Letter To The Editor: The Last Thing The World Needs Is A Stronger And Greater USA

By Dr. DOUGLAS T. REILLY
Los Alamos
 
President Trump’s inaugural address advocated a stronger and greater USA. He used the word America; I remember an Argentine friend who long ago reminded me that everyone from Point Barrow, Alaska, to Ushuaia at the southern tip of South American IS AMERICAN.
 
The last thing the world needs is a stronger and greater USA. We are already strong and great. Most of us know Lord Acton’s quote, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Many countries consider the USA the most dangerous country in the world. Recently former President Obama said, “we are the biggest kid on the block.” I’d add, we are the biggest bully. Please think about the following:
 
The defense budget of the USA is not only the biggest in the world, it is bigger than the next nine countries added together. Russia and the USA have been disassembling nuclear weapons for several decades; the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists estimates the total number of nukes in the world has dropped from about 65,000 at its highest to about 15,000 today. That’s still too many, and Trump’s statement that we need to increase our nuclear capability is absurd.
 
The USA had to enter WWII; however, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan were unnecessary. Consider Vietnam, we lost over 60,000 people as shown by the memorial in our Capital. Most of us don’t realize we killed over two million Vietnamese. Cambodians, and Laotians. Iraq and Afghanistan are similar; we and our allies lost about 10,000 people, and we killed over one million.
 
I found President Trump’s inaugural address appalling, revolting, and saddening. I surely realize there are very many others who were inspired by it. I’m thinking of a recent OP-ED in the New York Times entitled “When will the largest block of Trump supporters realize he was scamming them.”
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