The belligerent nutcases and rank amateurs at the American helm — evidently want to start a 2-front nuclear war

© 2017 Peter Free

 

16 January 2017

 

 

If you are listening to these addled folks, you should probably be scared

 

Secretary of State nominee, Rex Tillerson, told Congress that he wants to block (or some such) China from the artificial islands it made in the South China Sea:

 

 

“We’re going to have to send China a clear signal that, first, the island-building stops,” Tillerson said. “And second, your access to those islands also is not going to be allowed.”

 

© 2017 John Glaser, Rex Tillerson’s South China Sea Proposal Won’t Work, The Diplomat (14 January 2017)

 

 

Apparently, Mr. Tillerson is too inexperienced in international governmental affairs to recognize that interrupting, blocking, or detaining anyone in international waters is an act of war.

 

Even if he "misspoke" as some defenders claim, a potential Secretary of State should be aware that one does not impulsively make major policy pronouncements during the heat of a confirmation hearing.

 

Similarly thoughtless Republicans, Democrats and the American public have decided that we should noticeably escalate anti-Russian sanctions as punishment for the Russian Federation's proportionately trivial (alleged) 2016 US presidential election hacking.

 

Neither of these worrisomely provocative proposals have raised much objection on our clueless side of the seas.

 

 

Bone-filled noggins?

 

It appears not to have occurred to either of the above (apishly chest-beating) camps that the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation are nuclear-armed nations.

 

And neither (historically and strategically speaking) is likely to back down in front of an assault by an opponent that they can legitimately view — in light of their own national interests — as an out-of-control, imperialist nation.

 

 

Testosterone frequently misunderstands its actual sway

 

The United States was not even able to keep the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars running at the same time.

 

So now, we are going to irrationally provoke the only two nations on the planet that can simultaneously field massive land armies and significant bunches of nukes?

 

 

The moral? — The United States appears destined to learn about war the hard way

 

When the Homeland gets blasted.

 

Afterward, Americans may finally wake up to the fact that war is not a consistently profitable and comparatively bloodless endeavor.