Nuclear war

Is the world on the brink of a nuclear war? This seems to be the direction as North Korea launched what commentators say is its “most capable ever missile” this week.

The hermit nation, through its state media outlet, claimed that the intercontinental ballistic rocket Hwasong-15 was more improved than the previous ones, with a “super-large heavy warhead which is capable of striking the whole mainland of the US.”

United States President Donald Trump has been issuing incendiary statements against North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, even threatening to “totally destroy” North Korea in a speech before the United Nations General Assembly weeks ago.

Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, while mindful of her language, has urged the member-nations to cut ties – both diplomatic and trade – with North Korea. President Trump for his part asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to “cut off the oil from North Korea.”

North Korea has become more “aggressive” since Trump took office and we can only surmise that Pyongyang has taken the dangerous route if only to dissuade the US from bullying and disrespecting its revered leader.

The danger has become more real as mainstream US media seem to be programming the American public for the worst scenario. In the event of an attack, the missile defenses in Alaska and California, in South Korean and in the Japanese territory, together with US destroyers, would respond almost instantaneously.

Defense Condition Two would then come into effect with the entire US military preparing for retaliation and for launch order from the president, who will board the Doomsday Plane that functions as a war room.

A US Congressional Research Service estimates as much 300,000 people could perish if North Korea opts to use conventional weapons. Should it use its unconventional wares, then the number will raise to “as many as 2.1 million fatalities and 7.7 million injuries.”

The free flow of information about the possibility of war seems to follow the US government’s strategy that led to former president George Bush Senior’s Gulf War and George W. Bush’s War on Terror.

It is not unthinkable for Donald Trump (a Republican like the two Bush presidents) to go to war. Therefore, it is for his advisers and the American people to rein in his adventurous, if not dangerous, streak.

Mr. Trump, we are not talking about action scenes in a movie where the director can simply shout “Cut!” if he or she wants to. We are dealing with people’s lives and the future of the world.

You will have blood in your hands, and you will be as guilty as Kim Jong Un, if ever war occurs, God forbid.