Washington — My hope for the new year is that the United States doesn’t bluster and blunder its way into a tragic, needless war.
I confess to having paid less attention than I should to the increasingly apocalyptic rhetoric from the administration about the nuclear threat from North Korea. I’m not talking about President Trump’s juvenile tweets calling Kim Jong Un “Little Rocket Man” and making fun of his weight. I mean statements by officials such as H.R. McMaster, Trump’s national security adviser, who unlike the president is not known for meaningless blather.
The potential for war with North Korea “is increasing every day,” McMaster said last month at a defense forum.