The brilliant deaf-blind author and disability rights advocate, Helen Keller, stated the best logic for working together when she said: “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much”. The old African Proverb: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”, best states the consequences of not working together. Unfortunately, America is currently a dreadful example of both Keller’s logic and the African Proverb’s consequences.
President Donald Trump constantly says with pride that “America doesn’t need any country”. He consistently raises the specter of America going it alone by questioning the necessity of America remaining in the world’s most successful and enduring defense alliance, NATO. He justifies his go-it-alone delusion by falsely accusing NATO of never coming to America’s defense, when in fact the only time NATO invoked its Article 5, which states:
“The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defense recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area”,
was to defend America after the 9/11/2001 attack on America.
He withdrew America from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal, so America could go it alone in preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. The JCPOA was an ironclad agreement that Iran, China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, and the European Union were all signatories to, with the United Nations Security Council pledging the rest of the world’s commitment by voting unanimously to implement it.
President Trump’s withdrawal ended a world-wide agreement that gave the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) unlimited 24-hour access to use sophisticated monitoring technology, such as fiber-optic equipment seals that could send the IAEA information; satellite imagery to detect covert sites; sensors to detect minute nuclear specimens; tamper- and radiation-resistant cameras for visual surveillance, electronic monitoring, and unannounced inspection visits, including monitoring visits to uranium mines and manufacturing facilities, enabling the IAEA to certify and to verify to the world that Iran had no secret program to develop nuclear weapons.
President Trump has damaged the trade relationship with America’s second-largest trading partner, Canada. A trading relationship that totals over 700 billion annually, making it a larger trade partner to America than China, by starting tariff trade wars with Canada, and questioning Canadian sovereignty and independence by constantly suggesting that Canada should become America’s 51st state. As a result, Canada is actively seeking deeper strategic economic ties with other countries like China to decouple its economic ties to America.
And President Trump created European mistrust and fear of America by threatening military force to annex NATO ally Greenland to enhance America’s national security, a futile and senseless effort. Because there’s already an existing treaty agreement that allows America to have as much of a military presence in Greenland as it deems necessary, all of these go-it-alone faux pas stem from President Trump’s delusional belief that America needs no other country’s cooperation to govern the world.
In America’s 250 years of history, there has only been one instance when America has needed no other country’s partnership or cooperation to achieve its international goal. The one instance occurred during World War 2. While its true America needed no money, no military equipment, and no technical expertise on how to develop and manufacture the necessary military weapons and equipment needed to fight World War 2 from any other country; in fact, America was the country that provided all three of these things to both Britain and Russia, but America did need Britain and Russia to provide the other component necessary to defeat Germany, military troops.
The one instance when America needed no other country was America’s war with Japan; America defeated Japan with no money, no military weapons or equipment, no military expertise on how to manufacture weapons or equipment, and no military troops from any other country. America could go it alone because America’s technical expertise and financial might enabled it to develop and drop 2 nuclear bombs on Japan in August of 1945, which defeated Japan with no assistance from any other country. The nuclear bombs also briefly enabled America to go it alone and could have empowered former President Harry Truman, had he chosen, to rule Trump-don’t-need-any-other-country style, for 4 years until Russia successfully tested its first nuclear bomb in August of 1949.
The day when America’s technical know-how, financial might, and military muscle give it the power to go it alone is long past. Globalization, technological advances, an internet that grants access to technological knowledge to other countries, and artificial intelligence all combine to equalize the world, eliminating the past ability of one country, no matter how rich, technologically advanced, or militarily strong, to solely dominate the world. The best example of this is President Trump’s recent go-it-alone decision to start an offensive war with Iran.
He and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth brag about how America’s military strength has destroyed Iran’s military. However, Iran still has a surviving fleet of drones and missiles, which allows Iran to continue committing bomb strikes on every country located in the Middle East whenever Iran chooses to. Trump and Hegseth both brag that America’s military sank Iran’s entire Navy to the bottom of the sea. Yet Iran still has enough naval ability left to shut down all naval traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. And last but certainly not least, after supposedly destroying Iran’s nuclear capability, neither Trump nor Hegseth knows for sure where Iran’s enriched uranium for 11 nuclear bombs is located.
Both the current closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the current status of Iran’s nuclear weapons program illustrate the illogic of America’s go-it-alone Iran War. While it’s true that the U.S. Navy has several good options for destroying all the different types of mines Iran has deployed in the Strait of Hormuz. But to successfully restore the normal daily traffic of hundreds of ships through the Strait, all ships must maintain their insurance coverage.
Even after the Strait has been cleared of all mines, initially, insurance companies still won’t feel comfortable enough about Iran not attacking ships to resume insuring ships unless ships are individually escorted through the Strait. A task America can’t do alone without assistance from allied countries, because the U.S. Navy does not have enough vessels to single-handedly escort hundreds of ships through the Strait.
And in terms of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, an Iranian pledge not to develop nuclear weapons can never be trusted; any pledge must be verified. There must be monitoring procedures, similar to those that existed in former President Barack Obama’s JCPOA, implemented within Iran that verify Iran is not secretly developing a nuclear weapon.
America alone, nor in partnership with any other country or entity, could never implement any such procedures within Iran, because Iran would never trust or allow America to be formally a part of any procedures that verify anything within Iran. If Iran agrees to submit to the same type of JCPOA nuclear monitoring, it would only allow an independent entity like the IAEA, a non-American country, or a partnership of both to have the necessary access inside Iran to verify that no nuclear weapon development is underway.
President Trump has proven Helen Keller and the African proverb correct: America stepped out alone and started the Iran War, and accomplished very little. Since America was alone, it could go fast, starting the Iran War; but unfortunately, not only has going fast starting the Iran War not gotten America far down the road to preventing Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, but going fast and attacking Iran has increased the length of the road to preventing an Iranian nuclear bomb.
A.I. generated image
Hopefully, President Trump will now realize the wisdom of Keller and the African proverb; together, the world and President Trump can do so much and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The world and President Trump going together might not go fast, but like when America and the world worked together through the JCPOA, together the world and President Trump will both shorten the road and go far, far down the shortened road, reaching its end, which will prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb!!!