Los Angeles Times

Nuclear meltdown

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Re “Trump spurns his top diplomat,” Oct. 2

With so many things happening, including hurricanes and a horrible mass shooting, it’s easy for some important issues to go unnoticed. But I am stunned and outraged that our president could so casually and publicly undermine our secretary of State for attempting to use diplomacy with North Korea to ease the rising tensions.

Not only does our president dismiss Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s attempts, he pours more fuel on the fire by again referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as “Rocket Man.” He is consistent­ly inappropri­ate and childish.

Congress should not wait for the special counsel to pronounce if it has found grounds for impeachmen­t. It should censure the president now. Lawmakers should speak up and put him on notice that his conduct in office deserves a formal rebuke.

Not to step up to the plate is a derelictio­n of duty, which itself deserves censure. Alan Rachins Los Angeles

President Trump’s ignorance of foreign policy is dangerous. He undercut Tillerson’s attempt at diplomacy with North Korea and taunted its leader, who is as thinskinne­d and volatile as Trump himself.

He thus exacerbate­d rather than relieved tension between our country, which has an arsenal of nuclear weapons, and North Korea, which is on the verge of weaponizin­g nuclear bombs that can reach our shores.

We can only hope that cooler heads in the administra­tion prevail. Ann Edelman

Woodland Hills

This is a plea to Tillerson on behalf of millions of Americans:

Now, you have the power to communicat­e with Kim and, with Chinese cooperatio­n, forge a deal that will protect us from nuclear war.

Don’t resign. Do your job. If Trump tries to stop or fire you, perhaps someone in the House will have the guts to start the impeachmen­t process. Robert M. Fox

Playa Vista

 ?? Associated Press ?? ON TWITTER this weekend, Trump again called North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “Rocket Man.”
Associated Press ON TWITTER this weekend, Trump again called North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “Rocket Man.”

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