Mahalo for your thought-provoking analysis, xbt. You give us much to ponder. The Cuban missile crisis is a good point of discussion, and it underscores the thin line that Trump is tiptoeing. JFK’s justification for taking us to the brink of nuclear disaster was sphere of interest. Russian missiles so close to our shores was and still is unacceptable. By the same token, threatened US/allied nuclear strikes so close to China and Russia and possible occupation of NK is unacceptable to China and Russia. For better or worse, NK serves as a buffer to two competing ideologies. The tsunami of Chinese troops crossing the border into NK during the Korean War serves as a reminder that spheres of interest are powder kegs. The underlying issue of international conflict is overwhelmingly economics. Hopefully, Trump’s business sense is the key to a new kind of in-your-face diplomacy based on trade instead of weapons. If so, then he may be the answer.