Elena Vela
False
Alarm in Hawaii
In
Hawaii on Saturday citizens were panicked with alarms of an incoming missile
attack. However, there was no missile approaching
at all. The alarms were false, but the
repercussions will be very real.
After alarms sounded
alerting the people of a missile attack, it took 38 minutes to tell them that
it was indeed a false alarm. Thirty-eight
minutes is a long time, long enough for President Donald Trump to press his big
nuclear missile launch button that is sitting on his desk. It could be that as soon as the mistake was
made officials in Washington were informed, but it is not unreasonable to think
that Donald Trump could be scrolling through Twitter and receive a notification
that missiles are headed to Hawaii.
Thereafter he would run to his office and send off missiles of his own
only to find out the initial alert was a false alarm and now he has created a
nuclear war.
Another possible outcome is that North Korea could see the
alert in the news and think America is making false claims about them. Naturally, that would upset North Korea and how
they react to the accusations can’t be known.
I would guess though that they could get so mad about the accusations
that they decide to make the threat real and launch nuclear missiles at
us. Again, this ends in nuclear war.
You can have some peace of mind though because luckily,
no nuclear missiles were launched. And
of course, a mistake like this won’t happen again right? Wrong.
This isn’t the first false alarm that has happened. In fact, a false alarm situation that has
caused mass panic has happened five times in the past.
Although there was no immediate response to the false
alarm, it does not mean the situation is over.
Donald Trump did not tweet a response to the incident,
surprisingly. It will be interesting to
wait and see if he has anything to say about it. I will also be interested to see what other
countries have to say about it. I assume
America could be viewed as disorganized or irresponsible.
I would agree that in this case both of those are
true. Because of an error, so many
people were put through unnecessary distress and panic. What will happen the next time an alert goes
out, if one does? Will people believe it to be true? Or will they remember this
incident and brush off the alerts as another mistake or “test” as officials in
Washington called it. Every mistake,
every false alarm delegitimatizes an actual threat. It puts American citizens and the rest of the
world on edge.
We need to establish less nuclear relations with the
other countries of the world, literally.
Specifically, we need to have rational discussions with North Korea to
get us off the edge of firing nuclear weapons at each other. Regardless of how each state feels about the
other, we shouldn’t be threatening one another with nuclear obliteration. In no way does that end well. Interactions between countries shouldn’t be a
pissing contest or a competition of who has a bigger button.
Fortunately, the false alarm of a missile attack on
Hawaii had no dire consequences. But
unless there are changes in how we handle our nuclear situation, that may not
be true the next time around.
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