Fire and fury

But at 11.02am, with all of its citizens lulled into a sense of safety, the atomic bomb was dropped.

“The bomb burst with a blinding flash and a huge column of black smoke swirled up toward us,” Capt F L Ashworth, the mission’s weaponeer later recalled. “Out of this column of smoke there boiled a great swirling mushroom of gray smoke, luminous with red, flashing flame, that reached to 40,000 feet in less than eight minutes. Below through the clouds we could see the pall of black smoke ringed with fire that covered what had been the industrial area of Nagasaki.” No one can say for sure exactly how many died on August 9, 1945. The blast obliterated bodies and records. It is estimated those killed numbered between 60,000 and 80,000. The explosion unleashed the equivalent force of 22,000 tons of TNT.

The timing of Donald Trump’s North Korea bluster underlines the risks posed by a deepening war of words.

“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States,” Trump told journalists at his club in Bedminster, New Jersey. “They will be met with fire and the fury like the world has never seen.” His defence staff was not consulted, the comments were improvised.

But yesterday, Trump’s defence secretary James Mattis warned the North Korean regime that it risked the “end of its regime and the destruction of its people” if it attacked Washington or its allies.

In response, North Korean army spokespersons warned that any attempt to attack the North would provoke “all-out war, wiping out all the strongholds of enemies, including the US mainland”. The officials said the US should cease its “reckless military provocation” against North Korea to avoid such a reaction.

These ominous soundings of war are hardly a surprise. From the very start of his presidency, Trump was warned by his predecessor Barack Obama that the issue of North Korea was the biggest issue facing him. Today, with little progress being made by Trump, it is the biggest issue facing the world.

War between these two nations is a threat to the safety and security of millions all over the world.

Understand this: the issue is not whether North Korea’s missiles can reach the US (a series of indicators suggest the country’s capabilities are possibly increasing).

North Korea may choose to strike any nation perceived to be an ally of the US.

We cannot afford to ignore this issue. The bellicose language of Trump and the resultant reply of verbal fire-power threatens to escalate into an all-out contest of will.

This is a threat not only to the US but the diaspora it is connected to. Many Trinidad and Tobago nationals and relatives reside there. Furthermore, many possible targets of North Korea – whose leader Kim Jong-un seems as unpredictable as Trump – have a direct bearing on our own welfare.

Of course the deeper issue is the fate of mankind in the long-run.

This war of words and the apparent relegation of the United Nations to a subsidiary role now force us to question the vision we have for society as a whole. Are we heading down a path where we have leaders who brazenly threaten fire and brimstone? Or will we elect leaders who will do whatever it takes to promote peace, stability and the welfare of all? While we should not panic over the current developments, we all need to reflect carefully and take note of them. And maybe learn from Nagasaki.