President Trump warned North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un that he faced “fire and fury” if he attacked the United States or our allies. Secretary of Defense James Mattis said Monday that if Kim fired missiles toward Guam or the U.S., “It’s game on… The bottom line is we will defend the country and for us that’s war.”

It seems North Korea’s Stalinist dictator got the message.

There are reports that after receiving a briefing from his generals, Kim decided to change his mind. While we don’t know the content of the briefing, North Korea’s state-run media announced that planned missile launches toward Guam had been postponed.

Of course, nobody knows what was going on behind the scenes between the Trump administration, the North Korean government and China. But here’s what we do know.

President Trump has been attacked daily as a war-mongering buffoon by the left-wing media complex and the “Resistance.” Yet, he managed to get the UN Security Council to impose the harshest sanctions in decades against North Korea.

It appears, for the moment at least, that the North Korean dictator has blinked, although you can be sure that U.S. intelligence and military officials are watching every move North Korean forces make. President Trump’s message of strength succeeded in spite of the best efforts of the political Left and the American media.

They were sending messages of weakness and division to the North Korean government. They were portraying fear and hatred for our own president. It seemed as though many progressives preferred Kim over Trump. In fact, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), deputy chairman of the Democrat National Committee, said that Kim Jong-un was acting more responsibly than President Trump.

I wonder what Rep. Ellison would say about Colin Powell’s warning to North Korea. In 1995, Powell said, “If we ever think that you’re going to use [a nuclear weapon], or if you do use one, you’ll become a charcoal briquette.” Sounds Trumpian.

If this “time out” on the Korean peninsula holds, and the sanctions, as well as other pressure, leads North Korea to stop its nuclear program, President Trump would be a strong contender for a Nobel Peace Prize. But I would not advise him to clear a place on his mantel yet.

As you may recall, President Obama won a Nobel Prize in his first year in office, even though he allowed the North Korean nuclear threat to fester for eight years, precipitating the current crisis.

The Cultural Revolution

In the 1960s, China’s communist rulers literally declared war against Chinese history, habits and symbols as Mao Zedong and his revolutionaries attempted to fundamentally transform China in their image. It ripped the social fabric of China. More than a million people were killed.

A similar cultural revolution may be underway in America. Monday night, a mob tore down and destroyed a monument to a southern soldier in Durham, North Carolina. According to local media reports, the mob was led by anti-fascists, the Democratic Socialists of America and the communist World Workers Party.

The fringe Left is on fire. Its seething hatred of America has been unleashed. “Charlottesville is just the beginning,” one far Left website declared. Another proudly proclaims that “capitalism is in crisis” and “The American state is collapsing.”

I am glad the North won the Civil War. But I am disgusted by the Left’s desire to purge our history. I am sickened by the Left’s disrespect for property. And I am outraged by the Left’s eagerness to suppress opinions it disagrees with.

The Left’s tendency toward totalitarianism and violent behavior is dangerous. It must be resisted just as vehemently as the racism of the KKK.

Will any reporter today ask Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer or Elizabeth Warren to denounce the Communist Party and the mob violence against historical landmarks?

Carried to its logical conclusion, eventually mobs will be marching on Monticello and Constitution Hall. Al Sharpton is on the record already. He said that the Jefferson Memorial cannot be permitted to stand as a publicly funded national monument.

Ultimately, this isn’t about southern slave owners in the 1850s. The far Left hates America — all of it, North and South, now and today. Our schools all too often are not teaching American history. They are teaching anti-American history.

Irony Abounds

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) issued a statement demanding that “every street, every school, every flag, and every public memorial honoring those who took up arms in defense of white supremacy and slavery” be removed or have its name changed.

That’s an interesting position for CAIR to take since it would require that every mosque in America be shut down. Mosques are dedicated to the teachings of Muhammad and Muhammad owned slaves. He took opponents as slaves after they were defeated on the battlefield.

Also joining the fray is Planned Parenthood, which tweeted, “#StandWithCharlottesville against racism & hate in your community.” This is coming from an organization founded by Margaret Sanger, who was a disgusting eugenicist. Her purpose in founding Planned Parenthood was to weed out “less desirable” populations.