As Trump rattles sabres with North Korea, his Doomsday crew stands by on red alert
IT’S ALL very well for Donald Trump to be having a bit of fun tweeting his thoughts whenever the whim takes him – not to mention tweaking the noses of sundry self-important media types in Washington. But what about those chaps who fly the so-called ‘Doomsday planes’ that follow him all round whenever he goes abroad on Air Force One?
When they report for work of a morning, the edge that comes from having a very, very edgy job, must be all present. They fly E-4B Nightwatch aircraft, an awesome piece of technology designed to withstand nuclear fallout.
In an emergency, the plane can act as a ‘command centre’ in the sky. It tracks Air Force One whenever Mr Trump is on board, capable of taking immediate action, in the event of an ‘armageddon scenario’, should the US be under nuclear or chemical attack.
There is the capacity to also link up with the country’s lethal nuclear underground submarine fleet. One of the four E-4B fleet has an engine running 24 hours a day, ready to take to the skies at a moment’s notice. The aircraft can remain airborne for over a week.
It may all seem a bit James Bondish – but it couldn’t be more serious. The minutes and hours following the 9/11 attacks in 2001 – and the immediate fear that the assault on the Twin Towers might be a prelude to something even more sinister – was a reminder that rapid response by the US military is the single most important factor in the nation’s defence.
And so after 100-plus days of Mr Trump’s presidency, those manning the Doomsday planes must be especially watchful. No more than any of us, they just don’t know how capable is their new commander-inchief in the White House when he is playing the role of military strategist. In fairness, Mr Trump, despite his countless doubting critics, may yet prove to have a very sure touch in this area. It all depends on how finely tuned is his own instinct and judgment, coupled with the quality of the advice he receives from his inner circle of advisers. Both a plus and a minus in the presidential persona is a predisposition to ‘take action’ when confronted with a problem.
His sheer delight in signing those televised ‘executive orders’ on immigration controls, or whatever, became a singular feature of his early days in the White House. The fact these rulings would later become ground down in the various checks and balances built into the American governmental system often had him seething with anger. No wonder he could scarcely contain his glee following a partial victory this week in repealing the Obamacare health programme.
However, like many presidents before him, he now realises he has a much more free hand in the area of foreign policy, compared to the quagmire of domestic horsetrading. But the temptation to play war games is a high-stakes business. For example, dropping ‘the mother of all bombs’ in Afghanistan seems to have had little effect in a country already soaked in bloodshed. And it was an action which still begs the question – what next?
The same query could be attached to his excursion into Syria with his targeted strike on an Assad-controlled airfield.
However, the biggest test of all for the Trump presidency could well be the conundrum which is North Korea.
Nobody knows better than Mr Trump that Kim Jong-un has the capacity to wipe out hundreds of thousands of people in South Korea and Japan at the push of a button. Yet for its own long-term security, the US needs to do something to prevent the regime acquiring full-scale nuclear weapons.
The new White House incumbent decided to engage in a bit of regional sabre-rattling to try to persuade the Chinese to use its influence on its volatile southern neighbour. But complexities abound. There is evidence the Beijing government is quite happy to have North Korea as the bad boy on its patch, causing endless hassle for the Americans.
North Korea, according to some analysts, is determined to develop long-range nuclear weapons which could ‘take out’ American cities. That may be fanciful – but no US president can stand idly by and indulge such a risk. Mr Trump may be a lot of things, but he is not a fool. He knows what’s at stake – but has he a plan?
At this early stage, he remains an essentially unknown figure behind all the bluff, bluster and gee-whizz tweeting. He may yet surprise us all. But in the meanwhile, for those who man the Doomsday planes, the ‘what could go wrong’ dial has moved up a notch or two.
Mr Trump may be a lot of things, but he is not a fool. He knows what’s at stake