We must learn the right use of might
It’s a horrible thought, but a betting person would place his money on America’s military might. If U.S. President Donald Trump ordered a nuclear “first strike” on North Korea, or a retaliatory one, the American onslaught would kill enough North Korean people and destroy enough of the country that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un would have to say “uncle.”
Even if the war quickly transformed into a more conventional one, while in addition to all of the deaths of North Korean and possibly South Korean people, there would be a great loss of U.S. and allied troops drawn into the conflict, but it would be hard to imagine that Trump would not be the last man standing.
Unless, of course, the war spread, and China and Russia, now trying to act as mediators, picked a side and turned this rather contained but still highly lethal conflict into a world war. And that is indeed possible. Then all bets would be off.
So let’s be clear here: An ounce of prevention is worth the whole shooting match.
So Trump faces a strange and crucial decision. Strange because it seems that only “winning” — at anything and everything — and sometimes by overpowering others is his default setting. And Kim has been groomed to stand up and prove himself, maintaining the family’s leadership of a totalitarian state that benefits enough sycophants that Korea is not wired to step down when its buttons are being pushed.
What we bystanders in this dangerous game of escalating one-upmanship must do is immediately push our leaders to bring reason to bear.
Some of the answer is in encouraging Trump and Kim to accept the wisdom of de-escalating in a face-saving manner, and then bringing international diplomatic pressure to promote a more level-headed dialogue that will rein in North Korea’s nuclear program.
That will, of course, require great effort to understand exactly what is driving North Korea to be nuclear war-capable and addressing those drivers in a way that removes them.
But first, it is incumbent upon Trump, clearly the heavyweight contender here, to realize that there is a right and a wrong way to use might. Bullies often bully because they have an inadequacy of some sort; and they begin to learn that, unchecked, force can work for them.
But real strong men and women have no need to flex their muscles or to beat up others who are smaller or weaker than they.
The right use of might is not to use it unless there is abusive behaviour against innocents that must be stopped, or a real threat to oneself.
And for strong people and nations who know they are strong, and have a maturity and confidence about them, the idea of being a bully is simply not on. So if a unilateral de-escalation is not possible for either Trump, such as stepping U.S.-South Korean military operations down one notch, or for Kim, then the next right thing to do is to accept the offer of mediation, whether that is provided by Russia and China, or Switzerland, or some other third party that can provide the service.
There is a right and proper way to use might. What’s happening now is not it.