Joel Ross
Over an eight year period, Obama managed to turn a messy world into one that is the most dangerous since WWII. His ridiculing Romney about Russia, his apology tour to the Mideast in 2009, the failure to act when the Iranians were rising up against the regime, and then his failure to act on his red line, just proved to Russia, Iran, China, Venezuela, and radical Islamists, that they were free to do as they pleased in the world and Obama would do nothing to stop them other than whine about human rights abuses and then he would run to the UN. He confirmed his refusal to act by disarming the US military just as the world threats were mounting. The result is we now have 700,000 dead Syrians, 13 million homeless, and a massive demographic shift toward eventual Muslim majorities in places like the Netherlands, ISIS terrorism across the whole world, Russia in Ukraine, North Korea threatening us and China using its money to influence Southeast Asia and Africa. The US military is so stripped down that 70% of marine fighter jets cannot fly due to lack of spare parts and mechanics.
Trump is changing the entire geopolitical calculus, and what happens in North Korea is a message the whole world is waiting to see. This is equivalent to the Syria red line. My belief is China’s Xi Jinping and Trump will make a deal to put North Korea’s Kim Jong-un back in a box, and maybe China will be able to get the generals to assassinate Kim before he has them killed. Many on the liberal side think Trump is acting impulsively and recklessly. However, a review of history shows that 1. All prior attempts over the past 25 years using direct negotiation have failed and left us in this dangerous situation with this nut owning nukes, 2. Russia is solidly in Ukraine and Syria, 3. ISIS has established a worldwide terror organization, 4. Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro crushes his people, 5. Iran runs rampant through the Middle East and has major influence in Iraq and Syria, and 6. the US military is severely deficient to carry out its missions.