Speak out publicly against Trump's decision to gut the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises. Ordering Pete Hegseth to "substantially reduce" joint drills with South Korea — hours before 18,000 South Korean troops and thousands of Americans were set to begin them — is a gift to Kim Jong Un, paid for with seven decades of alliance architecture.
The stated reason is staggering: South Korea declined to join the Iran war, and Trump has a "very good relationship" with Kim. That's the trade. A nuclear-armed regime that launched a ballistic missile days ago, that is currently shipping troops and weapons to Russia's war in Ukraine, gets described as "unthreatening and respectful." Meanwhile a democratic ally gets punished for saying no.
Otto Warmbier was a 22-year-old American kid from Cincinnati. North Korea tortured him into a coma and shipped him home brain-dead. When Trump stood next to Kim in Hanoi in 2019, he said he'd take Kim's word that he didn't know about it. Otto's own parents had to correct him. Now Trump is dismantling military readiness as a tribute to the same regime. That is not foreign policy. That is a personal loyalty arrangement with a dictator, and it is making every American in the Pacific less safe. Push back on it — loudly and on the record.
First sent on August 17 by Jeffrey Barlow
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