In other news, NBC News reports that Chief of Staff John Kelly and Defense Secretary James Mattis are forcing National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster out of the job. (One of) his rumored replacements was a Bush-era National Security Council staffer under Condoleezza Rice, so, that may not an improvement.
Meanwhile, the market dropped by 420 points today after Trump announced his tariffs on steel and aluminium. Manufactures like General Motors, Ford, and Caterpillar saw the largest drops.
Finally, the New York Times has a very disturbing report on the Pentagon's preparations for a possible war in Korea. The Army chief of staff and the head of Special Operations Command attended an exercise last week which found at least 10,000 American troops would be wounded in the opening days.
Commanders who attended the exercise in Hawaii were told that roughly 10,000 Americans could be wounded in combat in the opening days alone. And the number of civilian casualties, the generals were told, would likely be in the thousands or even hundreds of thousands.
The potential human costs of a war were so high that, at one point during the exercise, General Milley remarked that “the brutality of this will be beyond the experience of any living soldier,” according to officials who were involved.
Another disturbing fact that really caught my attention:
Already, ammunition has been pre-staged in the Pacific region for ground units. [...]
In April, a larger meeting is being planned between Mr. Mattis and the global combatant commanders. It is one of the periodic meetings that Mr. Mattis has with the top military brass, but is expected to heavily focus on North Korea.
Special Operations forces have been briefed on some details of a plan that is separate but related to a potential strike on North Korea, officials said. However, Special Operations forces have yet to change course from their current operations.
Although the planning is continuing apace, a military operation against North Korea has yet to be given a formal name. Special Operations units, however, have already been assigned to specific task forces with names such as Trident and Falcon.
If it's true that Kelly and Mattis are forcing McMaster out of the White House, that may be good news because McMaster has advocated for attacking North Korea. But his replacement may be more of the same.
I'm going to go cook some tacos. Smoke'em if you got'em.