Quote Originally Posted by Burney View Post
To be fair, that 'extreme provocation' was only the same provocation the Russians endured when the US Atlas missiles were stationed in Turkey (Americans don't tend to mention that aspect). It could be argued that Kennedy's reaction was excessively precipitous - although whether he had any choice other than to react that way in the face of public reaction to missiles in Cuba is another question.

In all honestly, though, the situation you describe is analogous - albeit not identical - to Trump's vis-a-vis North Korea. Extreme nuclear provocation and threats to US territory, interests and allies. My beef is that Trump as POTUS is legitimately entitled to react in the way he has, but is castigated for it purely because people don't like him rather on the merits of his actions.
Isn't it just the words he used that people didn't like? Fire and fury? If he'd have just said "the gravest issues would arise", a la JFK at the start of the Cuban crisis, no-one would have had much beef.