Dear Editor:

Eight months ago, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists took another second off the Doomsday Clock, bringing us closer to the end of humanity. The clock stayed the same for two years as risk increased significantly. Events in Ukraine, Israel, Iran, and China’s increasing militarism all challenged world peace and stability. The Ukraine war escalated, Russia itself was invaded, and drone attacks reached Moscow. The 2023 Palestine attack on Israel, the slaughter of 1,195, and the taking of 251 hostages did not result in a threat change.  Iran’s rapid progress to becoming a nuclear state was not enough to change the threat evaluation. China’s increasing military expansion, island building and claiming the right to international waters and even a “declaration of war” against the United States was ignored.

Today the war in Ukraine is costing 2,000 to 5,000 casualties per week. An increasingly threatened and embarrassed Putin is openly contemplating the use of nuclear weapons. That war has united our two strongest adversaries, Russia and China, and has empowered both. Breathless headlines just a few weeks ago were announcing the almost imminent nuclear capability of Iran.

Trump has defused an increasingly volatile and unstable world. He crippled Iran’s nuclear dream with a military and political finesse that many thought impossible. He is giving Israel the support they need to survive in an increasingly hostile world. The loss of Israel as the only free and democratic country in the middle east would have explosive world consequences. The stability they provide could never be reproduced. Last week he took brave and bold steps in restoring peace in Europe. His actions also restore the U.S. as a respected leader in the world and have ramifications far beyond stopping a needless and tragic war. It’s a chess game folks, watch and enjoy as the Phoenix rises out of the ashes.     

Joe Grant

Wiscasset