The question came at the end of a security conference in Australia. An academic in the audience for Admiral Scott Swift’s public address in Canberra asked a hypothetical question: “If… you were to receive an order from the commander in chief, the president of the United States, to make a nuclear attack on China, would you do it?"

            Swift’s answer was an unequivocal yes.

            Then he amplified: “Every member of the U.S. military has sworn an oath…to obey the officers and the president of the United States as the commander in chief appointed over us."

            “Admiral Swift answered the question the only way a serving military officer could,” explained Rory Medcalf, the program’s host. “It would have been a lot more controversial if he had said no, he would not obey the commander in chief.”

            Okay, now let’s switch locales. Imagine a similar question directed at one of Kim Jong Un’s generals in Pyongyang, North Korea: “If you were to receive an order from your Supreme Commander to launch a nuclear attack on the United States of America, would you do it?"

            Can you imagine that general saying no?

Mismatched powers

            North Korea has already tested an intercontinental ballistic missile that has the range to reach continental U.S.A. North Korea has nuclear warheads.

            Against that, the U.S. has the world’s largest arsenal of nuclear weapons. And missiles. On land, and at sea. Plus bombers at hundreds of bases spread around the world.

            Which makes North Korea look like Mighty Mouse challenging The Hulk to a fist fight.

            North Korea is roughly the same size as a single state, Pennsylvania, with twice the population. Its per capita income is slightly over $1000 a year – barely five per cent of neighbouring South Korea’s $20,000, or two per cent of America’s $50,000. (American CEO compensation packages would be 300 times higher.)

            North Korea’s total GDP, at about $17 billion, is dwarfed by the U.S.’s $19 trillion; the UN ranks North Korea 113rd in the world. North Korea’s GDP per capita ranking is even worse; effectively, Kim Jong Un’s war machine has $648 per person to work with, the Pentagon has $57,436.

            Any rational analysis would say that North Korea would be suicidal to attack America.

Irrational leadership

            But their leaders show some disturbing similarities.

            Both countries are increasingly isolated. Kim Jong Un has only one ally – China. Donald Trump has spent his first nine months in office alienating former friends.

            Both leaders are obsessed with two things -- their own self-importance, and their aggrandized vision for their countries, regardless of its consequences for any other country. Both men are paranoid about threats to their power. Both men make arbitrary and unpredictable decisions.

            In Canada. we know too much about Donald Trump’s personality, too little about Kim Jong Un’s. But of the two, Kim Jong Un is probably the more predictable. His goals and actions have at least been consistent over his six years as North Korea’s Supreme Commander.

            And both men have absolute authority over launching nuclear attacks.

            All of which leads to the next hypothetical question: What can I do about it?

            Nothing.

            I have no influence on either leader. Possibly no one has.

What to do

            I remember sitting in my kitchen one bright autumn day in 1983 when the radio announced that Ronald Reagan had just invaded Grenada.

            Grenada, to refresh your memory, had elected a Marxist-influenced government. A more extreme Stalinist coup had overthrown that government and executed its leaders. Reagan feared that a new airport under construction could serve as a base for Russian bombers.

            Like North Korea, Grenada was no match for U.S. power. But if Russia decided to retaliate, Russian bombers could have arrived overhead within hours.

            I wondered what I should do. Drink myself senseless? Go on a debauch? Make desperate long-distance calls to everyone I loved?

            The answer was, nothing. If what I was doing right now was worth doing, I should continue doing it. And if it wasn’t worth doing, I had to ask myself, why was I doing it at all?

            In the present standoff, the best advice I can offer is found in the Serenity Prayer written by theologian Reinhold Niebuhr before the second World War:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

Courage to change the things I can,

And wisdom to know the difference.

            So if what you’re doing is worth doing, keep doing it. If sanity ultimately prevails, well and good. If it doesn’t, it won’t matter anyway.

*******************************************************

Copyright © 2017 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups encouraged; links from other blogs welcomed; all other rights reserved.

            To send comments, to subscribe, or to unsubscribe, write jimt@quixotic.ca

********************************************************

YOUR TURN

By the time last week’s column came out, little Charlie Gard was already dead. His parents agreed that he had no chance.

            Bob Rollwagen  mused, “Good for Charlie’s parents. Too bad it took that much to get there, but they did finally, and likely grieved the whole way. Connie and Chris are personally better off for it.  Having worked for a decade in the fund-raising environment for cancer research and knowing how much good two to three million dollars can do, it is sad to see funds and energy like this go to such a distracted focus.

            “Further to Michael Coren's comments, it is almost appropriate that a major world leader at this time does so much to expose this sad underbelly of our culture. Maybe his sad commentary will galvanize the majority into action, leadership, and good.”

Robert Caughell agreed: “My sympathies to his family. Even if the treatment had helped a little, how much longer would he had lived? and what would his quality of life been? Life in a non-responsive vegetative state is not a life.”

Chris Duxbury wondered about motivations: “A tragically sad story.  I understand the need for the parents to hold on to hope. I wonder did the players have this hope too or were they more interested in how they could benefit?

            “Unfortunately, many don't see that there is a variety of Christians. Liberals, conservatives, evangelicals, etc., get all put into the same box by the onlookers. [In reference to U.S. evangelist Patrick Mahoney] did you mean self-anointed or self-appointed? I think self- anointed is much more dangerous.”

            (My “self-anointed” was deliberate: JT)

Laurna Tallman took the parents’ side: “Medicine improves by shedding ‘best practices’ for new ones. I think it was rather stupid of the British authorities to prevent the family from dedicating little Charlie to an experimental new procedure. That's how medicine improves. I met a woman outside the Belleville courthouse a few years ago who son, like mine, had run afoul of the law (another badly managed institution in our society). She was dying of some kind of cancer and would be travelling to Toronto so her dying body could be experimented on by oncologists at Sunnybrook Hospital so they might learn more about the disease and how to combat it. Medicine would improve a lot faster if doctors were more open to ‘alternative’ forms of treatment, which is the case in many countries. I have edited books on the sociology of medicine that indicate allopathic medicine as a whole may not be the superior approach to healing humans. It became the legally dominant approach in Canada by a narrow vote and with much lobbying against the naturopathic approach.

            “As you point out, the politicizing of medical issues is to no one's benefit. We should have a common goal and rational attitudes towards achieving greater health for all. 

            “On another point, you infer that a number of issues, including assisted suicide, fall into the same category because they are being supported by the same group of people. That's a dangerous and demonstrably false assumption. People in need may form alliances when the issues they represent are not related. We have seen this clearly demonstrated in the alliance of those discriminated against racially and those discriminated against for gender issues. Race and gender orientation are not related issues. But the feelings held by those experiencing discrimination and persecution are similarly intense so they have banded together to defend their causes.”

Steve Roney also felt critical of the medical establishment: “The Gard affair certainly looks to me like a serious violation of human rights. As I understand it, thanks to crowdfunding, the family had the money to pay for Charlie’s treatment abroad. Several hospitals were ready to offer the treatment, yet the British government refused to allow him to receive the treatment. 

            “This should be beyond the rights of any government. Whether the British government or the doctors at St. Ormond hospital believed the treatment would do no good does not matter. We do not belong to the government.

David Gilchrist shares my opinion of some members of the pro-life lobby: “We are very much aware of the truth you speak about interfering with ‘God’s Plan’ but keeping people alive in pain. While my wife had a tumor around her sciatic nerve, a visitor told me that if I let my horse suffer like that, I would be charged with cruelty to animals. It is so hard to watch someone you

********************************************

TECHNICAL STUFF

If you want to comment on something, write me at jimt@quixotic.ca. Or just hit the “Reply” button.

            To subscribe or unsubscribe, send me an e-mail message at the address above. Or subscribe electronically by sending a blank e-mail (no message) to sharpedges-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca. Similarly, you can un-subscribe at sharpedges-unsubscribe@lists.quixotic.ca.

            My webpage is up and running again -- thanks to Wayne Irwin and ChurchWeb Canada. You can now access current columns and five years of archives at http://quixotic.ca

            I write a second column each Wednesday, called Soft Edges, which deals somewhat more gently with issues of life and faith. To sign up for Soft Edges, write to me directly at the address above, or send a blank e-mail to softedges-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca

********************************************

PROMOTION STUFF…

            Ralph Milton ’s latest project is called “Sing Hallelujah” -- the world’s first video hymnal. It consists of 100 popular hymns, both new and old, on five DVDs that can be played using a standard DVD player and TV screen, for use in congregations who lack skilled musicians to play piano or organ. More details at www.singhallelujah.ca

            Ralph’s HymnSight webpage is still up, http://www.hymnsight.ca, with a vast gallery of photos you can use to enhance the appearance of the visual images you project for liturgical use (prayers, responses, hymn verses, etc.)

            Wayne Irwin's “Churchweb Canada,” an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. <http://www.churchwebcanada.ca>

            I recommend Isabel Gibson’s thoughtful and well-written blog, www.traditionaliconoclast.com

            Alva Wood’s satiric stories about incompetent bureaucrats and prejudiced attitudes in a small town -- not particularly religious, but fun; alvawood@gmail.com to get onto her mailing list.

            Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” -- ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at tomwatso@gmail.com or twatson@sentex.net