President Trump’s “fire and fury” threat has a very different tone from the empty, flaccid whispers that former U.S. presidents used to issue.
Earlier this week, North Korea announced it had the capability to miniaturize nuclear warheads and attach them to their recently developed ICBM, or intercontinental ballistic missile.
Not great news for anybody who’s on North Korea’s bad side, which is pretty much the entire world.
While certainly more sophisticated, these threats aren’t new. The U.S. has been dealing with North Korean agitation for decades, beginning with the Korean War.
During the Clinton Administration, North Korean nuclear ambitions began to heat up. The last thing the former president wanted to do was declare war. He had a dovish base that believed in putting the environment and social reform above national security.
A post-Regan era had made for a country of male apologists. Gone were the days of hawkish masculinity and flexing our American muscle on the world stage. We’d entered the era of third-wave feminism. They pushed things like gender violence and demanded softer, more submissive men.
So Clinton, who was as much afraid of his own shadow as he was of angry women storming the White House with pitchforks and torches, developed the 1994 Agreed Framework. The deal made it exceedingly clear that we wouldn’t dare incinerate North Korea. Instead, we’d help them “dismantle” their nuclear missile program while also helping them develop their nuclear energy program.
You know. For the environment.
North Korea later announced they were edging closer to getting a nuke, and Clinton went down in history as one of the worst negotiators and weakest presidents ever. Free love hippies and third wave feminists all across America cheered because Slick Willy had saved us from war and preserved the ozone layer.
Then in 2015 – amidst the peace mongering and racial riots that vilified your average white male – Obama appeased his base by gutting our defense systems and striking a “very good deal” with Iran.
So when President Trump roared back at the dictator, everyone listened, and then they complained.
Clinton and Obama stood as symbols not only for anemic militaristic power but also for waning American manhood. Now that Trump’s in office, the only people more afraid than the North Koreans are the men that quiver behind microphones, teleprompters, and the women they’ve allowed to wear their pants.
The fact that Kim Jong Un is even an issue to a world superpower like the U.S. blows my mind.
We’ve forfeited years of hawkish foreign policy in an effort to make the rest of the world feel better. Now, with a North Korean nuke knocking on our door, it’s time to grow some chest hair and put the obese agitator back in his place.
The media will try to twist Trump’s confrontational narrative of male masculinity into a toxic and dangerous international strategy. They’ll try to portray him as more of a madman than Kim Jong Un.
But the idea of toxic masculinity has gone far enough. You tell me what’s more toxic: men who are willing to be men and fight the scourge of evil in the world, or radioactive poison unleashed on millions of innocent Americans?
Trump is talking to Kim Jong Un in a language that he actually understands. America now has a president that isn’t afraid to fight back. Gone are the days of strategic talks, red lines, and empty threats. While Kim Jong Un may not listen to Trump, he probably respects the matched bravado.
Kim Jong Un is a dictator. He has no interest in civilized discussion. He’s saber rattling. Trump is now doing it back. And for anybody who doubts this approach, I advise you to take a look at history and see how we got here.
I sleep soundly at night knowing that Trump isn’t afraid to be a man; neither are his top military strategists. They aren’t afraid to protect their own. Trump isn’t apologizing for American world leadership. He’s rising to the occasion. And if it offends you, go to North Korea and do the negotiating yourself.