"I WILL JUST BOMB THE SH*T OUT OF THEM...." What have we learned? What have we become?

Important questions to consider....  Who are we?  Who have we become? How did we get there?

Teddy Roosevelt more than a century ago when speaking about American foreign policy implementation famously said, "Walk softly but carry a big stick." Is that what we are presently doing?  Or, have we come a far distance from walking "softly" and, instead of "carrying" a "big stick", are we stalking the planet and bashing those with whom we have issues with a very large CLUB?  Have drones, missile strikes, and the "Mother of All Bombs" taken the place of negotiation and diplomacy?  Since Dwight Eisenhower warned us in his Farewell Address in January 1961 to "guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex", and, in "pursuit of the goal of peace with justice", that we be "confident but humble with power", our nation has fallen more and more frequently into using our excess military might to demand compliance with our own national foreign policy goals by other nations.  The tragedy of Viet Nam that cost the lives of tens of thousands of our young men and women for no positive or evident advance of the national interest was a generational blood-letting.  The first Gulf War, thankfully over in mere weeks, opened the door to a Middle East slog that has drained both American blood and treasure for more than a decade. The invasion of Iraq in the Second Gulf War in pursuit of non-existent WMDs in retaliation for the attack at the World Trade Center on 9-11 turned out to be a thinly-veiled fraud perpetrated on the Congress, the UN, our allies, and the American people by the Bush II administration - especially Neo-Cons Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. And, from 9-11 forward, the Iraq/Afgan War became an example of government propaganda at its best in the never-ending, Orwellian war.  Well... until Donald Trump....  and the dawn of "alternative facts."

Fast forward more than a decade, and as we are still mired in "wars" in Iraq, Afghanistan, and, more recently, a growing presence in Syria, we have  new hand at the switch and a new finger on the nuclear button.  Is Donald Trump more in the mold of the Supreme Commander of the largest military force ever assembled in the history of the world, the Allied Military Commander, Dwight Eisenhower who as General and, later, as President, lamented the bloodshed of war and cautioned against committing to "saber-rattling" as a tool of advancing our international relations?  Or, have we elected a President more in the mold of North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un - an autocrat who relies on lies, propaganda, and "alternative facts" to shield his citizens from the truth, especially when real facts do not support his world view or agenda?  Is Trump a President who prefers the "big stick" to "walking softly"?  Again, in his Farewell Address, President Eisenhower commented "as one who has witnessed the horror and lingering sadness of war - as one who knows that another war could utterly destroy this civilization" and that the "potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist",  that international relations must be based on "a confederation of equals with mutual trust and respect" and "cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield." Is President Trump a bringer of peace or a monger of war?

From the earliest days of his campaign of 2016, Donald Trump made no secret of his goals of dramatically expanding the lethal force of the US Military, often describing the largest, best trained, best funded, and most practiced military on the planet - larger than the next 12 nations on the planet - as weak, leaderless, and ineffective.  The US spends more tax money in our bristling Defense budget - nearly $6 BILLION a year - nine times Russian outlays and three times defense spending in China - in support of 3 million troops under arms plus all of their hardware and technology - more than any other budget category.  Yet, for President Trump - much more than anyone else is still not enough... and, his budget calls for substantial increases in military expenditures and cuts everywhere else to support that increase.  one might question, for what purpose?

The answer may lie in Trump's continuous bellicose or insulting comments that he has directed toward friend and foe alike.  Within the last several months, Trump has disparaged Mexico and other Latin American countries, derided Canada, hung up on the Australian Prime Minister, and refused to shake hands with the leader of Germany in addition to attacking NATO as having outlived its usefulness. (Last week, after a meeting with the NATO Chairperson, Trump relented and described NATO as "still relevant."). As everyone knows, Trump continues his "bromance" with Vladimir Putin and has recently warmed to the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, not to mention his recent congratulatory phone call to the Turkish Leader, Recep Erdogan on his tightening grip as he erodes the long-held democratic traditions of this troublesome NATO ally.

Trump also seems to be quick on the trigger. Just in the past month he launched 59 Tomahawk missiles against an airbase in Syria, further inflaming tensions with our allies and risking an expanded conflict with Russia (although the Putin was informed in advance of the US planned attack), and attacked Iran as "not living up to the spirit of the agreement" that had been hard-won by the US and 6 other nations to halt the Iranian development of nuclear weapons. And, although the regime' in Syria has proven itself vicious and inhumane in slaughtering their opponents on the battlefield and while held in detention centers as recently reported by Amnesty International that described mass hangings of thousands of opponents of Bashar al-Assad in Syrian prisons, and the resulting refugee crises, President Trump delivers bombs and missiles, not relief supplies, and continues to refuse to let Syrian refugees into our country.

And, in the case of North Korea, Trump has again flexed his military muscle in issuing numerous threats leveled against their unstable leader, Kim Jong-un and sending an "armada" of US naval ships, including an aircraft carrier, from military maneuvers with the Australian Navy toward North Korean waters.  This exercise in brinkmanship Syria and with North Korea could make the world a more dangerous place to call home, or it may call the bluff of both.  North Korea, already issuing open threats to sink a US aircraft carrier and escalating threats to South Korea, Japan, and Australia - all American allies - may very well be calling Trumps bluff while both Russia and China are moving military assets to their respective borders with North Korea.  Risky business, this.

Just more than a century ago, the world went to war in the "War to End All War" that took the lives of another generation.  Millions died in the long and bloody struggle that began almost as an accident. The world stumbled, piece by piece, into broad conflict that started with the assassination of a minor dignitary, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife that took place in Bosnia. That assassination took place on June 28th, 1914 and was carried out by a lone Serbian nationalist - by modern descriptions, a "terrorist." Within one month, Austria declared war against Serbia and allies on both sides, bound by treaties, declared war on each other and WWI was underway. Countless millions died in long-forgotten places, thousands of towns were destroyed, nations disappeared from the map of Europe, other nations were inserted where that had not previously existed, and the seeds for the Second World War were sewn. Can history repeat?  Will it?

In 1961 Eisenhower cautioned, "we must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate... another war could  utterly destroy this civilization that has been so slowly and painfully built over thousands of years."  So, I ask this - Is anything really worth the risk?  And, is Donald Trump - the man at the switch - the person with his finger on the nuclear button, the man that you would trust to make these life-altering decisions?  Or, is he an unpredictable and unstable wild-man, ready to lash out at a moment's notice or on a whim to prove who is king of the mountain like his counterpart in North Korea?  Trump's most recent comment on the North Korean crisis:  "If China doesn't take care of it, we will." Feel better now?  Stay tuned.....