Gallego and Lieu Tell Trump to Put the Button Away

Congressmen Rubén Gallego (D-AZ) andTed Lieu (D-CA) -- both military veterans -- have authored an op-ed for Foreign Policy magazine calling on Donald Trump to take the nuclear option off the table when it comes to North Korea. The Congressmen cautioned Trump that the Department of Defense said that launching a military assault on North Korea to destroy their nuclear arsenal would require a costly and deadly ground assault. Citing the Congressional Research Service’s estimate that 300,000 people would be killed in the first few days of fighting, the Congressmen say that “with all nuclear deterrence campaigns, the only way to truly win is not to play. … Any attempt to destroy that arsenal would present [North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un] with a classic “use it or lose it” scenario, likely precipitating a nuclear exchange. Alternatively, Kim could choose to respond conventionally with thousands of rockets and artillery pieces, killing tens or hundreds of thousands of U.S., Japanese, and South Korean civilians and military personnel. In either scenario, we lose even if we “win” in a strictly military sense.” They call on the administration to continue to explore non-military options for North Korea.See the must-read op-ed here.