CleverBomb
On Space Out
WASHINGTON (NYT) Just over a week ago, the White House declared that ordering an American aircraft carrier into the Sea of Japan would send a powerful deterrent signal to North Korea and give President Trump more options in responding to the Norths provocative behavior. Were sending an armada, Mr. Trump said to Fox News last Tuesday afternoon.
The problem was that the carrier, the Carl Vinson, and the three other warships in its strike force were that very moment sailing in the opposite direction, to take part in joint exercises with the Australian Navy in the Indian Ocean, 3,500 miles southwest of the Korean Peninsula.
White House officials said Tuesday that they had been relying on guidance from the Defense Department. Officials there described a glitch-ridden sequence of events, from an ill-timed announcement of the deployment by the militarys Pacific Command to a partially erroneous explanation by the defense secretary, Jim Mattis all of which perpetuated the false narrative that a flotilla was racing toward the waters off North Korea.
We apparently have a Commander in Chief who can't even properly command an aircraft carrier to deploy as a threat against an uncooperative hostile nation.
"Talk softly and -- wait, I had that stick here a minute ago... anyone seen my stick?"
Ok, that was snarky. On a serious note (quoted in the Wall Street Journal):
In South Korea, Hong Joon-pyo, the presidential candidate from former leader Park Geun-hyes ruling party, said it was inappropriate to judge before receiving final confirmation of the Carl Vinsons whereabouts. But, in an interview, he said: What Mr. Trump said was very important for the national security of South Korea. If that was a lie, then during Trumps term, South Korea will not trust whatever Trump says.
This level of incompetence has real-world consequences.
The problem was that the carrier, the Carl Vinson, and the three other warships in its strike force were that very moment sailing in the opposite direction, to take part in joint exercises with the Australian Navy in the Indian Ocean, 3,500 miles southwest of the Korean Peninsula.
White House officials said Tuesday that they had been relying on guidance from the Defense Department. Officials there described a glitch-ridden sequence of events, from an ill-timed announcement of the deployment by the militarys Pacific Command to a partially erroneous explanation by the defense secretary, Jim Mattis all of which perpetuated the false narrative that a flotilla was racing toward the waters off North Korea.
We apparently have a Commander in Chief who can't even properly command an aircraft carrier to deploy as a threat against an uncooperative hostile nation.
"Talk softly and -- wait, I had that stick here a minute ago... anyone seen my stick?"
Ok, that was snarky. On a serious note (quoted in the Wall Street Journal):
In South Korea, Hong Joon-pyo, the presidential candidate from former leader Park Geun-hyes ruling party, said it was inappropriate to judge before receiving final confirmation of the Carl Vinsons whereabouts. But, in an interview, he said: What Mr. Trump said was very important for the national security of South Korea. If that was a lie, then during Trumps term, South Korea will not trust whatever Trump says.
This level of incompetence has real-world consequences.
