Gorka: Our Capacity to Respond to North Korea Is ‘Practically Instantaneous’
Deputy Adviser to the President Dr. Sebastian Gorka , formerly National Security editor for Breitbart News, discussed the North Korean crisis with SiriusXM host Raheem Kassam on Wednesday’s Breitbart News Daily.
Gorka pointed to the “historic vote of the U.N. Security Council, in which not only the ten temporary members, but also permanent members like China and Russia, together with us, created the most stringent sanctions package in history against North Korea.”
“We see an escalation coming out of Pyongyang, so Secretary Tillerson said it is clear, as a result, that the head of state of North Korea does not understand diplomatic language. That is why the president is now using language that he may understand more clearly,” said Gorka, referring to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s comments as he arrived in Guam, which North Korea has threatened with a missile attack.
“This is to send a very simple message: we have an undeniable capability to defend ourselves. We aren’t just a superpower. We are a hyperpower, the world’s only hyperpower, and this president will take whatever measures necessary to protect our people and our interests. It’s as simple as that,” Gorka declared.
Kassam asked how long it would take for the United States to organize effective non-nuclear military action against North Korea, should that become necessary.
“We could have an impact – if we’re just going to use vague terms like ‘impact’ – instantaneously if we so wished there,” Gorka replied, “because we’re not talking about World War 2. This isn’t Iwo Jima. This isn’t Okinawa. We don’t have to think in conventional terms.”
“We have capabilities that are not conventional military capabilities that we don’t talk about. Whether it’s in the covert domain, whether it’s in the cyber domain, there’s a whole range of options,” he noted.
Look at what we did in Syria. Syria is a bloodbath, almost half a million people killed. Our solution to stop the bloodshed wasn’t to invade Syria. Everybody who thinks this is a Neocon 2.0 administration has no idea who the president is or who his advisers are. We took action to signal to that regime: stop what you are doing. We didn’t put one pair of boots on the ground. We launched unmanned missiles, vehicles, to that site that used chemical weapons,” he said.
“We understand the full scale, the full palette, of options available to the president, and as such, we don’t think in binary terms,” Gorka explained.
He compared this to the JCPOA, better known as the Iran nuclear deal, criticizing the “beyond prosaic argument that was made by the Obama White House,” which he summarized as, “We have to sign this deal or we go to war with Iran.”
“That’s absurd. That’s asinine. The idea that there’s only two options in life – peace or war – means that you have no understanding of the whole range of things that a nation as powerful as America can do if it sees a threat,” Gorka scoffed.
“Our capacity to respond, in one form or another, is practically instantaneous,” he assured Kassam. “As you know, we’re not going to go into details on what the nature of that response is, but you asked about the speed. It will be a very fast response if necessary. Let’s get beyond very simplistic understandings of what America can do. That’s what I’m saying.”
Gorka said the origins of the current crisis could be traced back even further than the Korean War.
“For the most obvious answer of how we got here, you can go back to Munich in 1938,” he argued. “There is an element of the chattering classes, of wonkery, that really believes – and we saw this under the Clinton White House, and in full force under the Obama administration, especially with Iran but also North Korea – there is this belief that appeasement of dictatorial regimes will bring about results that are good for America or the West.”
“There seems to be a completely ahistorical sense of geopolitics. They missed the lessons of Hitler being appeased, of Russia being appeased, the Soviet Union, of Iran being appeased again and again and again. And they applied it to North Korea,” Gorka said ruefully.
“There’s this strange belief that all nations and all political elites share some desire to get along at the end of the day,” he reflected. “The idea that you have regimes like the Iranians preaching death to our nation every Friday, or whether it’s secular ones, Stalinistic ones like North Korea that are calling for the destruction of America in every news broadcast that comes out of the propaganda machine, that seems not to impinge upon the sense of reality of these experts that have been working in the White House or in the Beltway.”
“I think it’s a philosophical worldview problem that multicultural postmodernism denies the existence of evil,” he theorized. “If you deny the existence of evil, you’ll say, ‘Yes, let’s have another conference in Vienna or Geneva and sit down with the mullahs or sit down with the rabid Stalinists and see what agreement we can come to.’ No. Wrong. These regimes are evil, and they must be dealt with as such.”
Kassam brought up Gorka’s controversial recent interview on MSNBC, in which he asserted that the phrase “lone wolf terrorist” was “invented by the last administration to make Americans stupid.”
Gorka said it was sadly necessary to use such lively language when pointing out the connections between alleged “lone wolves” and international terrorism.
“Oh, my gosh. Just look at Twitter. Look at Maggie Haberman and her acolytes in the fake news media, who immediately have a conniption fit and say, ‘What about Oklahoma City?’” said Gorka.
“What about Oklahoma City?” he continued. “A, that individual is not a jihadi. My comments were about jihadism post-September the 11. Second, Timothy McVeigh had an accomplice. Oh, and by the way, this is the one I love: that event was 22 years ago. Can you talk to me about the last 16 years, of hundreds of thousands of people killed in the Middle East by jihadis?”
“It’s this constant, ‘Oh, it’s the white man. It’s the white supremacists. That’s the problem.’ No, it isn’t, Maggie Haberman. Go to Sinjar. Go to the Middle East, and tell me what the real problem is today. Go to Manchester,” he challenged.
Kassam offered another constant refrain from the media, that “lone wolf” jihadis are better understood as isolated, mentally ill people.
“The Brits have done some studies on the mental health issue,” Gorka replied. “There is a proportion of jihadis that have some kind of issue in the background. But no, just look at the biggest plots against us, whether it’s 9/11, 7/7, whether it’s San Bernardino, whether it’s Boston, whether it’s Fort Hood. Mental health has nothing to do with this. It’s evil ideology and evil men, as it was with fascists, as it was with Communists.”
Deputy Adviser to the President Dr. Sebastian Gorka , formerly National Security editor for Breitbart News, discussed the North Korean crisis with SiriusXM host Raheem Kassam on Wednesday’s Breitbart News Daily.
Gorka pointed to the “historic vote of the U.N. Security Council, in which not only the ten temporary members, but also permanent members like China and Russia, together with us, created the most stringent sanctions package in history against North Korea.”
“We see an escalation coming out of Pyongyang, so Secretary Tillerson said it is clear, as a result, that the head of state of North Korea does not understand diplomatic language. That is why the president is now using language that he may understand more clearly,” said Gorka, referring to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s comments as he arrived in Guam, which North Korea has threatened with a missile attack.
“This is to send a very simple message: we have an undeniable capability to defend ourselves. We aren’t just a superpower. We are a hyperpower, the world’s only hyperpower, and this president will take whatever measures necessary to protect our people and our interests. It’s as simple as that,” Gorka declared.
Kassam asked how long it would take for the United States to organize effective non-nuclear military action against North Korea, should that become necessary.
“We could have an impact – if we’re just going to use vague terms like ‘impact’ – instantaneously if we so wished there,” Gorka replied, “because we’re not talking about World War 2. This isn’t Iwo Jima. This isn’t Okinawa. We don’t have to think in conventional terms.”
“We have capabilities that are not conventional military capabilities that we don’t talk about. Whether it’s in the covert domain, whether it’s in the cyber domain, there’s a whole range of options,” he noted.
Look at what we did in Syria. Syria is a bloodbath, almost half a million people killed. Our solution to stop the bloodshed wasn’t to invade Syria. Everybody who thinks this is a Neocon 2.0 administration has no idea who the president is or who his advisers are. We took action to signal to that regime: stop what you are doing. We didn’t put one pair of boots on the ground. We launched unmanned missiles, vehicles, to that site that used chemical weapons,” he said.
“We understand the full scale, the full palette, of options available to the president, and as such, we don’t think in binary terms,” Gorka explained.
He compared this to the JCPOA, better known as the Iran nuclear deal, criticizing the “beyond prosaic argument that was made by the Obama White House,” which he summarized as, “We have to sign this deal or we go to war with Iran.”
“That’s absurd. That’s asinine. The idea that there’s only two options in life – peace or war – means that you have no understanding of the whole range of things that a nation as powerful as America can do if it sees a threat,” Gorka scoffed.
“Our capacity to respond, in one form or another, is practically instantaneous,” he assured Kassam. “As you know, we’re not going to go into details on what the nature of that response is, but you asked about the speed. It will be a very fast response if necessary. Let’s get beyond very simplistic understandings of what America can do. That’s what I’m saying.”
Gorka said the origins of the current crisis could be traced back even further than the Korean War.
“For the most obvious answer of how we got here, you can go back to Munich in 1938,” he argued. “There is an element of the chattering classes, of wonkery, that really believes – and we saw this under the Clinton White House, and in full force under the Obama administration, especially with Iran but also North Korea – there is this belief that appeasement of dictatorial regimes will bring about results that are good for America or the West.”
“There seems to be a completely ahistorical sense of geopolitics. They missed the lessons of Hitler being appeased, of Russia being appeased, the Soviet Union, of Iran being appeased again and again and again. And they applied it to North Korea,” Gorka said ruefully.
“There’s this strange belief that all nations and all political elites share some desire to get along at the end of the day,” he reflected. “The idea that you have regimes like the Iranians preaching death to our nation every Friday, or whether it’s secular ones, Stalinistic ones like North Korea that are calling for the destruction of America in every news broadcast that comes out of the propaganda machine, that seems not to impinge upon the sense of reality of these experts that have been working in the White House or in the Beltway.”
“I think it’s a philosophical worldview problem that multicultural postmodernism denies the existence of evil,” he theorized. “If you deny the existence of evil, you’ll say, ‘Yes, let’s have another conference in Vienna or Geneva and sit down with the mullahs or sit down with the rabid Stalinists and see what agreement we can come to.’ No. Wrong. These regimes are evil, and they must be dealt with as such.”
Kassam brought up Gorka’s controversial recent interview on MSNBC, in which he asserted that the phrase “lone wolf terrorist” was “invented by the last administration to make Americans stupid.”
Gorka said it was sadly necessary to use such lively language when pointing out the connections between alleged “lone wolves” and international terrorism.
“Oh, my gosh. Just look at Twitter. Look at Maggie Haberman and her acolytes in the fake news media, who immediately have a conniption fit and say, ‘What about Oklahoma City?’” said Gorka.
“What about Oklahoma City?” he continued. “A, that individual is not a jihadi. My comments were about jihadism post-September the 11. Second, Timothy McVeigh had an accomplice. Oh, and by the way, this is the one I love: that event was 22 years ago. Can you talk to me about the last 16 years, of hundreds of thousands of people killed in the Middle East by jihadis?”
“It’s this constant, ‘Oh, it’s the white man. It’s the white supremacists. That’s the problem.’ No, it isn’t, Maggie Haberman. Go to Sinjar. Go to the Middle East, and tell me what the real problem is today. Go to Manchester,” he challenged.
Kassam offered another constant refrain from the media, that “lone wolf” jihadis are better understood as isolated, mentally ill people.
“The Brits have done some studies on the mental health issue,” Gorka replied. “There is a proportion of jihadis that have some kind of issue in the background. But no, just look at the biggest plots against us, whether it’s 9/11, 7/7, whether it’s San Bernardino, whether it’s Boston, whether it’s Fort Hood. Mental health has nothing to do with this. It’s evil ideology and evil men, as it was with fascists, as it was with Communists.”
