Rational response is to decapitate North Korea

Re: “Donald Trump is starting a war,” letter, April 16. During the Korean War, I served in U.S. Army military intelligence.

The world watched Nazi Germany’s preparation for war in the 1930s. Now the world watches a dictator, protected by China, create a nuclear power. The Globe and Mail on April 15 listed the options relating to the North Korean problem.

A limited conventional-weapons response to North Korea’s nuclear buildup is not an option, as it was in Syria and Afghanistan. It leads only to an attack by North Korea on South Korea, and involves the United States in a war.

The only rational response is a swift attack with enough power to decapitate North Korea’s war machine at several different locations simultaneously. Conventional weapons will not do it.

The world will face a more dangerous threat in a few years when — not if — North Korea becomes a nuclear power with long-range capability.

Was president Harry Truman wrong to stop Gen. Douglas MacArthur from continuing to Pyongyang in 1953? History says yes.

President Donald Trump is not starting a war with Syria or Afghanistan. He is saying humanity should not allow what is being done by ISIS or Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Action should have been taken with North Korea from 1953 by any number of different presidents, such as Barack Obama, but they pushed it under the rug.

Trump didn’t make the problem. Freedom and humanity are worth fighting for, and have been throughout history. Paul Hansen Retired U.S. magistrate Saanichton