The worrying wild card in Washington

ON this Easter Sunday, when we should be celebrating hope, the world lies under a shadow of fear darker than any we have known for many years.

We have long worried over the danger posed by the actions of the secretive rulers of North Korea. However, we have never needed to be so concerned about developments in Washington, ultimately a place of cool heads and strategic wisdom.

There is still plenty of sense available in the US capital. But recent events give cause for concern.

President Trump entered the White House preaching a doctrine of America First, a repudiation of the globalist interventionist ideas – military and economic – of opponent Hillary Clinton.

With amazing speed, he is abandoning these pledges. He has ordered a missile attack on Syria, without waiting for the United Nations or indeed for verifiable evidence of responsibility for the war crimes alleged against President Assad.

He has dropped an enormous bomb on Afghanistan, seemingly more for its effect on public opinion than for its effect on America’s enemies in that country. And he has instructed a nuclear-armed battle fleet to steam towards North Korea.

Like so many previous presidents, he has found that military action abroad is easier than change at home, where he has floundered. But the violence of his change of course is such that the rest of the free world is entitled to worry.

Is Mr Trump acting according to a reasoned plan or merely reacting to events? Is he listening to his advisers or simply giving them orders?

Nobody doubts that these problems, above all in North Korea, are serious. But there is a sense that the president has reached for the big stick of naked power long before he needs to.

This is surely a moment for America’s allies, very much including Ireland and the European Union, to make our feelings known. We, and especially our EU partners who are members of Nato, cannot leave China and Russia as the only voices urging mature caution. There is far too much at stake for that.