"— hold the smile for a count of three, then stand down," a Pentagon planner said on Sunday, describing what is left of the joint exercises. "Nine men, one wave, home by lunch."
Regular readers will recall the drills had already been recast as classes in sounding delighted. That course has now graduated. After the president ordered them "substantially reduced" as hostile to his friend in Pyongyang, the whole curriculum has been distilled into Operation Warm Regards: nine servicemen, facing north, waving in unison.
Military officials had warned that Kim's regime is learning fresh battlefield tactics from Ukraine. The wave, planners countered, is being drilled to a polish not seen in Anglo-German relations since 1938. It went down well then too, for a bit.
"Deterrence is really about warmth," one official said. "Nothing says do not invade like a sincere hello."
