While the world is focused on President Donald Trump’s use of the “Mother of All Bombs” in Afghanistan and his recent airstrike on Syria, he has been launching battles in other parts of the world as well.
In an editorial for the Guardian, writer Trevor Timm lays out a series of facts that he believes show the dangerous push toward war that Trump has made in the past few weeks.
It’s hard to argue with the editorial, which starts by pointing out the huge number of civilian casualties in the Middle East since Trump took office. For starters, 200 civilians were killed in an airstrike on the Iraqi city of Mosul, while dozens of others died in unrelated American strikes.
And in what Trump called his “highly successful” Seal Team 6 raid in Yemen, helicopter gunships fired indiscriminately onto one targeted village, carelessly killing, men, women, and children.
Trump has also drastically increased the number of U.S. drone attacks in Middle Eastern countries. The Obama administration launched drone strikes once every 5.4 days; Trump has taken the number to once every 1.8 days.
The new administration has also increased the number of official ‘war zones’ around the world (although we all know that no war has been declared by Congress in any of those areas.) We are using those drones to attack on Somalia and Yemen, all in the name of fighting ISIS.
As he has done in so many other areas of government, Trump seems determined to undo every effort made by President Obama. He is even rolling back many of the limitations put in place to limit civilian deaths and to make it ever harder to launch drone strikes.
Finally Trump has decided to react harshly to the tantrums coming from North Korea. He has pushed China to intervene, but has also promised that the U.S. will “go it alone” if necessary. NBC News reported that:
“…the National Security Council has presented President Donald Trump with options to respond to North Korea’s nuclear program – including putting American nukes in South Korea or killing dictator Kim Jong-un.”
You really have to wonder if WWIII is in fact Trump’s objective, given the massive upswing in military action under his very short period at the helm.
Featured image via YouTube Screengrab.
