by John V. Walsh \/ June 28th, 2018<\/p>\n
In the short space of five days, June 8-12, President Trump took three steps that upended the old post WWII global order and moved us a few steps toward a more peaceful world.\u00a0 Two of those steps are undeniable; the third is perhaps not so obvious.<\/p>\n
The Singapore Summit <\/strong><\/p>\n The Singapore Summit comes first, because it rocked the world.<\/p>\n In this bold and unprecedented meeting President Donald Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un, of the Democratic Peoples\u2019 Republic of Korea (DPRK), started down a path to D\u00e9tente, aiming toward denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, an intractable problem or so the pundits informed us.\u00a0 But as Melania warned us with a bemused smile sometime back, \u201cDonald always shakes things up.\u201d<\/p>\n The historic meeting produced more than words; concrete steps were taken:\u00a0 The DPRK went first, terminating the testing of nuclear warheads, IRBMs and ICBMs and even closing its nuclear test site \u2013 all done before the summit. Leading up to the summit, Trump cut back on the extent of annual joint South Korea-US military exercises.\u00a0 These have been roiling the East Pacific since the 1970s, frightening the North Koreans since these \u201cwar games\u201d could abruptly turn into a real invasion as in the Korean War.\u00a0 At summit\u2019s conclusion Trump went further and terminated those exercises planned for late summer, labeling them \u201cprovocative,\u201d as the North Koreans have long described them, and \u201cexpensive,\u201d cost always…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n