Trump’s warmongering in Iran will not make America secure again 

President Trump promised to avoid “forever wars.” It remains to be seen whether the new conflict in Iran will become one. 

However, there’s not much difference between forever wars and the continuous wars Trump has conducted in his second term. He has already used military force against Venezuela, the Caribbean, Nigeria, Somalia, Yemen, Syria and Iraq, as well as Iran. Congress did not authorize any of it.

Of course, the U.S. was a bellicose nation long before Trump. The country has been at war for approximately 93 percent of its 250-year history. However, Trump is making current and future wars much more likely.

Global climate change, for example, is one of the biggest modern threats to global stability. Military and intelligence officials have warned for years that it is a critical national security issue. Trump ignores it. 

The Obama administration secured an agreement with Iran to slow down its nuclear-weapons program. Trump trashed the agreement. The current war is his second attempt in the last year to destroy Iran’s nuclear program. But war is not a nonproliferation strategy.

Trump is making things worse. He allowed the last remaining nuclear arms treaty with Russia to lapse last month. His fickle behavior toward the NATO alliance has shaken allies’ faith that America’s “nuclear umbrella” will continue to protect them.

The world is teetering on the precipice of widespread nuclear proliferation. China and North Korea are increasing their nuclear arsenals, while Russia and the U.S. are modernizing theirs. Arms control experts say Australia, Japan, South Korea, Poland and some countries in Western Europe wonder whether they need their own........

© The Hill