Ok, we can all agree that the video above is REALLY dumb. Putting the jokes aside within the video, there is no way that the United States, the land of the free, and a country that has more nukes than any other country could dream of, would ever initiate a nuclear war. There is no way that we would risk alienating other superpowers (such as China) by either nuking them or a country that is a valuable asset to them, regardless of the current status of their partnership. There is no way that regardless of some differences in political views that any country, the US or whoever, would willingly put innocent citizens through this, right?
Well, while we've seen many interesting turns, some pretty hilarious, some concerning, during this presidency, I never actually thought we would get to the point of possibly dealing with a nuclear war. In case you haven't been following this (and if you haven't, where have you been?), here is a timeline. To put it bluntly, North Korea has continued to improve their nuclear program to the point where they could likely be able to fire a nuke to the west coast of the United States. In addition to that, there is speculation that their nukes are small enough to fit inside an ICBM, which would allow it to hit basically anywhere in the US. As a result of hearing this news, President Trump said this:
As one could imagine, North Korea didn't particularly like this, which has led to them saying they plan on nuking Guam, a US territory with a large military population on site. Regardless of whether or not this will actually happen, it's probably the right move to back down and smooth things over right? Nobody wants to get nuked. Nobody. Why risk the lives of thousands of people over trying to appear tough?
Well, here was our response:
There is nothing more important than the lives of our citizens (and subsequently those innocent citizens in both North Korea and Guam), but let's try to look past that for a second. Us choosing to nuke North Korea would be terrible for diplomatic relations with China, another global superpower, and a country that wants North Korea to exist. China has come out and said it will intervene if we strike first, which for their sake makes sense. When you think about the possibility of South Korea growing and becoming a solemn Korea, putting a democratic government right next door competing against them, in addition to the potential influx of North Korean citizens fleeing the country into China and taking jobs, it is perfectly understandable that they don't want us to destroy a country that helps them maintain control financially over the region, even if they are crazy.
On the other hand, if North Korea were to strike first, then China will stay out of it, basically giving us absolutely no reason to strike first. Again, we have SO MANY MORE NUKES THAN EVERYBODY ELSE, if they really wanna nuke us, we can literally wipe them off of the face of the Earth. I hope it doesn't come to that, but obviously, if North Korea is dumb enough to poke the bear, then I hate to say it, they deserve to pay the price.
On the other hand, the overlying message I want to say is that this whole thing is incredibly stupid and basketball. The potential impact of a nuclear war is vast in regards to political, social and environmental impact. Even a minor nuclear war would screw up the environment vastly, which considering it is already steadily deteriorating, is hard to do.
There is absolutely no upside in nuclear war, on either side, and it is in all of our best interest to avoid it. If North Korea decides to strike the United States or one of our territories, considering that we could wipe their country off the map without even putting a dent in our nuclear inventory, it would be one of the more sauce-heavy, dumb, cocky, testosterone-filled, ill-informed, idiotic decisions anyone could possibly make, then I fully support us retaliating and making them pay. As a result, while I, among many people, don't exactly trust the North Korean government, I feel like they can at least understand that nuking us makes absolutely no sense from literally any perspective, and as a result, I don't think they will actually do it.
On the other hand, for all the reasons I just outlined, it makes even less sense for us to do anything. By sitting on our hands and not striking first, we would win either way. If nothing happens, then North Korea has to deal with the public poking fun at them as not following through with promises of nuking us, and President Trump gets a major PR victory as he gets to tell his constituents that North Korea "backed down before his fire and fury." If they nuke us, then we do exactly as Trump says and nuke them back, possibly to the point of them not existing anymore, and it gets viewed as us preventing a nuclear war, seeing how they instigated it, firing the first shot, and Trump gets to pitch to us the image of him being a defender of freedom to the American people against irresponsible communist governments.
If you recall, Trump has said that we would be tired of winning by now. If you don't here's proof:
While I don't think we've done much so far, as long as we don't nuke them first, this is a win-win situation. If we fire first, we have to not only deal with North Korea, but China (one of the most prominent superpowers in the world, and a country that, while not as much as us, has a strong military), and possibly other countries that likely won't approve of us doing anything that could be construed as forcing our will on other countries. This scenario is the most likely one in regards to leading to an actual nuclear war and may lead to the something somewhat resembling (most of) the video I linked to begin this article.
So while I deem it incredibly unlikely, it will be interesting to see how both sides react over the next week or so (probably less), because much like a head-butt, in a nuclear war, everybody loses.
