Like this for instance:
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has backed US President Donald Trump’s fiery language on North Korea, saying “the whole country will be wiped out” and “many, many thousands of innocent people will die” if the regime attacks the United States or its allies.
When asked about Mr Trump’s comments on Channel 7’s Sunrise on Wednesday morning, Mr Turnbull said Australia was ready to assist the United States.
“It’s stating the reality. It’s very important that North Korea understands that if it attacks the United States or its allies, as the President said, the United States will respond and respond in a way that would end the North Korean regime. I mean, it is a situation of increasing gravity and risk and it is vital that the UN – and this is where the President was speaking – increase the economic sanctions on North Korea, so that it can be brought to its senses without conflict.”
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has backed Mr Trump’s comments saying the President was “stating the reality”. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
But, Mr Turnbull said, he did not think North Korea would attack the United States because it would be “suicide”.
“I don’t think this guy will commit suicide, because that’s the truth. I mean President Trump and I have said exactly the same thing: if he attacks the United States that is a suicide note for his regime. Now, it is a disaster because many, many thousands will die and many, many thousands of innocent people will die. But the reality is, if North Korea decides to attack the United States or it’s allies, that will be the end of the regime.”
I mean, seriously, he can call for calm and negotiation without disrupting the alliance and turning us into a target for reprisal from either the DPRK or China.
After all, it’s already happening, from Peter Hartcher:
Counting on China to deliver endless growth and profits? Then you need to know about the news item last week announcing that a big international conglomerate was forced to sell one of its businesses in China.
The Lotte group in February offered the use of one of its golf courses to its home nation as a missile defence site. South Korea, trying to defend itself against North Korea’s illegal nuclear missile program, had decided to deploy a US system capable of shooting missiles down.
Which seems entirely reasonable, unless you’re the Chinese government. Beijing claims the system’s radar is capable of “seeing” into China and told Seoul to cancel the plan. With North Korea ramping up its nuclear tests and missile launches, South Korea refused. So Lotte’s business interests are paying the price of Beijing’s anger. Lotte estimates that its Lotte Marts business has lost about 500 billion won or some $A550 million as a result of the Chinese government’s vindictiveness.
…The US business magazine Forbes reported a scholar at a Chinese government think tank as saying that the Chinese government had directed undeclared punishments of South Korea’s tourism industry…Nearly half of South Korea’s tourists – 47 per cent last year – came from China, so the sanctions are hurting. South Korea’s thriving car sales in China have also been hit. “The sales of Kia and its parent Hyundai Motors Co. in China fell 61 per cent from March to June,” reports The Wall Street Journal. Overall, South Korea’s share of the Chinese market has halved under the undeclared sanctions. South Korean popular culture exports to China have been punished too, with K-pop performances cancelled across China.
The head of the ANU’s National Security School, Rory Medcalf, calls the whole episode “a spectacular own goal by Beijing”. Why? “China’s economic coercion is failing to achieve its aim of breaking South Korean defence links with the US, and at the same time it’s doing long-term harm to itself by deterring South Korea from long-term trade and investment with China,” says Medcalf.
“That message has been heard by Australia’s policy community in Canberra,” says Medcalf.
The only thing that scares me more than Do-nothing Malcolm running the country during peacetime is him running it during a war.
