The most historic meeting between two adversaries since the fall of the Soviet Union just happened in Singapore. If you were following the news coverage late last night, you were witnessing history. President Trump and Kim Jong Un have now left Singapore after a meeting that has been anticipated for 65 years.
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First… the bad. It absolutely turned my stomach to see the North Korean flag standing side by side with Old Glory. One flag stands for liberty, peace and opportunity, while the other embodies slavery, hostility and a cultish following. From all the pomp and circumstance yesterday and the handshakes and photographs of roundtable discussions, if you were worried that a cult leader, mass murdering communist dictator would gain legitimacy… you saw your worries materialize. That's exactly what happened. If this had been President Obama, everyone on the right would be destroying him over this. Can we concede that much? John Kerry, Susan Rice, Ben Rhodes… we'd all be calling for their heads on a platter.
And I think it's important to look at this from that optic so that the current administration doesn't fall for the same mistakes that Obama did. We were right to criticize the Iran deal. The inspections were weak - they didn't include military facilities - the deal had a sunset clause, we gave them hundreds of millions of dollars in cash delivered in pallets on an Iranian tarmac, we didn't curb their ballistic missile program… I could go on and on. The deal was a disaster, but above all we assumed that Iran would pursue our interests. We thought we just scored an ally to fight ISIS. Now flash forward a few years and Iran has taken all those freshly unlocked billions and used it to sweep the entire Middle East. The deal between President Trump and Kim Jong Un can looking NOTHING like that.
In short, the Korean war was a diplomatic accident. It should have never happened. It's high time we ended it.
But now… the good. In 1950 Secretary of State Dean Acheson gave a speech to the National Press Club outlining the US defense perimeter following WW2. But during that speech, he mistakenly left off one key country: South Korea. Kim Il-Sung, Kim Jong Un's grandfather, had been BEGGING Stalin to let him invade the South, but the Soviets were holding him in check. They didn't want to provoke a US response, but Acheson's speech provided an opening. It was immediately translated and rushed to Stalin's desk. Stalin called emergency meetings with both Mao and Kim. The attack order was given, and the rest is tragic history. Nearly forty thousand Americans would die in the next three years.
In short, the Korean war was a diplomatic accident. It should have never happened. It's high time we ended it. The President appears to have scored a huge opportunity here. Formally end the Korean war and denuclearize the North, but keep the legitimizing and complimenting of a mass murdering communist dictator of a slave state out of these discussions. This is his shot at making a good deal. Don't let us down.
UPDATE: Here's how the conversation went on radio. Watch the video below.
President Trump and Kim Jong Un meet in Singapore
Glenn discusses the most historic meeting between two adversaries since the fall of the Soviet Union.