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From the Guardian, which can't be accused of being a Trump lover: > This system of indoctrination and propaganda complicates any official announcement of the T
by 21 9y ago
From the Guardian, which can't be accused of being a Trump lover:
> This system of indoctrination and propaganda complicates any official announcement of the Trump meeting. An ideological framework must be devised to explain the talks with the enemy; and regardless of how they are presented, there is an uncomfortable margin for the “infallible” leader to be seen to fail in his aims.
> Trump is a volatile opponent who telegraphed his impatience even before the two men fixed a place to talk, warning he would walk away if he thought the preparations weren’t going anywhere.
> But this unpredictability is the reason there are talks at all. Trump’s barrage of verbal and Twitter attacks on North Koreans – which have been reported there – led Pyongyang to question if it was, for the first time in a generation, facing a US president willing to attack them, experts say.
> Officials there have long calculated that no US president would risk lives in Seoul with an attack on the North. But under Trump that is no longer a safe assumption, says Andrei Lankov, professor of Korean Studies at Kookmin University.
> Kim, like his predecessors, has proved adept at manipulating regional and world powers into providing aid and political support while offering little in return. Now Kim may at last be forced into making real changes to stave off looming political and economic crises.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/20/north-korea-pyongyang-kim-jong-un-donald-trump https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/20/north-korea-py...
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- wslh 9y agoMadman theory? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madman_theory https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madman_theory
- kneel 9y agoThe art of the deal
- pavlov 9y agoNixon took the same approach and called it the “Madman Theory”: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madman_theory https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madman_theory As a politician, Trump is a strange hybrid of Nixon and Berlusconi. I don’t think he’s consciously emulating Nixon on this though, he just has similar instincts.
- azernik 9y agoThe most efficient way to look crazy is to actually be crazy.
- collyw 9y agoIs it fair to say that Trump has done more for world peace than Obama now?
- frockington 9y agoHe needs to drone a few more Americans over seas to beat Obama
- lmm 9y agoIt'll be 10 years or more before we can really answer that question. Trump's talks could work out exactly as planned or they could trigger a nuclear war, or anything in between. Were Obama's calls on Egypt/Libya/Tunisa/... the right ones for the sake of the long term? It's hard to say we'll ever know for sure.
- misja111 9y agoIsrael and Saudi Arabia are also getting along surprisingly well lately. See e.g. http://www.euronews.com/2017/12/26/view-saudi-israel-alliance-will-be-driving-force-of-new-middle-east http://www.euronews.com/2017/12/26/view-saudi-israel-allianc...
- elgenie 9y agoThat's more about counterbalancing Iran in the region and is an "enemy-of-my-enemy" alliance of convenience. The ability to play Iraq and Iran against each other that used to exist went by the wayside when Saddam was toppled and got replaced with nothing.
- collyw 9y agoObama didn't really do much do justify his world peace prize. Surely getting this far deserves a little credit, no? Or are we all supposed to be of "everything Trump does is bad" line of thinking on here as well? (Looking at the down votes on my original comment, apparently so).
- 9y ago
- matwood 9y agoTLDR; when my mom would threatened punishment it was a suggestion, when my dad threatened punishment it was a mandate.
- koolba 9y agoIf you're smart about it you don't make threats at all. The threats need to be inferred and the enforcement immediate.
- xienze 9y ago> If you're smart about it you don't make threats at all. The threats need to be inferred and the enforcement immediate. And how'd that work out for the last however many presidents?
- koolba 9y ago> And how'd that work out for the last however many presidents? I was referring to raising children.
- creaghpatr 9y agoThe recent strike on Syria may have sobered Kim up a bit
- gadders 9y agoSi vis pacem, para bellum.
- Covzire 9y agoPeter Zeihan had some really interesting things to say about Kim Jung Un that completely expanded how I viewed NK. https://youtu.be/feU7HT0x_qU?t=3928 https://youtu.be/feU7HT0x_qU?t=3928 Edit: The gist of the prevailing theory is that in 1994, days before NK was supposed to talk to SK about re-unification, they suffered a coup. Since at least Kim Jung Il's death, Kim Jung Un has been reversing that coup to realize his grandfather's previous plans.