White House briefing signals escalating war preparations against North Korea
By
Mike Head
27 April 2017
The unprecedented bussing of the entire Senate to the White House to be briefed by military and intelligence officials on possible military action against North Korea was one of a number of events yesterday pointing to planning for a potentially catastrophic war.
As the WSWS noted in yesterday’s Perspective, the Trump administration’s summoning of the senators was not an exercise in congressional oversight but the opposite: the political representatives of the ruling class received their marching orders, and talking points, from the military brass.
Speaking to journalists after the meeting, participants denied that any specific military line of attack was discussed. By every indication, however, the executive and its military-intelligence officials informed the senators they would be told after the event, if and when the administration launched a military assault.
There were no reports of any protest against being summoned by the White House in this manner, let alone any boycott of the gathering. Rather, the response was one of bipartisan backing for the escalating war planning, laced with calls for tougher action against China, supposedly to pressure Beijing to compel Pyongyang to abandon its missile and nuclear programs.
As scheduled, the Senate was briefed at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House by Defense Secretary James Mattis, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford, Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence reportedly greeted the senators on arrival and then left.
Before the meeting, Mattis, Coats and Tillerson…