Whitman Letson
April 26, 2017

North Korea's Live Fire-Drill

              North Korea has just carried out their largest ever live-fire drill, and it’s hard to know if war is actually imminent or these are growing pains of Donald Trump’s new admiration.  Analysts fear that this situation could be set off by just a small spark, so this situation needs to be handled delicately. The U.S. currently has one aircraft carrier in the area and analysts believe if war was imminent they would move another aircraft carrier to the area. This drill did mark the 85^th anniversary of the Korean People’s Army founding, but it was the largest movement of big artillery out of shelters which can be concerning. Analyst say that if war was coming a lot more artillery would be moved.

              I feel that this article headlines exaggerates the story making it sound like war could be coming when really it’s not. Mr. Trump needs to not blow over this major issue when dealing with North Korea, considering that it deals with many other moving parts like trade with other countries. Even if war never happens there can be major consequences if China sides with North Korea and blocks trade. The best thing for America to do right now is to lay low, not make North Korea angry and protect South Korea. Making North Korea angry could cause them to fight back and a war in this day and age with technology could be devastating, but even if war ends and everything isn’t destroyed it could ruin all U.S. relations with other countries.

              This story relates to our AP Gov class by dealing with foreign affairs, and powers of the president and the defense department.  The defense department has to make critical decisions, along with the president, to move aircraft carriers and what type of military action to take if needed. Dealing with Foreign Affairs is tricky and can be considered more important than dealing with war, being able to be in good relations with other countries is huge in sustaining a good economy.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/26/asia/north-korea-chance-of-war/index.html

Whitman Letson
April 19, 2017

U.S. Talks Tougher on Iran

The Trump administration released a statement Wednesday saying that the deal made with Iran to restrain their nuclear program had failed, and Iran continues to the world’s leading sponsor in terrorism. The statement also said that the nuclear deal Obama made with Iran completely ignored all the other serious threats that Iran poses. Iran is currently following the deal President Obama made, but the Trump administration feels that they need to tighten the deal. They said that with the country overwhelming provocations of terror and violence they need to have stricter regulation or this country could turn into a North Korea type situation. The Trump administration is currently sticking with the old deal, but will change it in the future.

              The actions the Trump administration is taking seem to be very reasonable steps to insure the safely of our country and all the other countries affected by Iran. Making sure nuclear weapons don’t get into the wrong hands in extremely important to the safety of the world and should be made sure nothing like that happens. Although there are regulations in place currently the Trump the administration feels the need to tighten regulations they are probably right, but they need to peruse new regulations very careful and cautiously. If the U.S. manages to make Iran upset this could cause them to not cooperate with the U.S. anymore and this becomes a very dangerous situation. Iran may also feel the U.S. is controlling them too much since we are already telling them what they can and can’t do and they are following the current deal so maybe the answer is not change the deal and just keep a close eye on them.

              This relates to our AP Gov by talking about the President and his duty to be in touch with the Department of the State create foreign policy. Since the president is the person being judged on all his decisions he has to learn how communicate with his party and his departments so that they are on the same page. The President is the leader and chief diplomat he has to communicate well with other countries and create a very good relationship with them so they will work well with our country.