When President Obama left office, he made it clear to incoming President Trump that the most important foreign policy challenge that the new administration would face would be figuring out how to prevent North Korea from developing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that could be equipped with a thermonuclear warhead that could reach the United States.
Most Americans today have no idea what it is like to be living under the threat of a nuclear war. Those who were children in the 1950s and ’60s will recall the drills that were performed regularly in our schools to prepare us for the possibility of a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union and Communist China. But since the fall of the U.S.S.R. in the early 1990s, that threat has been all but non-existent. Despite the two Gulf wars and the terrorist attack on 9/11, the detente with Russia and China has allowed Americans to feel secure from the possibility of a foreign military action striking us directly.
We can only hope that President Trump was able to impress upon the President of China during their recent meeting the degree of seriousness and fear that Americans of all political stripes feel regarding No. Korea’s non-stop effort to make an ICBM capable of reaching our shores. Hopefully, China’s leaders will realize the time has come to do everything they can to persuade No. Korea’s leadership from moving forward on this issue.
On the other hand, we also hope that President Trump realizes that all diplomatic and other non-military means must be exhausted before even considering any direct military action or doing anything that might provoke a military response by the No. Koreans — which in turn would cause us to respond, thereby creating the scenario of a quick and horrific escalation into an all-out war.
A full-scale war on the Korean peninsula would be devastating not only for the people of So. Korea and our 30,000 troops stationed there, but also for the entire world, especially if the No. Koreans were to deploy the nuclear weapons they presently possess. The radioactive fallout from the use of such weapons would travel around the globe, potentially wreaking havoc in countless ways.
Unfortunately, we have a president who has no experience whatsoever in the military or diplomatic realms .
So let us all pray that Generals Mattis and McMaster have been given the final say in all of this. They know what’s at stake and what the consequences will be. However, as things stand right now and based on our experience, we believe that we presently are living in the most dangerous time of our lives.