 Joe Honick |
The White House tweeter-in-chief has threatened North Korea with “FIRE AND FURY.”
It means Americans should fear what could come out of the mind and mouth of someone who cannot even abide media criticism.
There is little question of the madness coming from North Korea and its oddball leader. That does not mean America has to duplicate the threats with our own as if war is only a few decisions away. North Korea may be the quintessential expression of both madness and evil, but those around the big boss are not stupid. They know that even one launch not only might be destroyed in air, but the entire land of North Korea could be leveled in a matter of hours, with all the tragic loss of life that implies.
The idea of the US taking action without the imperative effort to make the diplomatic point of what would result from a North Korean launch will only caste America as the destroyer of hundreds of thousands of lives.
Worse than that, we are no better equipped to take on a war without the manpower to sustain it for lack of a draft.
Worst of all, Trump has not the slightest understanding of what it means to put forth a heavy military effort. He demonstrated this ignorance when he turned over his commander-in-chief powers to the Pentagon to determine strategies and tactics for battle in Afghanistan.
Trump has not the slightest background to make military decisions in the same manner he alienated more than 4,000 military personnel with his declaration to boot transgender personnel who did what he failed to do: sign up to risk their lives for the United States.
But, and the biggest “but” of all, Donald Trump suffers from dangerous symptoms of narcissism.
With no draft to fill the needs of any campaign due to Nixon’s pen killing it, with Trump’s angry declarations against any and all immigrants we could no longer recruit, what determinations could he make other than to put the nation in danger for now and the foreseeable future, alienating China and other nations who would hardly be counted upon to join the effort?
The hope is his generals will prevail and not the bunch of politicians, including himself, who have never faced the risk of military service, much less actual combat in the way Trump declared Senator John McCain to have been a loser, a man who did see the worst of it.
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Joseph J. Honick is an international consultant to business and government and writes for many publications. He can be reached at [email protected]
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