April 20, 2024
Opinion

What was Panetta thinking?

Former U.S. defense secretary's revelations about going nuclear raise disquieting questions

I have long considered North Korea’s frequent charge that the U.S. is contemplating a nuclear strike clunky and unconvincing. The assertion seemed very much over the top, and as we know from the fairy story, crying wolf unnecessarily is not a good strategy. The accusation surfaces most frequently in denunciations of the biannual joint U.S./South Korea military exercises. For instance:

The north-targeted war exercises staged by the U.S. together with the puppet army in south Korea are a heinous nuclear war rehearsal to bring a nuclear holocaust to the Korean Peninsula, Northeast Asia and other parts of the world.

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