April 18th, 2012
06:24 PM ET
Panetta: Korean Peninsula close to war every day
North Korea’s missile launch last week was a dangerous “provocation,” and any subsequent nuclear test by the North, would only serve to deepen its isolation Secretaries Leon Panetta and Hillary Clinton told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in an exclusive interview Wednesday.
The region is “within an inch of war everyday," Panetta said, adding the United States was “prepared for any contingency.” Watch that portion of the interview here, including a personal message from Secretary Clinton to the new North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un.
You can see more of the exclusive interview on ‘The Situation Room’ Thursday at 4pET.
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I feel very sorry for the South Koreans who have to deal with this. However, my heart goes out to the innocent North Koreans who have to live under such a terrible regime. A good way to give them a voice is at http://WeAreNorthKorea.org
US an Iran are close to war, on behalf of Israel.
That seems more relevant than Korean threats, and fear mongering.
We went to war with north korea in the 50's and we lost, i beleive that the government is only putting on a strong face.
The only man that knew how to treat North Korea's and China's BS was General MacArthur.
But who fired General MacArthur and why? Was MacArthur's dismissal a rare occurance? Sadly, No!
Do weak Political Leaders trump the sound Military strategy of winning often? Sadly, Yes!
President Truman relieved MacArthur of command. The General had been making public statements at odds with Truman's war strategy in Korea, insisting that a full push of troops into North Korea was necessary to stop hostilities. Although MacArthur's opinion was the militarily correct one, Truman could not have the appearance of allowing the military to dictate policy to the President. It is also likely that Truman the Democrat feared MacArthur's incredible popularity, and his potential for doing what Eisenhower did – returning from a major military win to become a victorious Republican Presidential candidate.
President Barack Obama sacked Gen. Stanley McChrystal, a seismic shift for the U.S. military order in wartime, and chose the familiar, admired — and tightly disciplined — Gen. David Petraeus to replace him. Petraeus, architect of the Iraq war turnaround, was once again to take hands-on leadership of a troubled war effort. Obama said bluntly that Gen. Stanley McChrystal's scornful remarks about administration officials represent conduct that "undermines the civilian control of the military that is at the core of our democratic system."
He ousted the commander after a face-to-face meeting in the Oval Office and named Petraeus, the Central Command chief, who was McChrystal's direct boss, to step in.
Obama said bluntly that Gen. Stanley McChrystal's scornful remarks about administration officials represent conduct that "undermines the civilian control of the military that is at the core of our democratic system."
He ousted the commander after a face-to-face meeting in the Oval Office and named Petraeus, the Central Command chief, who was McChrystal's direct boss, to step in.
General Wesley Clark was relieved of command in Bosnia by Bill Clinton for much the same reason. The simple truth right now is that nobody says that Clark was wrong. In fact, the respected German Gen. Klaus Naumann, just-retired head of the NATO military committee, told a group of us here recently, in his review of the still-unresolved conflict, that "the reluctance to use overwhelming force allowed Slobodan Milosevic to calculate his risks. ... I would press harder for visible preparations and visible planning."
But it was the "go-slow" guys, the "they'll give in with a just little more punishment" chaps (in fact, the very same mentality that gave us Vietnam!), the ones who would rewrite all of the dictums of von Clausewitz and Sun Tzu about the need to strike hard, fast and unrelentingly, who were unquestionably and provably wrong - and whose political caution cost tens of thousands of lives and came close to losing the war for NATO.
Truman's hissy fit over General MacArthur, Clinton's hissy fit over General Wesley Clark and Obama's hissy fit over General McCrystal are the root causes of today's FUBAR with Afganistan, China and North Korea.
Hm, all Democrats.
Sadly, the three aforementioned clowns learned nothing from another Democrat, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
An ill and crippled old man that died during his fourth term of office. He was the last Democrat that fought wars to win!
The song MacArthur Park was written about him being in the closet. Just sayin'.
macarthur also wanted to go to war with china "cough cough" and use nuclear weapons
We were and still are at war with North Korea and their allies Communist China and Russia, via the UN actions taken.
A truce was signed, not a peace trreaty!
I hope that your job and many of your friends and realatives jobs were out sourced to China.
Wolf Blitzer is just one reason I don't post CNN on my 4 Blog pages. Come on guys your getting so outdated. Retire Wolf and make him take shave.
would only serve to deepen its isolation .....
i KEEP HEAR THIS ...HOW DEEP