I was tempted to title this blog posting, "Bored With Peace." As you undoubtedly know, if you follow the news at all, our current president has been threatening war all over the place - and not least within the United States itself. By the way, just in case you haven't picked up on this, if military action is ordered by our current president, the people who would go off to kill and be killed do not include him.
So far, the Congress, which is charged by our Constitution with responsibility for deciding to take the nation into war, has taken absolutely no action to threaten war, or to approve the threats being made by the person currently serving as the president. Maybe our current president is just "bored with peace." He presents himself, at least, as an "action-oriented" guy, so when others don't jump to do what he'd like, those Commander in Chief powers must seem tempting. If our chief executive gets a little "bored," taking unilateral action might have a lot of appeal.
When "bored with peace," let's go to war, right? That is a recent theme of various remarks, and actions, coming from our current president.
But wait a minute! Let's not forget that our current president actually wants to be known as a "man of peace," worthy of being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and so mad that he didn't get it that the warlike side seems to be coming out. Here's the latest on the "Peace President" theme. As outlined in a recent story in The Wall Street Journal, our current president is proposing a new, international organization, a global "Board of Peace." He'd be the chairman, of course, and he would personally take charge of the billion dollar entry fees he is suggesting should be paid by all those nations agreeing to join. By the way, the Congress has not voted in favor of such an organization, but the current president doesn't seem to think that's necessary. It's his proposal, pure and simple.
That fact, that this proposal is coming solely from our current president, and not from our elected representatives, would make this proposed organization different from other organizations of which the United States is a member. And here is another feature of our current president's so-called "Board of Peace" proposal, according to that article I just linked (emphasis added):
As chairman, Trump would have wide authority over the new organization, with the power to appoint and remove member states, as well as a veto over its decisions. The charter specifies that the board’s decisions will be “made by a majority of the member states present and voting, subject to the approval of the chairman, who may also cast a vote in his capacity as chairman in the event of a tie.”
The so-called "Board of Peace," in other words, according to this plan, boils down to an international organization, established by Donald Trump, that will do whatever Donald Trump wants. It would be an organization "of, by, and for" him, personally, and him alone.
There is a word to describe this kind of thing. It has medical connotations. Here is that word: Megalomania.
The latest pronouncements and actions of our current president are convincing that in electing him the nation made a mistake. If so, we need to admit it. Putting a possible megalomaniac into office as president has already had a lot of negative impacts, but now that the current president has focused on warlike actions, to achieve "peace," as defined by him, the stakes are pretty high. We need to look into it, in a serious way. Heather Cox Richardson, by the way, who is a well-regarded historian and commentator on politics and government, seems to agree. Click here to see her recent Substack newsletter.
Who is in charge of all those nuclear weapons possessed by the United States? Well, precedent suggests that whoever is serving as president calls the shots. The last time a president told the U.S. military to drop a nuclear bomb, the military did what they were told, and no other nation could reciprocate. That is no longer true.
Putting a possible megalomaniac in charge of our nuclear weapons - if that is what has happened - is (and let me say it, again) a "mistake," and we really do need to address this matter. There are some things that could change that situation, and lead to the removal a person who appears to be suffering from megalomania from a command position, but they require action by the United States Congress, which, after all, is actually supposed to be setting policy for our nation, including, specifically, whether to pursue war or peace.
Ultimately, though, as I keep reminding myself as I write out these blog postings, it's up to us!
Image Credit:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for your comment!