Retired U.S. Marine Corps Col. Oliver North Friday said the decision to drop the "mother of all bombs" on ISIS targets in Afghanistan sent a powerful message to North Korea and other hostile powers that President Donald Trump means what he says when he that he will strike back.
"If I was in Pyongyang right now, I'd be looking for a bomb shelter," North, now a Fox Business show host, told the network's "America's Newsroom" program Friday morning, after explaining how the MOAB, short for the bomb's actual name, Massive Ordnance Air Blast, was the right choice.
"The single objective was to kill as many of the enemy as you could without harming civilians," North said. "It was the right weapon for the right place and for the right enemy. You couldn't use this weapon in North Korea or to go after an air base where it is surrounded by civilians in Syria. That weapon was exactly the right weapon to use for that particular mission."
However, the massive weapon, the largest non-nuclear bomb in the United States' arsenal, sends a powerful message to hostile powers.
"The most important part of all of that is they now know it is a president who means what he says when he says we are going to strike back," said North.
North also said that President Donald Trump's promise not to micromanage the military is significant, as it shows he trusts not only Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Joseph Dunford, but also his combat leaders in the field.
"It is a smart way of doing it and what Ronald Reagan did when he was president," said North. "That's the kind of thing, one, it increases morale at a time it could be hard to recruit. It lets everybody know, including our adversaries, the quick reactions of those in the field . . . you don't have to run things by the White House before you decide what you'll have for lunch."
North also said he considers Trump's decision to send son-in-law Jared Kushner with Dunford to meet troops in the field in Iraq to be a positive step.
"I wouldn't be at all surprised if you wouldn't see in the next few weeks and months the commander-in-chief himself going out on a quiet mission, no announcement beforehand," said North. "This is a man who understands our military, unlike people at least over the course of the last eight years, and he is surrounded by people who admire the military. I count that to be very, very positive."
North also addressed critics who say Trump has surrounded himself by too many military leaders, saying they are the ones who have never been in uniform.
"The folks saying that kind of thing are the same ones have been saying it since the 1960s, the college professors that led the riots," North said. "The kind of media that is so hostile to those who wear a uniform. They were in heaven when Barack Obama was president. They are suddenly shocked to have a president like Ronald Reagan, who admires those who serve in uniform."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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