John Scire: Conflict with North Korea could be foreign policy diversion

There is a concept in international relations called a foreign policy diversion, in which a leader enters into a conflict for the purpose of diverting domestic attention from domestic political problems. Once at war, there is a “rally round the flag” effect in which the people support the leader because the nation is at war.

President Trump has a lot of problems to include collusion with Russians, self-enrichment through the use of Trump properties for government business, and daily irrational actions to include vicious personal attacks on everyone including his supporters.

These vicious personal attacks and daily outbursts of anger appear to be symptoms of some sort of mental deterioration.

One way that he can divert the attention of the American people, the press, and the Congress from his failures is to enter into a conflict. The most likely candidate is North Korea. And a conflict with North Korea would have to involve the United States doing preemptive bombing attacks on the massed artillery near Seoul to save Seoul, and the use of a tactical atomic weapon or two to take out the nuclear facilities.

The excuse will be that North Korea now has an ICBM that can hit the United States. But the reality is that any missile launched from Korea could be shot out of the sky by our anti-missile defenses. This is not a real threat to the United States.

Congress would not be able to stop the initial military action by Trump once it happens.

It is time for the Republican Congress to stand up to this mentally unstable and somewhat corrupt president before he gets us into a war. They should either begin impeachment hearings on the Russian involvement and/or begin the 25th Amendment process to declare him unfit. There is no doubt that he and his campaign colluded with the Russians. And there is no doubt that he has done everything he can do to cover up the illegal actions of him and his campaign.

The Congress could also invoke the 25th Amendment based on his appearance of being mentally and emotionally unfit to be the president. The 25th does allow for reinstatement, but Trump would have to prove that he was fit to serve and petition Congress to be reinstated.

Congressman Amodei and Sen. Heller must stand up to this president now or risk an unnecessary war, and maybe even the end of our democracy.

Scire has a Ph.D in International Relations and has taught U.S. Foreign Policy and other courses for over 20 years as an adjunct professor at UNR and elsewhere. He also has 30 years of military experience to include 12 years in the Marine Corps as an active duty infantry officer, to include service in Vietnam, and 15 years in the Army Reserve in Psychological Warfare units, with frequent deployments to South Korea.