“We will speak, sing, and pray for wisdom and grace in the face of nuclear holocaust.”
Starting a war with Korea is a really bad idea. What’s even worse are the people who think there would be a ‘winner’ in such a conflict. As President Trump visits the Korean peninsula on Tuesday, it’s almost a sure bet he’ll rattle the swords of war.
Indivisible San Diego and Interfaith Worker Justice of San Diego County are urging people to join them for a 7pm candlelight vigil for peace on Tuesday at Japanese Friendship Bell Park on Shelter Island (across from the Kona Kai).
I don’t have much confidence in the President being sane enough to realize the consequences of any pre-emptive action. When you see the world through his eyes, it’s not hard to imagine Trump seeing military activity (or firing Special Council Mueller) as a Hail Mary ploy, given the ever-escalating investigation surround the administration.
The Sunday New York Times published a totally scary column by Nicholas Kristof, quoting the probabilities of war by various experts:
- Former CIA head John Brennan – 25%
- John Hopkins Korea expert Joel S. Wit -40%
- Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass – 50%
Yet we’re complacent: Neither the public nor the financial markets appreciate how high the risk is of a war, and how devastating one could be.
The Congressional Research Service last month estimated that as many as 300,000 people could die in the first few days of war — and that’s if it remains nonnuclear. If there is a nuclear exchange, “there easily could be a million deaths on the first day,” says Scott Sagan, an international security expert at Stanford.
Here’s an indication of how Trump views this, via Voice of America:
Ahead of Trump’s visit, two supersonic aircraft conducted a bombing exercise over the Korean Peninsula as a show of force against North Korea. The B-1B bombers were escorted on the simulated drills Thursday by two South Korean fighter jets, according to an official with that country’s military.
The worst part of all this news is that there’s nothing stopping the President from ordering a nuclear strike. From an article in the Big Think by Paul Ratner:
Could President Trump carry out a nuclear strike on North Korea if he wanted to? According to recent assessment by the Congressional Research Service, president “does not need the concurrence of either his military advisors or the U.S. Congress to order the launch of nuclear weapons.” And “neither the military nor Congress can overrule these orders.”
Along with their call for a Candlelight Peace Vigil, the sponsoring groups issued the following statement:
We know that Kim Jong-Un has threatened to attack San Diego, particularly Point Loma, due to the concentration of our Navy and Marine forces. We understand the fear of being a target. But our fear does not demand the preemptive sacrifice of millions of innocents in Asia. We call on President Trump and Congressman Duncan Hunter (CA-50) to stop their reckless rhetoric and dangerous brinksmanship in our names.
President Trump, we do not sanction your threats of “fire and fury” for our protection. Your bellicose speech and mocking “Rocket Man” tweets do not make Americans feel safer. They put us, and our troops, at higher risk and push us closer to the brink of nuclear war.
Congressman Hunter, we do not endorse your call for a first strike on North Korea. We reject your belief that the only way to save San Diego is to start a conventional war that would sacrifice millions in Seoul and Pyongyang, and might turn nuclear, with catastrophic loss of life in Korea, Japan, Guam and/or Hawaii.
Join us to call on Congress and our military leaders to use restraint and to push for economic sanctions, diplomacy, and other means short of war, to reduce the North Korean threat. Stand up for San Diego values on the most impactful issue of our time.
Click here for more information on the vigil.
Doug Porter
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