Trump Might Bring Disaster to the World
with his Threats on Nigeria and Arms Race

Two recent statements made by the United States president Donald Trump in the past few days are extremely serious that it could bring disaster to the entire world if he is allowed to continue with his irresponsible actions without any checks.

Frist, he announced that he has asked Pentagon, the headquarters of the American Defence Department, to restart testing nuclear weapons after a halt of 33 years. The nuclear arms testing had been halted since 1992 after prolonged consultations between the nuclear super powers, and the American president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had given effective leadership to these discussions.

The nuclear disarmament talks and the inking of important international treaties like the NPT (Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty 1968), the CTBT(the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty 1996), and the New START treaty (2010), etc, had put an effective control of the nuclear arms race that had threatened world peace and stability for many decades after the disastrous nuclear bomb explosions in Japan in August1945. After the Americans developed nuclear weapons during the Second World War, others like the Soviet Union, China, UK, France, etc, acquired the same capabilities and many other countries including India, Pakistan, Israel, North Korea, etc, also started testing nuclear weapons and developed warheads in later decades. It was in this situation of uncontrolled arms race that the new treaties were arrived at to put an end to this mad rush towards total disaster.

Many of these treaties are now scheduled to be reviewed and new agreements put in place, so that the world can be a safer place. For example, the New START treaty between the US and Russia, will expire in February next year. The NPT is also to be reviewed next year, preliminary to a fresh round of nuclear non-proliferation negotiations.

It is at this moment that Trump has asked Pentagon to restart nuclear testing, when Russia and China also are making efforts to develop more powerful and lethal nuclear weapons. This is an irresponsible action on the part of the US president, and it should be condemned by the entire world.

Equally concerning is his next statement, which threatens the West African country, Nigeria, with direct military intervention for its alleged persecution of Christians. Trump, in his statement, has said that the United States forces would go to Nigeria “with guns a-blazing, to completely wipe out the Islamic terrorists who are committing horrible atrocities.” He said “if we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED CHRISTIANS!”

This is vicious communal propaganda, coming from the topmost authority in the most powerful country in the world. It is sad and unfortunate that a developing country like Nigeria, with a large number of religious minorities coexisting without much frictions, is being threatened in such an obscene manner by the Trump administration, without providing an iota of evidence to prove the allegations. In fact, the Nigerian authorities, including its president Bola Ahmed Tinubu, have rejected these allegations, asserting that the country is committed to keep its religious peace and communal harmony at any cost. Many international news organisations also have pointed out that extremist movements like Boko Haram which had unleashed violent attacks in recent times are being tackled by the Nigerian authorities and that, in fact, majority of their victims are not Christians or other religious minorities, but members of the Muslim community themselves. So the real reasons for Trump’s threats are likely to be quite different: perhaps he might be eyeing the country’s vast natural resources, including its huge oil deposits.

Elyas Muhammed Thumbe
National General Secretary
Social Democratic Party of India