Loose and Counter-productive Talk from Priebus

In this ABC clip, Priebus (White House chief of staff) says that the US faces no bigger threat than N. Korea. As a high U.S. official, he shouldn’t be shooting off his mouth like this. Neither should Trump. This is all loose talk about N. Korea, and it fails to address the problems in a serious way. Such talk is totally emotional, raising fears, while having nothing whatsoever productive to do with the realities of how this situation came about and what to do about it. This language is the opposite of what should be occurring, which is nuanced, thoughtful diplomatic talk. It’s counter-productive. Numerous carefully-worded statements could be made about the difficult unresolved issues in Korea. He made none.

N. Korea’s actions are part of a situation of threat and counter-threat arising from both sides. N. Korea sees the U.S. as a threat and its own responses as a counter-threat. By not carefully placing N. Korea’s actions in context, Priebus builds a picture of N. Korea as a potential aggressor that’s initiating threats for reasons other than its own defense.

The top diplomat, Rex Tillerson, is no better with his speech than Priebus. He makes threats about non-existent N. Korean actions: “All options for responding to future provocations must remain on the table. Diplomatic and financial leverage or power will be backed up by willingness to counteract North Korean aggression with military action, if necessary.” Why? The North Koreans know this already. They are responding to these threats in a rational way, by developing weapons to retaliate should they be attacked. Tillerson instead should be constructing carefully-worded signals of potential negotiation and deals that would benefit N. Korea, S. Korea and the U.S. Threats are both useless and counter-productive in the existing situation.

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