William Cohen
The Public Record
When the entire national security team said that the Russians had attacked us, had attacked our democracy, President Trump said, he believed President Putin.
Now, Secretary Mattis made a statement today which I think was the correct one. It should have been made by President Trump and that is to say you are playing with fire, that you're really escalating the danger in the Korean peninsula…
President Trump deserves credit for getting this resolution through the Security Council last week. But don't undercut it with improvisations and off the cuff statements which are only going to undercut it.
Well, I think it's an example of ad-lib at your peril. That when you improvise without really vetting this through your national security team and have an interagency process so everyone knows exactly what will be said, then you run the…
The North has been engaged in provocative action for years, has been building its nuclear capability and missile technology.
Secretary Kerry is not dealing with a strong hand, frankly. And I think the Russians are prepared to explode that.
I think our support for the rebels has been very minimal to be sure. On one hand, we had almost a Churchillian call to war by Secretary Kerry and then we had a stand out.
I think our position has been quite weak and the threat of using military force against Assad with resistance coming, strong resistance from the big core of this country and from Congress makes it difficult for the president.
The president has threatened the use of force but it has to be a credible military threat. The fact is there is underwhelming support from the Congress in the country for the use of force.





