New bestie

One of the biggest problems with Donald Trump is not that he is petty and thin skinned (although he is dangerously touchy), it is that, unlike say Nixon, who would rant and scream about every possible snub imagined or not; it is that he will act on that pettiness.

Strangely this rarely if ever seems to trouble his country’s enemies very much, but his allies are increasingly incapable of knowing what America will do next to undermine them, just out of personal, petty spite.

Ukraine is a case in point, so is Greenland, NATO and now it is the turn of South Korea.

The President has told the US military to scale back forthcoming joint military exercises with South Korea. Because he claims they send a “hostile” message to North Korea. Which is quite obviously true and pretty much the whole point of the exercises, they are designed to deter Pyongyang.

North Korea has been complaining about these joint exercises for as long as I can remember, has been sabre rattling about them and generally whinging like a whipped girl; because it knows full well that they are an annual reminder that South Korea has the whole of the USA at its back.

But not any more. Trump is too late to cancel the whole military exercises but he is cutting them back on the laughable grounds that “These exercises are not only costly, with much of these costs paid for by the United States of America (as usual!), but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful” (note “respectful” there, it speaks volumes about his ego).

Trump, as you doubtless remember actually held a meeting with North Korea’s dictator for life Kim Jong Un during his first term and boasted how he was the first one to achieve such a breakthrough; when as any expert could have told him North Korea would have sold its soul for a meeting with the leader of the free world on equal terms.

Now he is giving North Korea not only a massive victory but undermining the deterrent that has kept peace on the Korean peninsular for decades, and we all know why.

Forget the cost of the exercises, South Korea has not supported America in its war with Iran and Trump is getting a petty minded bit of revenge.

Leaving aside the utterly pathetic nature of this “revenge”, it is incredibly dangerous and damaging and not just in Korea. None of America’s traditional allies were dumb enough to join in the attack on Iran and America is now in a quagmire of its own making.

Trump is obviously angry and lashing out at his allies, with no regard whatsoever for the consequences.

Undermine one element of your defence and your deterrence and you weaken all of it. Betray one ally and the rest will never trust you again.

What is South Korea’s government going to make of this? That they can no longer rely on the USA to come to their aid ever again is evident. North Korea will feel emboldened and it has nuclear weapons, no imaginary ones like Iran, real ones.

South Korea, and Japan also, are now very likely to be looking at their own defences and quite possibly deciding they need nukes too.

Meanwhile North Korea will increase its sabre rattling, what does it have to lose?

Trump is their new bestie.

Jonty’s Jotting

From Jonty Bloom Media Ltd

Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.