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by John R. Bolton • September 6,
2017 at 11:00 am
Franklin
D. Roosevelt. (Image source: National Archives and Records
Administration/Wikimedia Commons)
"When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike,
you do not wait until he has struck before you crush him." By
these words in a Sept. 11, 1941, fireside chat, Franklin Roosevelt
authorized US warships to fire first against Nazi naval vessels,
which he called "the rattlesnakes of the Atlantic"
Roosevelt's order applied whenever German or Italian
ships entered "waters of self-defense" necessary to
protect the US, including those surrounding US outposts on
Greenland and Iceland.
Uttered 60 years to the day before 9/11, and less
than three months before Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt's words still
resonate. North Korea's sixth nuclear test last weekend, along with
its significantly increased ballistic-missile testing, establishes
that Pyongyang is perilously close to being able to hit targets
across the continental United States with nuclear warheads, perhaps
thermonuclear ones.
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