https://www.yahoo.com/news/nor...tered-144920818.html

It overdue forDPRK to be brought back into the fold. I wish them well, I'd be happy to see them prosper. I don't see how anyone actually took them seriously and maybe this blunder will push them over the edge and they'll engage in real and binding peace negotiations.

It's going to require a real Statesman to negotiate the conditional surrender of DPRK and Russia, I hope Trump has someone up to the task.

Pride will always be in the way of surrender

While they are weak…maybe the rest of the world should band together and take over Russia — show China the consequences. Let Israel and the US take down their nuclear launch capability and go for it.

Of course I am in jest…

…but it should be given some thought.

quote:

Of course I am in jest…

Yea, just like Trump was in jest about ending the conflict between Russia and Ukraine on day one.

Then this:

https://www.npr.org/2025/01/25...-halt-us-foreign-aid

January 25, 2025

(excerpt)

President Trump has issued a 90-day pause of U.S. foreign aid. There are big questions about what this could mean for health and development projects all over the world.

So it was signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and it says that U.S. foreign assistance will be frozen while a comprehensive review of all programs can be undertaken to, quote, "ensure that all foreign assistance is aligned with President Trump's foreign policy agenda." Now, the memo says the review will be completed within 85 days, and that means for nearly three months, there's going to be no new funding for any foreign assistance, and programs that have already been approved for funding will have to stop work. There are some exemptions, such as foreign military financing for Israel and Egypt, and also emergency food aid.

What kind of programs are likely to be affected?

It's everything from the building of roads to vaccination programs, and there are also aid efforts in sensitive conflict zones. These are often logistically complicated programs. So once you pause them, it's hard to get things running back up again immediately. And you know, Scott, we're talking about a lot of investment, around $60 billion worth. That's how much the U.S. provides in foreign assistance annually, and it's the biggest financial supporter of development aid in the world. So this is going to have a huge impact across the board.

And there's a lot that's still unclear. There are questions about how this is going to affect, you know, aid to Ukraine and Taiwan, for example - also, critical global health programs like PEPFAR, that's the U.S. effort to combat HIV around the world, and it's credited with having saved 25 million lives.

quote:

Originally posted by ledvm:
While they are weak…maybe the rest of the world should band together and take over Russia — show China the consequences. Let Israel and the US take down their nuclear launch capability and go for it.

Of course I am in jest…

…but it should be given some thought.

It sure seems like Russia, and now NK are paper tigers. They have staggering numbers but the quality of their fighting forces seems to not be on par with "what we thought."

paper tigers nonetheless we don’t wanna get into a ring with them
My opinion, ignore them

We did we fear NK. It was the Chinese that pushed us back in N Korea. When we adjusted and pushed back China wanted to stop.

Russia and NK both are a similar issue.

They can use nuclear weapons and kill a lot of people.

Their conventional militaries hold little threat to the US except under that umbrella.

So we really can’t settle the issue of Russian aggression against its neighbors unless we are willing to risk nuclear casualties. Same thing with DPRK.

I don’t know that I would call them paper tigers- just because they are not near peers in conventional warfare doesn’t mean they cannot be a significant threat to other nations. See Ukraine.

I’m not up for nuclear brinksmanship with a coldly calculating Putin or a crazy Rocket Man Kim. It’s too easy to end up with a lot of dead Americans.

Every time we try and be the world’s policeman we end up with a big mess that no one appreciates and quite often things aren’t quite what we think they are.

Some isolationism isn’t all bad.

As far as our European allies, we’ve been doing their heavy lifting while getting the blame. Time to let them shoulder more of the burden. I’m not saying abandon them, but rather that if they want to direct policy, they need to pay for it.

NK might have one nuke. One nuke ain’t worth very much as we can disable one in flight.


The day I will “fear” a response or take into account NK for policy N is the day I sign the YS over to to them.

Same goes for Iran. I don’t get it. Unless Russia is matching their play. I would dare them, beg them, ask the to Close the Straights.

I agree w Dr. Easter on this. A lot of these problems go back to fumbling in WWII and then Vietnam.

The longer you let these types make threats, the harder it is to stop it. Sadly, we have let it go too far, too long and now we have to live with it.


Churchhill’s government all but begged to stop Russia, but Churchill is partly to blame by not supporting internal attempts to remove Hiler and the Nazis regime and turning on Stalin.

Likewise we failed by being naive w Stalin.

I do not like Nixon, but there is an interview where he speaks of this naivety.

quote:

Originally posted by crbutler:
Russia and NK both are a similar issue.

They can use nuclear weapons and kill a lot of people.

Their conventional militaries hold little threat to the US except under that umbrella.

So we really can’t settle the issue of Russian aggression against its neighbors unless we are willing to risk nuclear casualties. Same thing with DPRK.

I don’t know that I would call them paper tigers- just because they are not near peers in conventional warfare doesn’t mean they cannot be a significant threat to other nations. See Ukraine.

I’m not up for nuclear brinksmanship with a coldly calculating Putin or a crazy Rocket Man Kim. It’s too easy to end up with a lot of dead Americans.

Every time we try and be the world’s policeman we end up with a big mess that no one appreciates and quite often things aren’t quite what we think they are.

Some isolationism isn’t all bad.

As far as our European allies, we’ve been doing their heavy lifting while getting the blame. Time to let them shoulder more of the burden. I’m not saying abandon them, but rather that if they want to direct policy, they need to pay for it.

Couldn’t say it better Doc