McCain Takes U.S.-Korea Saber-Rattling To A New Level, Threatens “Extinction”

Threats of annihilation and other inflammatory rhetoric play well with the home crowd and can be sold as “deterrence,” but in the case of North Korea are far more likely to provoke and escalate  conflict. Given how clear this is from experience, McCain’s threats seem intended to do just that.Given how clear this is from experience, McCain’s threats seem intended to do just that.

September 14th, 2017

By Whitney Webb 

With the U.S. touting another round of unanimously-passed sanctions as the cure-all for the situation in North Korea (DPRK), there are grounds for concern that President Donald Trump himself may pose a major hurdle to their successful implementation. On Sunday, Trump told reporters that the sanctions were “just another very small step” and that they “are nothing compared to what ultimately will have to happen,” echoing his earlier rejectionsof diplomacy in favor of military force.

However, President Trump’s rhetoric and promises of escalation pale in comparison to recent statements made by the notoriously trigger-happy senator, John McCain. During a Sunday interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” – his first public appearance since beginning treatment for brain cancer – McCain called for the U.S. to take more aggressive action towards North Korea, while simultaneously stating that further “aggressive” acts by North Korea would lead to the country’s complete annihilation.

McCain told the show’s host, Jake Tapper, that we need to “make sure that Kim Jong Un knows that if he acts in an aggressive fashion, the price will be extinction.”

The senator, who continues to hold his influential position as the chairman of the Senate’s Armed Services Committee, also called for increasing South Korea’s missile defenses as well as other capabilities — such as deploying nuclear weapons to South Korea.

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Related  | Beating The Drum For A “Good” Nuclear War With North Korea

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“The Korean defense minister just a few days ago called for nuclear weapons to be redeployed,” McCain stated, adding he thought “it ought to be seriously considered.” The Korean defense minister, however, had not in fact called for the redeployment of nuclear weapons, instead stating that “the redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons is an alternative worth a full review.”

For his part, Tapper seemed to find nothing wrong with any of McCain’s comments, including his overt call for genocide, and soon after changed the subject to Trump’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy (DACA).

Watch | McCain’s entire interview with CNN here (Quote cited above at 10:15):

 http://www.mintpressnews.com/john-mccain-threatens-north-korea-with-extinction/231943/