(08-29-2018 07:41 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(08-29-2018 04:56 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(08-29-2018 11:15 AM)illiniowl Wrote:  Sure, the NK problem is a marathon not a sprint - and that marathon began in the 1960s. Every president of both parties up to now has worked to put pressure on NK, to isolate them as a pariah internationally, and generally keep the vise grips on. *That's* been the marathon, and while I don't know exactly what mile marker we were at when Trump got the baton, I do know that the free world was far better trained and equipped to win that race eventually. What Trump did, in granting a symbolic meeting that NK had long and dearly coveted, was to slow the pace, give our tiring competitor a breather, and let him use our water bottle.

Nevertheless the sanctions implemented by previous administrations are still in place and slowly but inexorably doing their thing, so maybe in some sense we are "closer" to denuclearization and an end to horrific prison camps than when Trump started running his leg. But giving Trump credit seems to me about as strained as giving Obama credit for "getting" Bin Laden.

As you describe it, the closest thing I can think of is the Olympic Torch
Relay.

Lad said he could give Trump no credit because he has reached the goal yet. I guess similarly, he can give no credit to Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, Bush 43, and Obama, because none of them ever reached the goal.

I think Trump is running his leg better than any of them did. JMHO. I wonder what it will look like when he finishes his leg. Hope they don't take the baton from him for an old affair and go back to the same ol', same ol'.

I didn’t say that. I said he doesn’t deserve credit because there has been no tangible change. If there had been say an agreement made between the US and NK to permanently dismantle a test site and we could inspect it, I would give him credit. That is a tangible step forward.

All we have is the hope that NK doesn’t start testing the new balistic missile they’re developing. Sorry, in international politics, I’m not sure why hope and good faith passes as progress.

So the *only* potential positive step for you is a signed, embossed, piece of happy paper.

Im glad to hear that I am in the throes of 'no tangible' betterment on my backdoor neighbor front. My wife is gonna be upset at that.