What we’re up against: Admiral Harry Harris, Commander, U.S. Pacific Command

On June 20, 2017, in a Townhall.com, article about North Korea and its dictator, Kim Jong Un, Leah Barkoukis quoted Harris’s testimony last April to the House Armed Services Committee: “We want to bring Kim Jong Un to his senses, not to his knees.”

What?

To his “senses”? 

What senses”? 

The sense that runs a GULAG reportedly worse than Stalin’s? 

The sense that works toward nuking everyone from South Korea to South Carolina? 

The sense whose GDP is rooted in arms sales, counterfeiting, smuggling, and spreading nuclear technology to other rogue states? 

The sense that had his half-brother assassinated in an airport? 

The sense that uses mass starvation as a political tool? 

The sense that kills whole families for real or imagined slights to Kim? Or maybe the sense that, for good reason, Kim has the “distinction” of being World’s Worst Dictator?

Among the mistakes Admiral Harris made with his stupid, naive remark, the most grievous one was his statement of a policy – “senses” and “knees” – that is none of his business. Where the United States wants to “bring Kim Jung Un” is for President Trump to decide, not an admiral who serves under the commander-in-chief.

Notwithstanding the admiral, bringing Kim “to his knees” is not a bad place to begin.