{"id":21272,"date":"2017-04-26T13:06:07","date_gmt":"2017-04-26T13:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=21272"},"modified":"2017-04-26T13:06:07","modified_gmt":"2017-04-26T13:06:07","slug":"has-the-dictator-gone-mad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=21272","title":{"rendered":"Has the dictator gone MAD?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kim Jong Un certainly must know why they called it “mutually assured destruction” back during the Cold War.<\/p>\n

Surely he understands that MAD means what it assures, that anyone who launches a nuclear missile at a nuclear power is going to get wiped off the face of the planet.<\/p>\n

The MAD policy prevented a nuclear holocaust when the world comprised just two superpowers. U.S. presidents and Soviet dictators knew the consequences of such foolishness.<\/p>\n

But … here we are. The North Korean dictator\/fruitcake\/goofball keeps\u00a0making some, oh, so very provocative\u00a0statements<\/em> about how he would respond to U.S. attempts to prevent him from developing a nuclear-strike capability.<\/p>\n

Kim Jong Un said he would launch a missile at the USS Carl Vinson carrier battle group that is steaming (finally!) toward the Korean Peninsula. He keeps arguing that his nukes are for “defensive purposes only,” meant to deter some perceived aggression from South Korea.<\/p>\n

It’s all just so much MADness coming out of the mouth of the son and grandson of two prior North Korean dictators.<\/p>\n

This brings me to my point. All the bluster and bravado that pours out of Kim Jong Un’s pie hole cannot actually mean<\/em> he would he do what he says he would do. Or can it?<\/p>\n

Military rivalries are nothing to trifle with. I recall vividly a statement I received from a Taiwanese government official with whom I was discussing the tense standoff that exists between Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China.<\/p>\n

The PRC has long threatened to use military force to “take back” the island nation formed in 1949 at the end of a bloody civil war on the Chinese mainland. Would the PRC actually risk nuclear confrontation with the United States, which has a mutual defense treaty with Taiwan?<\/p>\n

The Taiwanese official said his government takes any threat from China “very seriously” and was prepared to respond accordingly.<\/p>\n

So should the United States be prepared to respond to the rantings of the North Korean MADman.<\/p>\n

They call it “MAD” for a damn good reason, Mr. Dictator.<\/p>\n\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kim Jong Un certainly must know why they called it “mutually assured destruction” back during the Cold War. Surely he understands that MAD means what it assures, that anyone who launches a nuclear missile at a nuclear power is going to get wiped off the face of the planet. The MAD policy prevented a nuclear … Continue reading Has the dictator gone MAD?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,12],"tags":[956,1054,7075,7076,3335,4500,5060],"class_list":["post-21272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international-news","category-military-news","tag-china","tag-cold-war","tag-mad","tag-mutually-assured-destruction","tag-north-korea","tag-taiwan","tag-uss-carl-vinson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21272"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21274,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21272\/revisions\/21274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}