The INF Treaty: A Reality Check

The INF Treaty: A Reality Check
Former Defense Secretary and retired four-star Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis, here in the White House in 2018 with former President Donald Trump, was a military adviser for United Arab Emirates in 2015-16. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
David T. Jones
Updated:

President Donald Trump announced on Oct. 21 that the United States would withdraw from the INF treaty (full name: Treaty Between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Elimination of Their Intermediate-range and Shorter-range Missiles).

And to hear the pig-caught-in-a-gate squeals by those who make a living from viewing-with-alarm, one would think that the sky had fallen. And, in addition, it was another cataclysmic action by a president who bullishly carries his own china shop for instant breakage.