Foreign Policy Analyst On Trump's Response To North Korea: 'It's Not Helpful'
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Foreign policy analyst Ed Turzanski told Chris Stigall on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT that Donald Trump's reaction to North Korea's nuclear saber-rattling is a needless escalation to a potential international crisis.
"The President yesterday, his supporters may say, you tell him Donald, we're going to rain fire on your behinds, it's not helpful. You ought not make statements like that unless you've already made the decision that we're just going to have to engage in a pre-emptive strike. I cannot imagine that his advisers were pleased to have heard him talk that way."
Turzanski, the John Templeton Fellow and co-Chair for the Study of Terrorism at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, emphasized that the threat posed by the regime of Kim Jong-Un is real.
"It's a complex thing to fire an intercontinental ballistic missile. You need a warhead that is small, reliable and survivable because it's got to re-enter earth's atmosphere. Well, the North Koreans have demonstrated that, in the last year, they've cut the time in acquiring this capability by more than half. So, they're getting really close to the point where they're going to be able to hit us with a missile."
He also believes that China is more likely looking to exploit the situation to their advantage instead of working with the US to tamp down tensions.
"The Chinese are not in the business of doing us favors. From the Chinese perspective, the more occupied we are with North Korea, the freer the Chinese are to build artificial islands in the South China Sea and to extend their claim on minerals, natural gas, oil, and fishing rights...They find it useful."
