this opinion is that North Korea has broken the conditions of every deal negotiated in the past so pardon if there is a bit of skepticism here. The only leverage that Kim Jong Un has on the world stage is the fact that he has nuclear weapons and it's difficult imagining him giving them up.
Giving the North Korean dictator such a expedited audience with the President of the United States works more to Mr. Kim's advantage than it does to America's show of strength. Optics matter and looking congenial with a regime that's killed hundreds of thousands of its own people without even bringing up human rights doesn't bode well for the world's greatest democracy.
Also, after the verbal jousting and bad photo-ops that have come out of the G7 meetings, does anyone find it disconcerting that the U.S. president walks away from democratic allies and toward the leaders of China and Russia? The world order over the past 70 years, of which the United States is the architect, is being dismantled by Donald Trump. The president's call for Russia to be readmitted to the G7 is completely unacceptable. Russia was removed from the group for its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, which Mr. Trump blamed on President Obama. He should blame Vladimir Putin for that, but instead Mr. Trump carries Mr. Putin's water for him. Not to mention that little thing of Russia, at the direction of Mr. Putin, meddling in, nay subverting, The United States' democratic process.
Mr. Trump is the American gift to Mr. Putin that keeps on giving. The biggest beneficiary of the G7 meetings was Mr. Putin. Mr. Trump despite differences with the other six countries, should have signed the joint communique as a statement of solidarity, but instead he refused to sign it thus causing further discord between western democracies.
Donald Trump is irreparably damaging America's principles, democracy and its democratic institutions. The American people better wake up to this because the 'freedom' we so cherish is becoming less free.
No comments:
Post a Comment