How low can you go?

We were on the same boat about four years ago. In 2013, North Korea was also rattling its saber, a paper tiger showing off its large teeth to Washington, D.C., and Washington, D.C. wringing its hands at the tantrum Kim Jong Un was throwing. The only difference was that, at that time, the U.S. President had a much cooler head and refused to engage Kim in a verbal tit for tat.

As in 2013, reams and reams of paper are being used up, gallons upon gallons of ink are being spilled, and hours and hours of TV and radio airtime are being devoted to examining the geopolitical implications of a United States-North Korea dustup, many by political analysts, military strategists, and writers much better suited to that task. I just like lying on the beach. The difference is that today’s social media has reduced the specter of nuclear warfare to fodder for small talk. Expect to have the subject crop up during a haircut or mani-pedi.

Whatever the case may be, I will leave it up to better informed and more aware people to ponder the implications of the issue.

Of course, this would be a good example of how to make sense of an issue by reducing it to an absurd level. However, the inevitable trajectories of extending the issue are not funny at all. Grotesque, yes, but haha, no. C’mon, who says things like “fire and fury” like a character from an episode of Game of Thrones, or reducing Japan “to ashes” and surrounding Guam in “a sea of fire.” North Korean Gen. Kim Rak Gyom was even quoted as saying about Trump, “Sound dialogue is not possible with such a guy bereft of reason and only absolute force can work on him.” I envy his way with an insult.

Not being a voter, I’ve been told I should have no opinion on the subject. As in, that’s a fight between the United States and North Korea. If they want to come at each other with knives, then leave them be. That’s technically correct but, as is colloquially said, the United States is so big that when it sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold. In this case, if the United States gets dragged into a nuclear war, I will be freezing my ass in a nuclear winter (if I’m not dead by then), whether I live in a United States soil or not or whether I carry around a piece of paper that defines my nationality or not.

Also, modern-day nukes have yield that would make the bombs exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki seem like child’s play. It’s not as if a bomb could be dropped on the Saipan Lagoon and you get a front-row seat to a fireworks display.

According to a Washington Post story, U.S. intelligence officials now believe North Korea’s claim that it has the technology to fit its missiles with nuclear warheads. A Reuters story says that Japan’s defense ministry has also recently stated this is a possibility. That puts a worrying spin on the current spat between the United States and North Korea. That effectively means that any nuclear bomb exploded in Guam would mean nuclear fallout in the CNMI. So yes, it’s not just the countries adjacent to North Korea and Guam that have as much right to an opinion on the issue as any American citizen.

This early, the exchange between Trump and Kim has already had its first casualty—that sense of restraint and subtlety when expressing disdain for one’s enemy. To hell with being presidential and Sun Tzu’s edicts on the art of war (elitist crap!). It’s now the modern way to tip one’s hand on what one intends to do next, like threatening North Korea “with fire and fury like the world has never seen.” I expected the fulsome threats of North Korea (it has been doing this for many years and has much practice in boasting and bragging about its privates) but to have the United States echo this style of braggadocio unfortunately demeans the country and all it stands for. If anything, the saying, “Speak softly and carry a big stick” best sums up how the rest of the world sees the U.S. But for its President to trade threats with Pyongyang is not exactly about rising to the occasion. It sounds very much like a fight between two spoiled boys in a sandlot. Like seeing how low one can go.