Doina Chiacu / Reuters & Jason Ditz / AntiWar.com – 2017-08-09 20:32:00
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles-trump-idUSKBN1AP1DQ
Trump Says US Nuclear
Arsenal Stronger than Ever
Doina Chiacu / Reuters
WASHINGTON (August 9, 2017) — US President Donald Trump on Wednesday followed up his warning to North Korea against threatening the United States with a statement on the strength of the American nuclear arsenal, and an expression of hope that it would not need to be used.
“My first order as President was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before,” he wrote on Twitter. “Hopefully we will never have to use this power, but there will never be a time that we are not the most powerful nation in the world!”
Mattis Threatens End of North Korea,
‘Destruction Of Its People’
Demands North Korea Immediately ‘Stop Isolating Itself’
Jason Ditz / AntiWar.com
(August 9, 2017) — Continuing months of war rhetoric, Defense Secretary James Mattis today warned North Korea risks a course of action that “would lead to the end of its regime and the destruction of its people.” He insisted North Korea needs to immediately “stand down.”
This comes in the context of President Trump yesterday threatening “fire and fury unlike the world has ever seen” against North Korea for its behavior. Trump followed that up today insisting America’s nuclear weapons are better than ever, and that they are the “most powerful nation in the world” and always will be no matter what.
Mattis, for his part, accused North Korea of being to blame for everything, demanding that the state “stop isolating itself,” as US officials continue to impose new sanctions and threaten a massive war against them.
North Korean officials have downplayed the situation, though their state media has suggested they are developing a plan that would involving attacking the US island of Guam, and raising the possibility of a “preemptive strike” on the US if they believe an attack is imminent.
The US, of course, has constantly threatened their own preemptive strikes against North Korea for years now, and those threats have only grown. This inevitably raises concerns that one side or the other is going to blink first and jump headlong into a calamitous war.
Lockheed Sees Surge in Interest in
Missile Defense Over North Korea Tensions
Constant Tensions Could Be a Windfall for Major US Arms Maker
Jason Ditz / AntiWar.com
(August 8, 2017) – Several times a week, US officials threaten military action against North Korea. Even on days when they don’t media reports of tensions with North Korea continue the narrative that a huge war could erupt at any moment.
All these rumors of war are a big windfall for the Pentagon’s number one arms supplier, Lockheed Martin, as they are reporting that the surge in talk about North Korea’s missiles is leading to a surge in interest in their missile defense systems.
On the one hand, the reliability of any missile defense system is questionable under even optimal conditions, as evidenced by US failures. On the other hand, those Lockheed systems are very expensive, and have a really good profit margin on them.
Lockheed’s fortunes are already soaring on the basis of planned US military spending increases, and the Trump Administration’s pushes for more NATO spending have them hoping for more foreign sales.
The North Korea tensions, at least from their perspective, are just another juicy plum, with billions of dollars more in foreign exports potentially getting lined up every time the administration talks up this war.
This is potentially a problem for those in the administration pushing for diplomacy with North Korea, as President Trump is clearly enamored with stock performance as his ultimate measure of economic progress, and all this war hysteria is driving Lockheed’s stock to new highs that might be endangered by peace.
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