Trump At Odds With Pentagon Over Strategy For North Korea Containment?

By Aaron Kesel

U.S. President Donald Trump contradicted the Pentagon which has claimed the only way to secure North Korea is through a ground invasion. On Tuesday night Trump gave his affirmed speech stating “the only way is peace through strength” calling on nations across the world to isolate DPRK for its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

“The only way to ‘locate and destroy – with complete certainty – all components of North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs’ is through a ground invasion,” Rear Adm. Michael J. Dumont, vice director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff wrote in an assessment to U.S. lawmakers.

The report also said U.S. military leaders “assess that North Korea may consider the use of biological weapons” and that President Kim Jong-un’s regime “has a long-standing chemical weapons program with the capability to produce nerve, blister, blood and choking agents.”

The Pentagon assessment released late Saturday reached a dire conclusion.

“There are no good military options for North Korea. Invading North Korea could result in a catastrophic loss of lives for U.S. troops and U.S. civilians in South Korea,” the statement said. “It could kill millions of South Koreans and put troops and civilians in Guam and Japan at risk.”

The lawmakers said a ground invasion would be “deeply disturbing” and warned it “could result in hundreds of thousands or even millions of deaths in just the first few days of fighting.”

Trump has consistently referred to Kim as “Rocket Man” even as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has been trying to find a diplomatic solution by putting economic pressure on Pyongyang.

Sixteen lawmakers have urged Trump to tone down his rhetoric towards North Korea.

The statement was led by Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) with backing from Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Rep. Carbajal (D-CA), Rep. Conyers (D-MI), Rep. DeFazio (D-OR), Rep. Brown (D-MD), Rep. Rush (D-IL), Rep. Jones (R-NC), Rep. Panetta (D-CA), Rep. Pascrell (D-NJ), Rep. Thompson (D-CA), Del. Sablan (D-Mariana Islands), Rep. Gabbard (D-HI), Rep. Scott (D-VA), Rep. Moulton (D-MA.)

The commander-in-chief feels differently; Trump gave a historic speech from South Korea surrounded by 3 U.S. carriers as he proclaimed the U.S. seeks “peace through military strength.” And he didn’t shy away from showing that strength, announcing early on in his speech that there were 3 U.S. aircraft carriers with F-35 fighter jets and nuclear submarines within reach of North Korea. It was clearly a warning for the DPRK not to try anything, but he emphasized that the U.S. wanted peace.

So far, it seems to be one of his campaign promises that he seems to be keeping, as he even refused a recommendation by his National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster to resend troops into Afghanistan in July.

He further reiterated his veiled threat today on Twitter stating that, “NoKo has interpreted America’s past restraint as weakness. This would be a fatal miscalculation. Do not underestimate us AND DO NOT TRY US.”

In late September Trump mocked and threatened the country and its leader calling him “Little Rocket Man” stating DPRK “won’t be around much longer” if the Foreign Minister echoed similar thoughts as Jong-un at a UN meeting.

North Korea’s foreign minister Ri Yong Ho responded by accusing President Donald Trump of declaring war, adding that the country now has the right to shoot down U.S. strategic bombers even when they are not inside the country’s airspace.

Ri called Trump “President Evil” and claimed that economic sanctions will not deter Pyongyang’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and a “balance of power with the U.S.”

The U.S. denied it had declared war, but warned it had military options if North Korea takes further “provocative” actions.

“Frankly, the suggestion of that is absurd,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.

“Our goal is still the same: we continue to seek the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean peninsula,” she said. “That’s our focus – doing that through both the most maximum economic and diplomatic pressures as possible at this point.”

This came around the same time that U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis weighed using kinetic weapons against the country.

Mattis was asked at a presser whether there was “any military option the U.S. can take with North Korea that would not put Seoul at grave risk.” Mattis responded, “Yes, there are, but I will not go into details.”

Later during the press conference, another reporter questioned Mattis and caught him off-guard:

“Just to clarify, you said that there were possible military options that would not create a grave risk to Seoul,” a reporter asked. “Are we talking kinetic options as well?”

“Yes, I don’t want to go into that,” Mattis responded.

Specifically, many believe he was referencing the legendary Rods From God or another directed energy-based weapon system.

Business Insider wrote about the rods in September, shortly before I suspect they were used in a covert military operation to destroy a North Korean nuclear test site which collapsed and killed over 200 people on October 31st right before Trump’s trip to South Korea.

“Instead of hundreds of small projectiles from a few thousand feet, Thor used a large projectile from a few thousand miles above the Earth. The “rods from god” idea was a bundle of telephone-pole-size (20 feet long, 1 foot in diameter) tungsten rods, dropped from orbit, reaching a speed of up to 10 times the speed of sound.

The rod itself would penetrate hundreds of feet into the Earth, destroying any potential hardened bunkers or secret underground sites. More than that, when the rod hits, the explosion would be on par with the magnitude of a ground-penetrating nuclear weapon – but with no fallout,” Business insider wrote.

Activist Post also reported on the existence of the weapon in September I wrote about Mattis’ strange comments and dug up several documents proposing placing rods on tips of ICBMs.

Trump’s comments to the regime come after South Korea and the U.S’s annual military drill harassing of North Korea, reminding the dictatorship of its military presence at its southern border.

The U.S. recently had 7 out of 11 of its carriers underway on missions for the first time in a decade including three near North Korea, USNI reported.

This coincided shortly before Trump landed in South Korea to give his speech so it’s highly likely that the other carriers were on standby ready for a move by North Korea preparing for the worst. Those three aircraft carriers were the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), USS Nimitz (CVN-68) and USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71.)

The other aircraft carriers which were allegedly on different missions according to USNI included – USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) and USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74) operated in the Eastern Pacific. While the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) and the Navy’s newest carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) allegedly operated in the Atlantic.

Luckily nothing happened last night when Trump called for sanctions against the DPRK regime. General Joseph Dunford denied that the carriers were there to target North Korea in a statement.

“These three carriers are not there specifically targeting North Korea,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Joseph Dunford said last week.

“This is a routine demonstration of our commitment to the region.”

Aaron Kesel writes for Activist Post and is Director of Content for Coinivore. Follow Aaron at Twitter and Steemit.

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