Topic category:  International Affairs/Foreign Policy

On May 30 of this year, I wrote an article titled "Will President Trump invoke the Bush Doctrine to eliminate the North Korean nuclear threat?" (www.renewamerica.com/columns/gaynor/170530).

I repeat:

"The Bush family wanted Jeb Bush to become the 45th President of the United States.

"Donald Trump did instead, trouncing Jeb Bush along the way.

"Ironically, if China does not accommodate President Bush by putting an end to the growing nuclear threat posed by North Korea, it will be the Bush Doctrine that President Trump will invoke to do that.

"As related in Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_Doctrine), on June 1, 2002 President George W. Bush, in an address to the cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, and 'made clear the role pre-emptive war would play in the future of American foreign policy and national defense.'

"President Bush stated: 'We cannot defend America and our friends by hoping for the best. We cannot put our faith in the word of tyrants, who solemnly sign non-proliferation treaties, and then systemically break them. If we wait for threats to fully materialize, we will have waited too long – Our security will require transforming the military you will lead – a military that must be ready to strike at a moment's notice in any dark corner of the world. And our security will require all Americans to be forward-looking and resolute, to be ready for preemptive action when necessary to defend our liberty and to defend our lives.'

"Wikipedia continued: 'Two distinct schools of thought arose in the Bush Administration regarding the question of how to handle countries such as Iraq, Iran, and North Korea (the so-called "Axis of Evil"] states). Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, as well as U.S. Department of State specialists, argued for what was essentially the continuation of existing U.S. foreign policy. These policies, developed after the Cold War, sought to establish a multilateral consensus for action (which would likely take the form of increasingly harsh sanctions against the problem states, summarized as the policy of containment). The opposing view, argued by Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and a number of influential Department of Defense policy makers such as Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle, held that direct and unilateral action was both possible and justified....'

"Since the Bush and Obama Administrations failed to dissuade North Korea from developing nuclear weapons and North Korea by following 'what was essentially the continuation of existing U.S. foreign policy' and allowing North Korea to attack the United States with nuclear weapons is anathema to President Trump, China should denuclearize North Korea, or President Trump will need to do so under the Bush Doctrine.

"President Trump won't be blackmailed.

"The message President Trump sent by having that Syrian airbase targeted and struck with 59 Tomahawk missiles was not just intended for Syria's President Assad and the dropping of the "mother of all bombs" in Afghanistan was not just intended for the Taliban.

"If Kim Jong Un is hellbent to be the last of the Kim dynasty to rule North Korea, President Trump will make it so for him."

Since May 30, 2017, the need for preemptive attack to protect the United States has increased significantly, because the United States intelligence community underestimated North Korean resolve and ability.

Anti-Trumpers are working assiduously to remove President Trump from office, but President Trump is the Commander-in-Chief, President George W. Bush was right about preemptive attack, and President Trump won't be blackmailed and won't risk a nuclear attack by North Korea on his watch, no matter what anti-Trumpers say or do.

President Trump left no doubt that he wanted to make America great again and he concurs with American statesman, Revolutionary War veteran, and delegate to the Constitutional Convention Charles Cotesworth Pinckney's attitude toward the United States being blackmailed: "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute."

It's billions for defense now, but it's still nothing for tribute with people like President Trump.

Michael J. Gaynor

Biography - Michael J. Gaynor

Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member.

Gaynor graduated magna cum laude, with Honors in Social Science, from Hofstra University's New College, and received his J.D. degree from St. John's Law School, where he won the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence and served as an editor of the Law Review and the St. Thomas More Institute for Legal Research. He wrote on the Pentagon Papers case for the Review and obscenity law for The Catholic Lawyer and edited the Law Review's commentary on significant developments in New York law.

The day after graduating, Gaynor joined the Fulton firm, where he focused on litigation and corporate law. In 1997 Gaynor and Emily Bass formed Gaynor & Bass and then conducted a general legal practice, emphasizing litigation, and represented corporations, individuals and a New York City labor union. Notably, Gaynor & Bass prevailed in the Second Circuit in a seminal copyright infringement case, Tasini v. New York Times, against newspaper and magazine publishers and Lexis-Nexis. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 7 to 2, holding that the copyrights of freelance writers had been infringed when their work was put online without permission or compensation.

Gaynor currently contributes regularly to www.MichNews.com, www.RenewAmerica.com, www.WebCommentary.com, www.PostChronicle.com and www.therealitycheck.org and has contributed to many other websites. He has written extensively on political and religious issues, notably the Terry Schiavo case, the Duke "no rape" case, ACORN and canon law, and appeared as a guest on television and radio. He was acknowledged in Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, and Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin. He appeared on "Your World With Cavuto" to promote an eBay boycott that he initiated and "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" (EWTN) to discuss the legal implications of the Schiavo case. On October 22, 2008, Gaynor was the first to report that The New York Times had killed an Obama/ACORN expose on which a Times reporter had been working with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.

Gaynor's email address is gaynormike@aol.com.