I have heard countless times over the last year that if Donald Trump is elected president, he could get us into World War 3.
I don’t know if these are talking points being repeated, or if people just think that because Trump is brash and gets into political fights, and that he will start a fight with the president or prime minister of another country.
We don’t really know what Donald Trump will do if he becomes president. He continues to be a wildcard. He sometimes contradicts himself, although that is not uncommon amongst political candidates.
It seems when Trump really studies an issue that he really gains knowledge and tries to hash out a reasonable and logical position. In the eyes of the establishment, this just doesn’t work.
Trump has some terrible positions on economic issues, particularly his mercantilist attitude when it comes to trade. He is right to criticize these managed trade deals, but he is wrong on protectionism.
On foreign policy, he sometimes says things that the war hawks would love. He will casually talk about bombing others or taking their oil. But then when he gets specific, he makes a lot more sense. He takes a more non-interventionist approach.
It is possible that Trump could start a world war, but that is possible with anyone who gets into power with access to nuclear weapons that could blow the planet apart many times over.
The wars in the Middle East are horrible and dangerous. Yet they still don’t compare to the possibility of war with another major power such as China or Russia.
Russia is the enemy du jour. It seems that almost everything is blamed on Russia. And if something doesn’t go right on the day of the election, then Russia is all ready to be blamed again. When it comes to hacked emails and other things, there is absolutely no evidence that Russia is involved.
On the one hand, Trump critics will say that Trump will start World War 3. Then on the other hand, they say he is in bed with Putin, or at least way too cozy with him.
This doesn’t really make sense. Trump has said many times that he just wants to talk to Putin and to try to be on friendly terms with him. What is so wrong with that?
If anything, Trump is the least likely person of all of the major candidates who have been in this race to start a war with Russia, or really anybody at all.
It is Hillary Clinton that has a track record of war. She was the lead person in the war on Libya. She voted for war in Iraq and she continued wars while Secretary of State. She was also in office as Secretary of State when the Obama administration began its plans to overthrow Assad in Syria, which they are still working on.
And if there is any kind of war with Russia, it will probably start in Syria, where the Russian government is attempting to defeat the rebels (some might say terrorists) trying to overthrow Assad, with the help of the United States government.
This week, we have seen escalating tensions. Joe Biden actually said that the U.S. will be conducting cyber attacks on Russia to send them a message. This coming from the administration of the “peace prize” winner.
There is a story that Russian officials have been told to bring relatives home in preparation for war. Regardless of whether this is propaganda and how true it is, it is still quite scary that it has come to this.
We had decades of a Cold War after World War 2, which should have ended with the fall of the Soviet Union. Now U.S. officials keep poking a stick at the Russians, trying to instigate something. We do not want this to turn into a hot war.
Even though Hillary Clinton (and Obama too) is a war hawk who sides with Goldman Sachs and the military industrial complex, I don’t think she wants a major hot war with Russia. Nobody will benefit if there is a nuclear war.
But when tensions are running high and planes are flying around each other, accidents can happen. There are stories from the Cold War where mistakes almost led to nuclear war.
If you are voting in the 2016 election strictly to avoid a major war, then Donald Trump should get your vote. Actually, Jill Stein would be the most reliable, but we know she will not win. Between Trump and Clinton, Trump is far less dangerous. Hillary Clinton already has a track record of war. She has blood on her hands from many different countries.
Again, we can’t be certain of what a President Trump would do. But we can be fairly certain that a President Clinton will mean continued war and probably far more war. With Trump, at least there is a chance for more peace.
This isn’t to tell anyone that they should vote for Trump. That is each person’s individual decision. But Trump is the least likely person to start a major war, and it is possible that we could even get some common sense out of him.