Get Rid of Trump, Save the World
Soon after I awakened this morning, the alleged “president” Tweeted out the folllowing:
This comes after last night’s promise to “rain fire and fury” on North Korea “like the world has never seen.”
It’s hard to overstate the mistake we made last November. The above Tweets are someone with no common sense and no diplomatic skills trying to intimidate the leader of another nuclear power into crying “uncle” and giving up. Every president since Eisenhower has had to deal with North Korea and every one has done it without threats of nuclear attack. Yet, here is Trump, alluding to nuclear war twice in just a little over 12 hours. This is not how you deal with a crazy man like Kim Jong Un. “Dear Leader” is always threatening. He threatens because he’s scared. He runs a country that is a pariah on the world stage. This is a country whose people are starving and who have nothing. In previous years, presidents like Obama, Clinton, Bush 41 and Reagan have offered food aid in return for a reduction in their nuclear ambitions. And it’s always worked. Every time a new president comes in, “Dear Leader” has rattled some chains and made threats, and every previous president (except Dimbulb Bush 43 and now, Lord Donny the Dimwit) has responded by offering humanitarian aid.
Now, we have the Giant Orange Toddler (h/t Quinn Cummings) succumbing to the temptation all bullies face, of making sure everyone knows he’s the biggest and baddest bully around and that he has big muscles and can lick any other kid around. He’s like “Butch” in the Little Rascals movies or Scott Farkas in “A Christmas Story.” Except for one thing:
Lord Donny won’t have to suffer any of the consequences.
We will. And so will the people of South Korea, with whom we have fostered a strong relationship. There is a reason why the Korean ceasefire is 65 years old; the consequences of breaking that ceasefire are too grave to think about. For one thing, there are 28,500 American troops in South Korea, with most of them massed around the demilitarized zone, which means, even without a nuclear strike, Many of our troops will be in immediate danger. North Korea has missiles massed along the border, with Seoul, South Korea, a city of about 10 million people, less than 25 miles from the North Korean border.
In other words, even without nuclear weapons in the mix, the possibility of millions of deaths is there. A nation with a population who has nothing to lose and a leader who is obviously crazy won’t hesitate to do as much damage as possible. Yeah, we might eventually “win” such a war, unless it involved nuclear weapons, but at what cost? And if such a war is relatively easy to prevent, why would we not prevent it? When did threatening to start a war become code for a show of strength?
The sad reason is, in Trump we elected someone who is only a shade or two less crazy than Kim Jong Un. he has an immature sense of powe and what it means, which is why admires authoritarians like Putin and even Kim. He thinks “strength” is all about talking about how big and tough you are. When he Tweets shit like you see above, he truly imagines that Kim is sitting there cowering in his bunker, afraid that the might of Donald Trump will be too much for him to withstand.
And make no mistake; Donald Trump is not thinking about the “might” of the United States and he is not thinking of “military might,” he is only thinking of Donald Trump’s might. You know, because he is the “boss of the United States” and the “boss of the free world” and all must bow to his might. This has been the only constant thread of his entire administration so far; he really thinks, when he makes an order, everyone in the country should bow down and obey it and he is openly hostile when they do not. He has no concept that he is the most prominent public servant in the federal government and that his branch of government is co-equal with the other branches. He was elected to be CEO, from his perspective, but the only experience he has as CEO is with a very closely-held private company. And that’s what he thinks his current job is; to “be a leader.” Unfortunately, “being a leader” to someone like Trump means being “the boss.”
The only good that has ever come from possessing nuclear weapons comes from NOT using them. No one before Lord Donny found it necessary to use them as a threat because their very existence was a threat. This new paradigm, in which we threaten to nuke anyone who crosses us, is not helpful in any way. And please don’t lecture me about this “Peace Through Strength” bullshit. One of the hallmarks of strength is that, when you actually have it, people know it and you don’t have to tell anyone. Obama showed strength by NOT attacking everyone who looked at him cross-eyed. Even Saint Reagan, who was the worst president in history until the GOP gave us Bush, Jr. and now Trump, never openly threatened nuclear war with anyone, even North Korea.
A real leader would have pointed to the UN sanctions passed last week and noted that “the whole world” was condemning Kim’s provocative actions. Instead, Trump personalized it and tried to make it sound like a US/Trump action. This was not helpful.
Trump needs to go as soon as possible. We’re no longer talking about the survival of our democracy, but the survival of the world. If you doubt that he will hesitate to launch a nuclear strike that would start World War III and end civilization as we know it, you haven’t been paying attention.
Originally published at PCTC Blog.
