Trump is really going all in on this nuclear thing, huh?
First suggesting, through a tweet, that America should reverse 40 years of policy and “…greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes”.
Now, obviously, He is ignoring the fact that we already possess enough nuclear weapons today to more than wipe out humanity. But, Trump never was one for intelligence since he announced his candidacy. Or, for that matter, intelligence briefings.
Then, on Morning Joe, he advocated for a nuclear arms race, saying that we would "outlast them all". Living vicariously through some fetish of Michael Bay adjacent American military dominance, he ignores recent history. Instead choosing to believe that this would scare our enemies into submission? I guess? I’m not sure, because it doesn’t make any freaking sense.
And that's all pretty funny. Until you take a step back and realize that, with a Republican held Congress and Putin in his DMs, Trump may actually attempt to expand or upgrade the American nuclear arsenal. Other than spending billions of dollars and escalating situations in India, Pakistan, Iran and North Korea, I don't know what we get out of it. A bumper sticker, probably. “My nuke is bigger than yours!” That’ll sell.
You may ask why this is a big deal. A huge, massive, horribly dangerous big deal. You may say that if Russia was going to continue on its path, that we should be ready to defend ourselves and our allies. You may say that mutually assured destruction would again ensure that nobody pushes the button. You may even say that you support the use nuclear weapons in certain situations, as they ended World War II and saved hundreds of thousands of American and Japanese lives in doing so.
You'd be wrong. But you could still believe it.
Dropping those bombs in 1945 took 140,000 Japanese lives and the world is less safe due to the existence of such powerful weapons. There's a reason we all want to avoid World War III: as long as nuclear weapons exist in countries' arsenals, World War III only ends with them being fired. It only ends with global nuclear war. We lose.
There's no reason to end the 40-year American policy of reducing the arsenal, something that goes back to Nixon, in favor of proliferation other than so Trump can feel like he believes he should while President. I believe that he advocated for South Korea and Japan to obtain nuclear weapons for the same reason. It’s about creating the feeling of American “greatness” rather than actually making America great.
It's doesn't help any of us.
It doesn't help bring peace. It doesn't help back down Russia or Iran.
It's only for the masculinity of Trumps psyche.
We had bigger problems to deal with before now. Continued Israeli settlement expansion, Assad regaining control of Aleppo, systemic racism, Republican plans to defund Planned Parenthood, how to replace the ACA without leaving millions of people without insurance. A myriad of different issues, and they all just took a back seat to Trump’s ego.
His fantasy of America’s “greatness” is apparently dependent on a strong national defense, including nuclear warheads. The only problem is that instead of forcing Congress to allow the CDC to study gun violence, or creating a plan to deal with 1 in 5 American children living in poverty, we now have to worry about the global ripple effects a decision like nuclear proliferation may have.
Gods above, please help us.
