You're missing an important nuance.
Carry a big stick and you may speak softly.
But start waggling around, and people very quickly expect you to use it.
There's the Nixonian madman theory at play, maybe.
Truman made a similar threat - but only after using nuclear weapons. Trump, whoever - hasn't. He's shouting loudly and waggling his stick and drawing attention to it.
And in the process - Trump has basically left himself two options.
Back down publically. Or start a War.
It's Chekov's nuclear arsenal. Either you back your threats up, or look like an eejit and never get taken seriously again. So, he has basically painted himself into this massive bloody corner. Most his soft-power options are gone - not that he has any idea how to use them. All that's left is waggling the stick and hoping nobody pushes it to the point where you have to hit them.
Either you do, and horrify the world.
Or don't, and look impotent.
He's just relying on the graces of China being interested enough in not dealing with the fallout of a nuclear war to maybe reign little Kim in and fix his fuckups for him. Which becomes a problem, if China is betting on making Trump loose face by backing down - which might help it expand in the south china sea.
Which also means they're risking a nuclear war too. But not a *big* one. And it's the sort of nuclear war that would definitely go a lot better for China than America.
![[Image: pmZIDBE.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/pmZIDBE.jpg)
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--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
Carry a big stick and you may speak softly.
But start waggling around, and people very quickly expect you to use it.
There's the Nixonian madman theory at play, maybe.
Truman made a similar threat - but only after using nuclear weapons. Trump, whoever - hasn't. He's shouting loudly and waggling his stick and drawing attention to it.
And in the process - Trump has basically left himself two options.
Back down publically. Or start a War.
It's Chekov's nuclear arsenal. Either you back your threats up, or look like an eejit and never get taken seriously again. So, he has basically painted himself into this massive bloody corner. Most his soft-power options are gone - not that he has any idea how to use them. All that's left is waggling the stick and hoping nobody pushes it to the point where you have to hit them.
Either you do, and horrify the world.
Or don't, and look impotent.
He's just relying on the graces of China being interested enough in not dealing with the fallout of a nuclear war to maybe reign little Kim in and fix his fuckups for him. Which becomes a problem, if China is betting on making Trump loose face by backing down - which might help it expand in the south china sea.
Which also means they're risking a nuclear war too. But not a *big* one. And it's the sort of nuclear war that would definitely go a lot better for China than America.
________________________________--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?