Congress Can Bring Us Back from the Nuclear Brink
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump engaged in a war of words last week, attempting to outdo each other with clever insults (“Rocket Man”, “dotard”) and threats of destruction. As you and I hum Elton John and look up what “dotard” means, we are being distracted from far more serious developments that increase the possibility for miscalculation and nuclear war. In the last few weeks, North Korea has demonstrated that they are close to having the capability to strike the US mainland with a nuclear weapon, if they don’t have it already. It is this far-less-amusing scenario on which we should be focusing our attention.
As I watched the Ken Burns documentary on Vietnam also unfold last week, I was struck by the similarities to our current situation. John Musgrave, a compelling Marine veteran from Missouri, spoke so honestly about how he and his fellow soldiers used name-calling to dehumanize the Vietnamese. “I only killed one human being in Vietnam,” he said. It tormented him. From then on, he decided he would never kill another human being. He would, however, “waste as many gooks” and “wax as many dinks” as he could find.
We dehumanize North Koreans today in much the same way we did the Vietnamese. We look down on them as a strange, backwards, brainwashed other with a cartoonish, basketball-loving madman for a leader.
The North Koreans also see us as less than human. Americans are depicted as wolves or dogs in the propaganda that fills their schools and streets. We are impure and inferior. So too are our Japanese and South Korean “puppets”.
As a former intelligence analyst often tasked with understanding North Korean intentions and perceptions, it was my job to inform military commanders of North Korean views. I would explain to American military leaders that North Korea’s bellicose rhetoric was as much a justification to its own people about the regime’s military first policies as it was a warning to us. I would also caution that replying with equally combative language only reinforced their regime-legitimizing narrative that Americans are ruthless imperialist aggressors.
President Trump does not appreciate this. His tweets and insults don’t intimidate the North Koreans, they embolden them. Trump is proving the Kim dynasty correct. To them, his bombast confirms the decision to pursue a nuclear weapon at the expense of their people’s well-being. And it lends credence to the oft-repeated propaganda that “American wolves” will someday return to kill Koreans.
There is something that President Trump understands that the American public does not. He alone has the authority to launch the nuclear weapons that would make his threat to “totally destroy” North Korea a reality. According to a recent NPR/Ipsos poll, three-quarters of Americans believe — wrongly — that the President needs to have some sign-off, either by Congress, the Secretary of Defense, or the Joint Chiefs of Staff prior to launching a nuclear strike.
While our Constitution clearly grants war-declaring authority to the legislature, Congress has not shouldered this responsibility since World War II. And nuclear decision-making has always rested with the President, due to the potential for mutually assured destruction during the Cold War.
There is legislation in both the House and the Senate right now (called “Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2017”) proposing to limit the President’s ability to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike. None of Missouri’s Congressional representation — Republican or Democrat — has signed on as a co-sponsor.
The house version of the bill has been referred to the Foreign Affairs Committee, of which Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Ballwin) is a member. Given her recent trip to the Demilitarized Zone, she knows first-hand of the very real possibility of military confrontation and the extent of immediate devastation that could occur on the Korean peninsula if conflict were to erupt.
North Korea is a rogue nation that certainly does not deserve a pass for violating international norms and agreements. But it is clear we can only do so much to influence Kim’s behavior. The same can be said for our own leader, who’s penchant for name-calling and sabre rattling seems ingrained.
It is time for Congress to re-assert its Constitutional authorities and minimize the possibility for nuclear miscalculation. Call your Senators and Representatives and ask them to support S. 200 or H.R. 669. When you do, don’t call them names — our world leaders have that part covered.
Originally published in Medium as “Congress Can Bring Us Back from the Nuclear Brink” on
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