politifact
Was the United States on the verge of war against North Korea during the presidency of Barack Obama? Donald Trump has said he thinks so.
"If I had not been elected president of the United States, we would right now, in my opinion, be in a major war with North Korea with potentially millions of people killed," Trump said during his State of the Union address.
He repeated the claim recently when announcing an emergency declaration on the U.S.-Mexico border wall, saying that Obama was particularly out to get North Korea.
"I said, ‘What’s the biggest problem?’ (Obama) said, ‘By far, North Korea.’ And I don’t want to speak for him, but I believe he would have gone to war with North Korea. I think he was ready to go to war," Trump said. "In fact, he told me he was so close to starting a big war with North Korea."
We asked a range of North Korea and foreign-policy experts whether they thought it was likely, or even plausible, that the United States was on the precipice of war with North Korea during Obama’s tenure.
Universally, the experts we contacted said no.
Revere of Brookings dismisses Trump’s line about being close to war under Obama as a distraction.
"In pointing the finger of blame at Obama, Trump is seeking to distract us from the fact that he was playing both the arsonist and the fireman in stoking the flames of war and then riding to the ‘rescue’ in the form of his bromance with Kim," Revere said. "It has made for great theater, even if it has done nothing to rid us of the North Korean nuclear and missile threat."
Because experts are always right. Like the ones predicting the outcome of the Presidential election.
ReplyDeleteJUST LIKE THE PRESIDENT HAS CREDIBILITY AND COMPETENCE
ReplyDeleteI give him credit for getting electing. There were a dozen or so Republicans wo ran in the Republican primaries. Donald Trump can creditably claim he was the better politician.
ReplyDeletebetter politician yes!
ReplyDeletebut totally incompetent as president!
I disagree. This is the way democracy is set up in the U.S. It's the system that's flawed, not the men and women who competently and expertly exploit the system to advance themselves through it.
ReplyDeleteLet's set up a system where only the political parties run for office. And politicians vie for party positions.
ReplyDeleteWait, we have that system elsewhere. Runs just as (in)efficiently