Many people have thought about it, a few have come out and
said it, but the reality is that Donald Trump has a better than even chance of
getting us all killed.
Like climate change, good taste and science, Trump does not
believe in diplomacy. Even before he was sworn in as president, Trump got under
China’s skin over that country’s claim to several islands in the South China
Sea. The subject came up again yesterday at a White House briefing where Sean
Spicer said, “We’re going to make sure we defend international territories from
being taken over by one country.” The implication is that the U.S. is prepared
to take some type of military action or embargo to keep China off of the
disputed islands. For there part, China says any activity like that could lead
to war.
Trump is four days into office and we already have talk of
war, not with Panama or Grenada, but with the most populist country on the
planet, which also has nukes. Previous Republican presidents Reagan, Bush
senior and W all had their wars and, while not “official” Republican policy,
there have long been off-the-record sentiments expressed by party elites that
it’s a good thing for one’s polls and continued loyalty within the party to be
a wartime president. As we saw with George Bush, his approval ratings went
through the roof immediately after 9/11 and continued to be high enough to
start two wars nobody outside his administration really wanted.
What is so ominous today is that Trump makes Bush look like
a global statesman. Where Bush was naïve and impulsive (I go by my gut), Trump
is a thin-skinned bully who believes anyone who disagrees with him needs to be
taught a lesson. It’s bad enough when you’re on the playground pushing around
the skinny kid with a pocket protector, but something else entirely when you
start antagonizing countries as powerful as China.
Yet I don’t believe Trump makes any distinction between the
two. No one is going to tell him what to do, which includes other countries,
his advisors and the American people. Has Trump ever uttered the words “peace,”
“cooperation” or “working together” in the context of international affairs? I
haven’t heard them. Like other chicken hawks, Trump opted out of showing any
true courage by staying as far away from Vietnam as he could, but loves to talk
tough from behind the podium.
The problem we as Americans face is that the consequences of
belligerence in foreign affairs isn’t simply a punch in the jaw, but the
potential deaths of millions of human beings.
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