IN the civilised world, the expectation is that presidents and prime ministers will be well educated, morally decent and recognisably superior examples of the human species in every way.
In Britain, the last century has been a procession of Oxbridge men of high calibre. But times change. Now we have Donald Trump (“Tiny island in North Korea line of fire as Trump rachets up rhetoric”, The Herald, August 10).
The key is not Mr Trump’s promise of vastly superior fire and force. It is the decision of Kim Jong-un to announce a plan to attack Guam.
A measured response by Mr Trump is impossible, judged by his twittering behaviour before.
This sort of miseducated man does not pause over breakfast or commune with his soul. He will react because it is his habit. He has been trained to do nothing else.
Thus, the missiles flown at Guam will be obliterated in flight and then retaliation will occur: missiles from dozens of submarines which will turn North Korea into a wasteland. Millions must die; not to reply is unthinkable.
Mr Trump’s remaining supporters will cheer him on and he will remind them about putting America first and be cheered for doing it. So, cloistered within the White House, he will expect a second term.
Is he going to be defeated by the liberal intelligentsia, educated to the highest levels and scrutinised for decency every moment of their lives? Perhaps not. What is likely to happen here is far worse: Kim Jong-un will score some unexpected points against America first.
The armies of clones he has been creating will fight like rabid robots and surprise the world. That is what he wants and the oracles are amenable.
Mr Trump will slink into obscurity, having failed the tests of life that his education never imagined. For the real world is a harsher test than any other. That is inevitable.
William Scott,
23 Argyle Place,
Rothesay.
I THINK most people in this country must be apprehensive about our future on this planet with two megalomaniacs boasting about the size of their bombs and how they are going to use them.
Pariah states like Saudi Arabia and Iran fuel wars and religious fundamentalism and Turkey rushes in to join them.
Our Tory Government drags us out of the only safe haven left and upsets our closest neighbours by its incompetence.
The Conservatives have gambled our future wealth and security to save their party and their beloved free market. They sell out our food standards for chlorinated chicken and genetically modified crops. When is the quiet majority going to stand up and say, “no more”? I live in hope.
Robert Buirds,
Lomond Avenue,
Port Glasgow.
PERHAPS this is an appropriate time to remind President Trump and Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto, issued by Bertrand Russell in 1955 in the midst of the Cold War and signed by Albert Einstein among other pre-eminent intellectuals and scientists: Remember your humanity, and forget the rest.
If you can do so, the way lies open to a new paradise; if you cannot, there lies before you the risk of universal death.
Doug Clark,
6 Muir Wood Grove,
Currie,
Midlothian.
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