I get the sense there’s a clock ticking
Nov 8, 2017, 7:18 AM | Updated: 8:44 am
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
September 20, 2001: President Bush demands that the Taliban regime in Afghanistan hand over all the leaders of Al Qaeda. We all knew they would never accept.
March 17, 2003: President Bush demands Saddam Hussein and his two sons leave Iraq within 48 hours. We all knew he’d never accept.
Last night: President Trump made a demand that, according to every expert I’ve interviewed, North Korea will never accept. He wants no more aggression, no more firing ballistic missiles…
“And complete, verifiable, and total denuclearization.”
For a man who famously does not want to say what might happen next, he dropped a pretty strong hint as to what we could expect.
“Currently stationed in the vicinity of this peninsula, are the three largest aircraft carriers in the world,” Trump said.
Of course, presidents have expressed anger at North Korea before.
“We are not intending to continue a policy of rewarding provocation,” President Obama previously declared.
But that warning felt a lot different than the one from Trump.
“The regime has interpreted America’s past restraint as weakness. This would be a fatal miscalculation.”