Trump Locked, Loaded and Checkmated
Has President Trump’s “Locked and loaded” rhetoric led to a checkmate situation.
“Locked and loaded!”
The United States of America’s military plans for a confrontation with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is locked and loaded, according to the US president.
This description of the United States’ preparedness was uttered by the American president during a press conference on the opioid addiction that is engulfing his country. Instead of a locked and loaded plan to combat the opioid crisis in America, he took aim at a tiny island that has been in a state of ceasefire with the USA since 1953.
For all intents and purposes, the DPRK is a nuclear nation-state, or will be by this time next year. This makes the tough words coming from the Americans hard to explain. No longer does America have the nuclear advantage over the DPRK. Albeit the Americans have more nukes and the ability to destroy Korea north of the 38th parallel.
What is different about the two nations relationship today is that the DPRK has the ability to inflict at least a meager amount of harm to America and her allies in the Korean Peninsula
President Trump’s “locked and loaded” dictum comes after the DPRK in a carefully worded statement recommended that Trump would be wise to shut his mouth. If he did not the DPRK would recommend to their central command an unarmed nuclear test. The test would fire four unarmed missiles towards Guam, a territory in the Korean Peninsula claimed by the USA as spoils of World War II.
Following Trump’s “locked and loaded” statement, Xi Jinping President of the People’s Republic of China and Chairman of the Central Military Commission issued a statement that it would not come to the side of the DPRK if it launched an unprovoked attached against the USA or its allies in the region.
Also, Jinping’s statement made clear that China would not support any USA effort towards regime change in the DPRK. Taking regime change off the table will severely limit the response coming from the USA should Kim Jong-un launch armed or unarmed missiles near the Guam coast. Almost any use of nuclear weaponry can be interrupted as an act in furtherance of regime change.
In essence, Trump is locked, loaded and checkmated. The Chinese hold the balance of power in this dispute between the USA and the DPRK, as they did in 1948.
At the height of the USA’s attempt to take control of the entire Korean Island, China’s Mao Tse-tung threaten to unleash his million man army in the fight against USA forces led by General Douglas MacArthur, if the USA crossed the 38th parallel. President Truman, not willing to risk a war with China, ordered MacArthur to stand down. When MacArthur refused to stand down, Truman relieved him of his command.
Sixty-nine years later, China is still not willing to have a united Korea, so close to its border, under the control of the USA.
Yes siree, Trump is locked, loaded and checkmated!
Harold Michael Harvey is an American novelist and essayist. He is a Contributor at The Hill, SCLC National Magazine, Southern Changes Magazine and Black College Nines. He can be contacted at hmharvey@haroldmichaelharvey.com
