The Tillerman Proposal For Solving N. Korean Threat
By James Donahue
December 18, 2017
A proposal by Secretary of State Rex Tillerman for attempting to resolve the troublesome nuclear standoff between the United States and North Korea caught the world’s attention this week. Other leaders advocating world peace welcomed the Tillerman idea according to a news report by the Guardian’s Robert Scheer.
What did Tillerman suggest? Simply for both sides to put away their swords and sit down and talk like two government leaders should.
For all of the bravado expressed by North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong Un, his threats against Japan and the United States after successfully launching Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles and testing what appears to be powerful nuclear and hydrogen bombs, few Americans short of basketball star Dennis Rodman have ever made an effort to address President Kim as an equal.
It has struck us that all that Kim really wants is a place at the world table; an equal position among leaders of the nuclear band of nations. And this is something that the United States has been loath to give him.
Tillerman, a former chairman and chief executive officer of ExxonMobil from 2006 to 2016, probably knows more than America’s playboy president about dealing with world power figures, even those with radical ideas. There is little doubt that he was picked for the job of Secretary of State was for this very reason. Trump, however, has apparently enjoyed an allegiance with the fossil fuel brokers with dollar signs on their eyelids and little else.
While Tillerman has proposed a real and possibly the only winning route to reaching a peaceful agreement with the maverick Kim Jong Un, Trump and his war hawk cronies in Washington are not having it. An immediate “anonymous” news source from within the White House offered a negative response to the Tillerman plan. That “source” told the New York Times that “Tillerman’s conciliatory tone had alarmed” officials within the administration.
The Trump position has been and remains one of “maximum pressure” on North Korea to surrender that nation’s bid to be a nuclear power. Anyone who understands the culture of the North Koreans would understand that Kim would never respond to that kind of pressure tactic. To remain in leadership he must never lose face in front of his people.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued this statement in rebuttal to the Tillerman comments: “The President’s views on North Korea have not changed. North Korea is acting in an unsafe way not only toward Japan, China and South Korea, but the entire world. North Korea’s actions are not good for anyone and certainly not good for North Korea.”
Sanders, a professional journalist, transposed Trump’s words to sound more presidential. The way Trump recently expressed it in one of his peculiar tweets: “I told Rex Tillerson . . . he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man . . . Save your energy Tex, we’ll do what has to be done!”
In an apparent effort to offer a compromise plan Tillerson on Friday urged North Korea to carry out a “sustained cessation” of weapons testing as a prelude to peace talks. But the White House has rejected that idea as well. Trump has been in consultation with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the North Korean problem. The official word from his office is that now is not the time for negotiations.
Trump appears to be pushing Kim Jong Un into a nuclear confrontation that nobody in the world, except possibly Trump, could wish for in their wildest dreams. We understand why Tillerman referred to Trump as a “moron,” if he really said it.
By James Donahue
December 18, 2017
A proposal by Secretary of State Rex Tillerman for attempting to resolve the troublesome nuclear standoff between the United States and North Korea caught the world’s attention this week. Other leaders advocating world peace welcomed the Tillerman idea according to a news report by the Guardian’s Robert Scheer.
What did Tillerman suggest? Simply for both sides to put away their swords and sit down and talk like two government leaders should.
For all of the bravado expressed by North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong Un, his threats against Japan and the United States after successfully launching Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles and testing what appears to be powerful nuclear and hydrogen bombs, few Americans short of basketball star Dennis Rodman have ever made an effort to address President Kim as an equal.
It has struck us that all that Kim really wants is a place at the world table; an equal position among leaders of the nuclear band of nations. And this is something that the United States has been loath to give him.
Tillerman, a former chairman and chief executive officer of ExxonMobil from 2006 to 2016, probably knows more than America’s playboy president about dealing with world power figures, even those with radical ideas. There is little doubt that he was picked for the job of Secretary of State was for this very reason. Trump, however, has apparently enjoyed an allegiance with the fossil fuel brokers with dollar signs on their eyelids and little else.
While Tillerman has proposed a real and possibly the only winning route to reaching a peaceful agreement with the maverick Kim Jong Un, Trump and his war hawk cronies in Washington are not having it. An immediate “anonymous” news source from within the White House offered a negative response to the Tillerman plan. That “source” told the New York Times that “Tillerman’s conciliatory tone had alarmed” officials within the administration.
The Trump position has been and remains one of “maximum pressure” on North Korea to surrender that nation’s bid to be a nuclear power. Anyone who understands the culture of the North Koreans would understand that Kim would never respond to that kind of pressure tactic. To remain in leadership he must never lose face in front of his people.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued this statement in rebuttal to the Tillerman comments: “The President’s views on North Korea have not changed. North Korea is acting in an unsafe way not only toward Japan, China and South Korea, but the entire world. North Korea’s actions are not good for anyone and certainly not good for North Korea.”
Sanders, a professional journalist, transposed Trump’s words to sound more presidential. The way Trump recently expressed it in one of his peculiar tweets: “I told Rex Tillerson . . . he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man . . . Save your energy Tex, we’ll do what has to be done!”
In an apparent effort to offer a compromise plan Tillerson on Friday urged North Korea to carry out a “sustained cessation” of weapons testing as a prelude to peace talks. But the White House has rejected that idea as well. Trump has been in consultation with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the North Korean problem. The official word from his office is that now is not the time for negotiations.
Trump appears to be pushing Kim Jong Un into a nuclear confrontation that nobody in the world, except possibly Trump, could wish for in their wildest dreams. We understand why Tillerman referred to Trump as a “moron,” if he really said it.