With the dropping of the 21,600 lb MOAB (Massive Ordnance Air Blast) being added to the latest repertoire of Donald Trump’s orders to launch attacks overseas, the Trump administration has yet again reinforced the abandoning of the promised isolationism.

What happened?

The United States chose to drop a MOAB, the largest non-nuclear bomb in the arsenal of the United States ever used in combat, on a known ISIS base in Afghanistan. The death toll of the militants killed was approximated to be around 94 as of Saturday, with numbers expected to rise upon further interrogation of the site. The numbers were projected by the spokesperson for the provincial governor in the Nangarhar province. So far, as per current publicized reports, there are no indicated civilian casualties in the aftermath of the attack. Later on Saturday, the former President of Afghanistan condemned the attack on Afghanistan.

This marks the second in recent United States interventions in international conflicts, in order to target Middle Eastern extremists believed to be affiliated with the Islamic State. It follows the preceding launch of the 59 Tomahawk missiles which bombed the air base in Syria, as a response to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s decision to launch a strike of the biochemical weapon Saran, a weapon that is condemned by the United Nations. It was used upon civilians as an attempt to send a message, as well as to quell the rebellion of the Syrians in order to reinforce the political stranglehold of the current regime.

What does this mean?

Both attacks now set a direct precedent to mark the complete abandoning of the promised aspect of isolationism for the American population, which was assured by the Trump administration’s campaign. However, this is merely yet another addition to the series of backtracking that the administration has done from the campaign trail, proving the lack of fulfilled promises to be rather notable for a presidency. This should not come as a surprise to the American population at this stage, granted the amount of backtracking the campaign has done already. Nonetheless, this raises external questions, particularly regarding the future of public involvement in politics.

Behavior of this manner only serves to act as a deterrent for the American population regarding political participation, as the consistent backtrack of promises as well as biased news sources leaves people with extreme doubt in the information being provided. It is not a foreign matter, however, as lying and politics virtually go hand in hand. This behavior being so blatantly transparent also further decreases trust in the government, resulting in much lower participation, subsequently allowing political regimes to have a more efficient controlled demographic to work with.

The second concern comes as a more imminent global threat, with the increasing hostility exhibited towards various Middle Eastern nations in the name of fighting terror by the US, resulting in the attention and the condemnation of the acts by various global powers, namely Russia. Rekindling the antagonism between the US and Russia, as well as the increase in the investment of defense spending in the United States tied with the attacks sends out a prominent message to the world, exclaiming that the United States seems ready for war. Such behavior may be interpreted as signs of aggression and can potentially result in the increased proliferation of arms development globally, gradually developing the world and priming it to arrive at the brink of war.

The world may be reaching its end, and we are witnessing the disaster unfold.