The saber-rattling between North Korea and the United States is "getting pretty close to military action," conservative pundit Patrick J. Buchanan tells Newsmax TV.
"The ball is pretty much I think in the court of the North Koreans now,' Buchanan said Friday to Steve Malzberg on "America Talks Live."
U.S. warships were headed to the North Korean coast Friday as the Asian nation prepared to celebrate the 105th birthday of its founder, Kim Il-sung, on Saturday – and possibly fire a ballistic missile or test a nuclear device.
"Clearly there's a message that's been sent when you send the [USS Carl] Vinson and battle fleet over there and you've warned [North Korea president Kim Jong Un] about another nuclear test," Buchanan said.
"So, I think they are prepared for something … you cannot let a madman have nuclear weapons and you've got to go in and get rid of him.
"Frankly if somebody shot [Adolf] Hitler in 1933 it might have saved scores of millions of lives. But my view is this is getting pretty close to military action."
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Buchanan, a senior adviser to Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, said he does not know what the breaking point is for President Donald Trump.
"But I will say, if you start a war and it's even a conventional war… I think we might win… but there would be enormous devastation."
Buchanan is the author of "Nixon's White House Wars: The Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever," which will be published May 9th by Crown Forum.
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