Life is difficult as it is for many people in most parts of the world.
There is hunger, poverty, helplessness against natural disasters. There is hatred and violence, sometimes in the name of religion or race.
Those picked to lead their nations plunder it instead, ensuring that their people are trapped in a vicious cycle, no matter how rich their resources.
Sometimes, the leaders have their own world view, a different version of reality—like the leader of North Korea.
The world has known better than expect anything sound or encouraging from Kim Jong Un, who this week said he would launch a missile strike on Guam, a territory of the United States.
These are words particularly threatening to our side of the Pacific, especially given our military alliance with the US.
Unfortunately, nothing remotely sensible was heard from the leader of the US. Donald Trump first warned Kim that he would rain down fire and fury on North Korea, “the likes of which you have never seen before.” And then, more recently, he said his words may not have been harsh enough. What could be tougher than “fire and fury?”
“You’ll see, you’ll see,” Trump said.
Share prices dropped, reflecting investors’ worry that the word war could escalate. Democrats slammed the provocative rhetoric, saying Trump’s words were irresponsible and dangerous. They suggested negotiations despite Kim’s irrational tendencies
Somehow, too, amid calls for a more sober way to deal with a rogue—the one from North Korea—Mr. Trump manages to steer the conversation into one that makes everybody else pale in comparison to him.
“…They’ve been negotiating now for 25 years. Look at Clinton. He folded on the negotiations. He was weak and ineffective. You look what happened with Bush, you look what happened with Obama. Obama, he didn’t even want to talk about it. But I talk. It’s about time. Somebody has to do it.”
The world does not need any of this mindless egotism. We have seen the horrors it has brought to previous generations. We shudder at what it might bring to this one, and the next.
