President Donald Trump is doubling down on his inflammatory rhetoric against North Korea. President Trump said if North Korea makes any more threats to the United States, “They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.” North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has responded in kind saying it is considering a strike against Guam, a U.S. territory. (Editor’s note: As of Tuesday, Aug. 15, some news organizations were reporting that Kim was backing off its threats to attack Guam.) The President has tweeted the U.S. is “locked and loaded” if North Korea strikes Guam.
All this talk is making many nervous and concerned including area veterans. John Youngblood and his friend and fellow veteran Sergio Rojas were talking about the war of words when they met Thursday on Main Street in Seal Beach. They know first-hand the effects of war. In 1968, they were teenagers when they served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam. Youngblood had this to say about the dangerous rhetoric from both leaders. “It makes me angry. They should think about the people. You start a war there will be a lot of people getting killed. War is not a good thing.”
Rojas agrees. “It is up to our president to show a little more restraint and respect for the world. War never solves anything.” Rojas says he knows as a nation we need to be able to defend ourselves, but, “Let’s not start it.”
Sun Newspaper Account Executive Donna Leedy is a grandmother of a young U.S. Marine. She says all this talk that could lead to war has her nervous. “It scares the daylights out of me.” Leedy is concerned about her grandson being placed in harm’s way if he was deployed. “It scares me that he might not come back if he did go.”
Many Americans like Leedy, Rojas and Youngblood are hoping cooler heads will prevail. Amid the President’s rhetoric, diplomatic measures are taking place. There is also talk of toughing the sanctions against North Korea. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says while he defends Trump’s comments, there is no sign the threat level from North Korea has changed and “Americans should sleep well at night.”
Follow JoAnne Powell on her online TV talk show, The JoAnne Powell Show, Wednesday afternoons at 1 p.m.. at WCOBM.TV.
