Kim Jong-un, who has been accused of such beastly actions as throwing his family and adversaries literally to the dogs also poisoned his half-brother in a public airport. President Trump who accused the Canadian Prime Minister of being the steward of a country that burned down the White House in 1812, (that was the British—Donald) and has less command of history than that of a 5th grader, expects America to have the confidence that he and Kim could broker a meaningful and historic denuclearization deal. It is more likely that Kim Jong-un will challenge Trump to a duel of hairdressers, right after Trump berates him for bombing Pearl Harbor.
This orchestrated photo opportunity, that both leaders hope will solidify their self- imagined grandeur will be worth watching—I guess. Trump is stumping for a Noble Peace Prize and thinks a picture of him shaking hands with one of the most un-peaceful dictators and despots in modern history will do it. Kim wants to do what his grandfather and father before him could not do, snooker an American president into legitimizing the North Korean regime before the world.
Good luck world, we’ll need it
The eyes of the world are turning its’ collective gaze toward two men who have added new meaning to the words, cruel and unusual. Admittedly, Mr. Trump has not thrown people to the dogs, only caged children like animals. A member of the Korean military was so starved, he was shot multiple times by fellow soldiers, escaping between the North and South Korean border just to get a normal, non-parasitic meal. The North Koreans have spent fifty years building a nuclear program to appease the paranoia of its leaders. Donald Trump says that within minutes he can decipher the intentions of Kim Jong-un and if his Spidey sense tingles he will walk out of the summit.
The people in the line of fire are the South Koreans and the Japanese, first strike targets if Trump goes on a Twitter rampage, if and when he feels aggrieved. I understand the two men are within 3 miles of each other in separate Singapore hotels. Trump is staying at the appropriately named Shangri La (because Trump is only happy in the isolation of his own mind) Hotel just up the road from Kim, who will make the St. Regis his temporary headquarters. I hope this venture does not turn out to be just another Trump boondoggle on the Lost Horizon.
The eight most frightening words in the English language currently should be, ‘Donald Trump, Kim Jong-un, and the nuclear bomb.’ The man behind the scenes who is sending shivers even up the leg of Chris Matthews is John Bolton. Bolton has never met a conflict he would not like to bomb. From Iran to Cuba to North Korea, paraphrasing Rahm Emanuel, ‘you never want a serious crisis to go waste;’ without dropping a bomb on it. To be fair Bolton said after his appointment as White House National Security Advisor he was turning over a new leaf. All the rhetoric is, “behind me.” So the warmongering is ancient history; or is it? As recently as February of this year Bolton said “…we should not wait until the very last minute. That would risk striking after the North has deliverable nuclear weapons, a much more dangerous situation.”
In Rudyard Kipling’s The Ballad of East and West, he ended the stanza that began, “Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet ” with the admonition, “When two strong men stand face to face, tho’ they come from ends of the earth!” Unfortunately, strength as well as honor, in this case, are at opposite ends of the spectrum. The summit may be more beast meets less, than east meets west.
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