APRÈS NOUS, LE DELUGE
APRÈS NOUS, LE DÉLUGE
June 21, 2019
“If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail”. – Abraham Maslow
Swashbuckling bravado in the hands of a coward often leads to a feast of humble pie – like this week’s serving of crow in the case of Iran. NATO thinks Trump is a dim bulb; Putin has him on a dimmer switch; and China can see him in the dark. But this Bungler in Chief is the avatar of those in the United States who ache for a chance to assert military power in regions where there might exist some useful plunder. Trump famously asked about the Iraq War, “Why not take their oil as spoils of war?”. And who can forget when then candidate Donald Trump frequently said it was important to be “unpredictable” about whether the United States would use nuclear weapons, asking aloud why we have nuclear weapons if we wouldn’t use them. He had no idea what the term “nuclear triad” meant. A reporter asked him which pillar of the triad—bombers, submarines, or missiles—is a priority for him, and Trump responded, “I think, for me, nuclear is just the power; the devastation is very important to me.” Was there ever a person more unfit for office – more unqualified to make policy – more unentitled to hold the office of the presidency?
Trump supports a plan for the US to develop tactical nuclear weapons – “little nukes”. So, while we see him behaving as that gleeful prepubescent boy who sat behind the wheel of an 18-wheeler blowing its horn, one has to ask who gave this half-wit the keys? The list is long. But it’s useful to note that today’s humble pie is tomorrow’s Thucydides Trap. Thucydides, born in the mid-400s BC, was an Athenian historian and general. His famous explanation of how the Peloponnesian War began described the conflict that arises when a rising power causes fear in the minds of an established power – where the consequences can often be an escalation toward war – by accident. Trump’s bellicosity toward China is just that sort of trap, and his tariffs are his signature, non-diplomatic assault on what he perceives as a threat to American hegemony in Eurasia. His latest bellicosity toward Iran is precisely what Thucydides had in mind.
Trump’s reality show impersonation of an alpha male has taken us on a breathless tour from ill-conceived tariff policies to a clueless foreign policy – from unequivocal obstruction of justice to an uncensored contempt for women. His ineptitude has been a white-knuckle ride for the world to witness, not necessarily because of the dire consequences it poses for America, but because of the memory Europe has of the causes of WWI and WWII, and because of the memory Japan has of its similar error in response to the US oil embargo in 1941. Ruthless and impolitic threats to nations are the Trump Administration’s casus belli. While they are intended to intimidate, they can, instead, provoke war. And each and every insult – every accusation – lacks a “just cause”. Is NATO an antiquated alliance as Trump asserts, or is it one of the jewels that comprised the containment strategy during the Cold War? Is the fact that the US failed to “take the oil” during the Iraq War a missed economic opportunity, or was it a rational conclusion intended to stop Iraqi expansion while not breaking the Middle East?
Trump’s kakistocracy was assembled for the sole purpose of achieving “the deconstruction of the administrative state”. His advisors are ruthless war mongers like John Bolton. They’ve been jonesing for war for 5 decades. They are the authors of the misbegotten second Iraq War; they are the warriors who concocted the Gulf of Tonkin lie; they are the authors of the Iran-Contra fiasco; they are the tails who wag the dog. We used to call them “hawks”, but they are nothing but hammers in search of nails.
So, while I agree with Democratic leadership that we must have a strategy to win once we embark on impeachment, it shouldn’t take much longer to convince Americans that we can’t risk having Donald Trump on that wall any longer – that we never really wanted him on that wall. We need a blistering offense that explains who this preening fool is and what dangers he poses to the world. While he’s not the first imbecile to destroy an empire, the stakes are much too high to permit him to play with nukes, to risk blowing up the world. Lock him up.
Deborah Long is a Principal at Development Management Group, Inc. and founder of several non-profit charitable organizations. If you find her perspectives interesting, controversial, or provocative, follow her at: https://www.facebook.com/debby.long.98499?ref=br_rs
