They hate diplomatic solutions.
"That role will always be to press for diplomatic solutions.
Behind the scenes, he worked feverishly to promote diplomatic solutions.
"We shall pursue through and through peaceful and diplomatic solutions to the North Korean problem".
"But what we can be sure about is that the time for diplomatic solutions has come to an end".
George Sabra, the Syrian National Coalition's interim president, said in Istanbul on 30 May: "Diplomatic solutions are a farce, meaningless.
"We're never out of diplomatic solutions," Mattis told reporters while standing next to South Korea's Defense Minister, Song Young-moo, at the Pentagon.
There are reasons it should be: within an hour of Trump's rejection of talk last week, Mattis told reporters that "we're never out of diplomatic solutions".
"We made clear from the beginning of my administration that the United States was prepared to pursue diplomatic solutions," arguing that the Iranian leadership had refused to engage.
The former is not sustainable over time, and the latter, though more likely, would be an admission that diplomatic solutions are simply unavailable for the foreseeable future.
Russia and China, which also prefer diplomatic solutions, can usefully add to the pressure on Pyongyang by announcing a similar linkage.
