MASSIVE STRIKE SENDS A MESSAGE
Bomb may have been aimed at ISIS, but blast could echo in North Korea
Even if President Trump didn’t know a 21,000-pound bomb would be dropped in Afghanistan on Thursday, that doesn’t mean he won’t get a political benefit from it.
After the bomb struck an Islamic State tunnel complex, Trump said he endorsed the strike, and he said he wasn’t trying to send a message to another trouble spot, North Korea.
“It doesn’t make any difference if it does or not — North Korea is a problem. The problem will be taken care of,” Trump told reporters.
Asked about the use of the GBU-43, or massive ordnance air blast (MOAB) in Afghanistan, coming one week after a missile strike in Syria, Trump said that “what I do is I authorize my military. ... We have given them total authorization, and that’s what they’re doing, and frankly that’s why they’ve been so
successful lately.”
Government officials said that while Trump has been briefed on the potential use of the MOAB, it does not appear the president got a special briefing on Thursday’s attack. There was no need for one, a White House official said, because Trump had given authority to the military when it came to attacking ISIS, and the president was aware the weapon was an option. “He had already in effect green-lighted it,” one official said.
Military officials said the president has given the military wide latitude to fight the war on terrorism as they see fit.
Also limiting the messaging is that commanders in Afghanistan already had approval to use the bomb from Trump’s predecessor, President Obama, who also changed the rules for bombing in Iraq and Syria last year, said a Defense official who was not authorized to speak on the record. He said the date was chosen because of the target, and the White House was briefed on the possibility that the bomb would be used.
The strike was announced because it was the first time the MOAB was used in combat, and the size of the blast was certain to raise questions among locals, the official said, and it was not dropped to send a message to North Korea. The MOAB was seen as the best choice among a series of options for the attack.
A second senior Defense official also cautioned that more should not be read into the MOAB. Sometimes a bomb is just a bomb, said the official, who also was not authorized to speak publicly.
The attack may bolster Trump’s popularity, at least in the short term, analysts said, though it will likely heighten fears the president’s aggressiveness could bring wider conflict.
Foreign policy analysts have long noted that Trump likes to surround himself with military symbols, whether it’s appearing with troops in uniform or cam- paigning on battleships and aircraft carriers.
“I think Trump is the kind of person who likes to put out visuals,” said Harry Kazianis, director of defense studies at the Center for the National Interest, a non-partisan foreign policy think tank in Washington. “It seems like he’s a guy who likes to do a lot of signaling to his adversaries.”
He added, though, that it doesn’t mean we should expect the U.S. to attack North Korea, whose leader, Kim Jong-un, has increased his war of words with the United States and may be planning a nuclear test this weekend. “I think he’s trying to signal to the North Koreans that he means business, but I don’t think it means anything more than that.”
Also, the MOAB is delivered by a cargo plane, in this case an MC-130, which would not be suitable for use in North Korea.
Though Trump once expressed opposition to bombing in Syria, he has long threatened to use force against the Islamic State — most famously in November 2015 in Fort Dodge, Iowa, when he drew applause for threatening to go after ISIS oil fields and “bomb the s--- out of them.”
As for North Korea, Trump has urged China to help rein in its neighbor’s nuclear threats or the United States and its allies will do so on their own.
The saber rattling, and the strikes in Syria and Afghanistan — and opposition to the Syria strike from countries like Russia — have created worries from some critics that Trump might somehow start “World War III.”
Michael Caputo, who worked on Trump’s campaign last year, said military men and veterans “are happy to see a different kind of chief executive,” and he predicted the public will react positively, too. The strikes have been carefully planned and “very precise,” he said, and “those kinds of actions typically get high levels of support.”
He dismissed concerns about a general war: “We’ve been at war with Islamic terrorism for a long time. ... This isn’t unique to his presidency.”
Trump also is warning adversaries, Caputo said. “One, when he draws a red line, it’s really quite red. And, two, we have the weaponry to cause really, really serious trouble.”
“What I do is I authorize my military ... and that’s what they’re doing.” President Trump