Article snippet: Posted at 10:30 pm on August 14, 2017 by Patterico As streiff reported earlier today, James Mattis and Rex Tillerson had a piece in the Wall Street Journal today announcing the end of the policy of “strategic patience” towards North Korea. Later today, Mattis translated the written verbiage of the piece into simple words that any North Korean dictator could easily understand: This is nothing particularly new from Mattis; he warned the other day that North Korea should avoid any acts like might lead to the destruction of the North Korean people. But somehow, threats from James Mattis don’t have the same loony appearance as threats from our erratic Commander in Chief. Kim’s state-run media soon responded with the usual barrage of nonsense: Well, Keith Ellison did say that Kim was more responsible than Trump . . . By the way, I can’t let this pass without comment: I don’t like generals saying that “war is up to the President.” The Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war. But in context, I’ll give Mattis a pass. This statement is a little garbled, but he seems to be separating a declaration of war (which is within Congress’s authority) from a defensive military action (which can be within the President’s authority). I just get twitchy when people sound like they are arrogating the power to declare war to the President. We’ll see where the tough talk leads. Things look like they are coming to a head. [Disclaimer] Link to the full article to read more