There was a light-hearted movie made a few years ago in which the President of the United States, facing very low approval numbers, started a war to divert attention from his poor performance. It was made in the same spirit of the classic black comedy film “Dr. Strangelove.” We all remember that one, as it involved nuclear war.

Now, we are in a real-life situation that rings similar. In my opinion, President Trump, recognizing the investigation on the Russian involvement with the Trump presidential campaign is leading to the White House, intentionally made his incendiary “fire and fury,” and additional, remarks to divert attention from the investigation. President Trump’s provocative remarks were confirmed by his senior staff to be “improvised.” In other words, his remarks came out of the blue, without so much as a brief discussion with his military and diplomatic advisers beforehand. Here is a guy with absolutely no military strategy expertise or experience spouting off threatening and belligerent remarks right and left.

The president and his North Korean counterpart are worse than two fourth-graders out in the playground, trying to come up with the toughest talk. The world can only hope against hope that the situation will not escalate into more than what it is now. “Locked and loaded”? “A firestorm such as the world has never seen”? Hollywood would have to dig deep to come up with better scripted words than this.

Then when all the bombast is over, the Russian collusion investigation will still be there, narrowing in on the White House and its chief resident.

Bob Shippentower

Pendleton