Part Two of Two Parts (Please read Part One first)
In another interview, the interviewer raised the question of nuclear arms for Japan and South Korea and expressed concerns about Trump’s statements that he thought that it would be OK for those two countries to develop nuclear arms which could lead to a nuclear arms race in Asia and destabilize the region. Trump said that we had spent a lot of money defending other nations. He said that if those other nations didn’t start paying more for our protection, then we should be ready to withdraw our nuclear shield. The international defense policy of the U.S. has been specifically dedicated to providing a nuclear umbrella for other nations so those other nations would not develop their own nuclear weapons programs. For decades, the U.S. decision makers have believed that it was well worth the money we were spending on defending other nations to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons. It is unclear if Trump was aware of the reasons for this U.S. defense policy but, aware or not, he was clear about being ready to abandon it.
Turning to the Middle East, Trump was asked if he was OK with the idea of Saudi Arabia obtaining nuclear weapons. He said that he didn’t like the idea but brought up the same argument about Japan and South Korea having to pay for our protection or develop their own protection including nuclear weapons. He also said that, being realistic, Saudi Arabia was going to get their own nuclear weapons someday in any case. One big problem with that is the fact that one of the goals of Al Qaeda is to take over Saudi Arabia. If that happens and Saudi Arabia had previously obtained nuclear weapons, then Al Qaeda would acquire nuclear weapons and the whole world be under threat of a nuclear terrorist attack.
Estimates are that a missile attack from Eurasia would get here in about six minutes and a submarine launched attack would take about three minutes. That means that any U.S. President would have, at most, six minutes from being notified of an attack to decide what to do and launch U.S. missiles if that was the response. Even the most intelligent and decisive man would be hard pressed to do well in such circumstances.
Taken together, these statements and responses from Trump indicate an appalling lack of knowledge about nuclear weapons and international affairs. They also demonstrate extremely poor judgement on his part with respect to nuclear weapons and the relationship between nations. In addition, Trump has displayed signs of mental instability that should disqualify him from having control of nuclear weapons. Members of the media, members of the military, the diplomatic corps, the intelligence community, the U.S. Congress and Executive Branch have all raised serious concerns about Trump being totally unsuited to deal with the threat posed by nuclear weapons. Even a majority of the supporters of Trump would not trust him with the nuclear codes to launch U.S. missiles.
Donald Trump:
