By Jesse SaundersMultimedia Editor

Not since the Cold War have we as a country been so afraid of the possibility of nuclear war with another nation. While many are worried about an attack on the mainland of the United States, we need to focus more on protecting our allies such as Japan; our territories such as Guam; and even the island state of Hawaii, who all are in a much more precarious situation if North Korea can in fact launch a missile with the range that could reach us.

Trump’s responses to these concerns are a danger not only because they may inspire the isolated nation to attack, but also because it shows how reckless our current president can be when in a tight spot. We saw this time and time again on the campaign trail, but the arguments are now on a much more global scale and come at the cost of not just our own country.

As a global power, we should be working with other nations toward the elimination of nuclear weapons. We stand as the only country to utilize a nuclear warhead, and should take it as our responsibility to prevent it from ever happening on this planet again. It would be foolish to think the Trump administration would be the ones to lead this charge, but we still must hold them to at least some sort of standard when it comes to the utilization of these weapons.

Few North Koreans were even alive in a time when their country was not fully isolated from the rest of the world, and these large threats from our president only help their government build a more sinister vision of the world outside its borders.

House and Senate Democrats must do all they can to keep Trump in check when it comes to interactions with the global community. We are currently operating with one of the weakest Department of State staffs in recent memory and will have to depend on the voices of people with genuine relationships and knowledge of the global communities and not simply someone who has only visited these countries on business outings.

Jesse Saunders is the president of the Hofstra Democrats

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