LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Nuclear war is no wrestling match

Posted

To the editor:

Donald Trump seems to take nuclear war as seriously as a World Wrestling Entertainment match.

When the president talks about North Korea, he sounds like a cartoon wrestler about to go in the ring with promises to demolish his opponent.

News commentators have remarked on the president’s lack of historical awareness. A letter writer to The New York Times recently recommended that Trump read “Hiroshima,” John Hershey’s account about the atomic bombing of that city at the end of World War II.

It’s an excellent suggestion, even though Trump probably won’t do it. I read the book more than 20 years ago, and I had forgotten a lot of the narrative. What I do remember are the accounts of Japanese citizens who were completely wiped off the face of the planet in an instant. Many survivors bore terrible injuries, which are too horrifying to recount here in a family newspaper.

Even reading a Wikipedia entry on the bombing is unnerving. Between 70,000 and 80,000 people in the city were killed by the bomb and the fires it created.

Is this where we are headed? Must tens of thousands, or possibly millions, of people die in an apocalyptic act of destruction before the leaders of North Korea and America come to their senses?

If President Trump continues his “lock and load” rhetoric, are we going to end up in a nuclear war with North Korea?

North Korea is what we used to call a “crazy state” in political science class in college. The North Korean government is not a rational state actor.

They have pushed their nuclear program to the point of being quite possibly capable of attacking the western United States with an atomic bomb. They are paranoid and punish their own people mercilessly. The entire country is a prison.

The rhetoric and the actions of the North Korean government are extremely provocative — there’s no question about that. But Trump also is taking war tensions to a new height with every single tweet and remark he makes about North Korea’s actions.

It’s not going to be easy for either side to back away. I feel like I’m in a schoolyard watching the two biggest bullies square off to see who is stronger.

Citizens need to ask: Is Trump’s talk helping enhance our national security, or hurting it? The president has no strategy for dealing with North Korea — just completely overbaked rhetoric.

If we go to war with North Korea, thousands and perhaps millions of people in North Korea and South Korea will die. The North can annihilate Seoul, the South’s capital city. They could conceivably send an atomic bomb to destroy Los Angeles.

This war of words is no wrestling match. What’s needed here from the president is a cool head and a warm heart. He needs to find a way to lower the temperature of this dispute. He needs to appreciate what going to war with North Korea will mean.

Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s going to happen.

Mike Gold

Mike Gold

Comments