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Opinion | As Donald Trump threatens Iran, where are the Hong-Kong-style mass protests in the US?
- Unlike Hongkongers who challenged their government with large-scale protests this month, the US has not seen major demonstrations over the American president’s threats of military action against North Korea and Iran
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In late 2017, most of the North-Korea-watching community was worried. The US and North Korean leadership appeared locked in a high-stakes game of chicken, with neither willing to cede any ground over the North’s nuclear programme.
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Rumours swirled that limited strikes were being considered, that Americans would soon be called to leave the Korean peninsula and that the US considered it preferable for Japan and/or South Korea to suffer massive casualties rather than let Pyongyang perfect its nuclear deterrent.
Thankfully, South Korea and the North broke the diplomatic ice soon after and a year of summits followed. The present impasse is no one’s ideal, but is preferable to loose talk of “total destruction” and “dotards” tamed with fire.
Many unaffiliated American voters had doubts about US President Donald Trump’s leadership at a time of calamity, but thought the generals around him would guide him appropriately.
However, one of those generals, then-national security adviser H.R. McMaster – perhaps remembered fondly in comparison to his mustachioed, “devil-incarnate” successor John Bolton – led the charge towards confrontation, saying the US had “run out of road” with North Korea and that he was committed to “a resolution”, but not necessarily a peaceful one.
Even more frustrating, Trump’s centre-left critics appeared more concerned about the impending demise of net neutrality, tax cuts that disproportionately benefited the wealthy and Trump’s numerous faux pas and personality tics.
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