Once in the entire history of mankind have nuclear weapons been used. Just once. As I sit here writing this on the 72nd anniversary of the nuclear bombing of the Japanese city of Nagasaki, I am ashamed to say that the country of which I call home is the lone perpetrator. In August of 1945, the United States of America changed the world forever by dropping two nuclear bombs within three days of each other on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

However, you might be asking yourself why care about it if it’s only happened once in the entire history of mankind. Well, allow me to catch you up in case you didn’t watch “Keeping up with the World,” or what others might call the news, this past week.

According to the Washington Post, the U.S. intelligence community believes that North Korea has obtained the ability to put a nuclear warhead on a missile that could possibly hit the U.S. mainland, which has the potential to kill hundreds of thousands and destroys miles upon miles of land. What remains unclear is whether or not North Korea truly has tested and proved if they can create a missile truly capable of such a task. Tensions are running high not only because of this disturbing report, but also because the UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution tightening sanctions on North Korea’s main exports, which is a crippling blow to an already failing economy. Here’s the scariest part: Donald Trump responded to the intelligence report by saying, “They will be met with fire, fury and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before.” It’s the scariest part because now Trump is tied to those words. If North Korea attacks Guam like it is threatening to do, he is now going to be held accountable to that statement and forced into taking military action. What that means exactly as far as what military options the U.S. will unleash on North Korea nobody knows. It could range from strike teams to even possibly, though I severely hope not, nuclear attacks.

Now, before you get all concerned that we’re headed to all out war in Southeast Asia once again, remember that for Trump, declaring war on North Korea would take an act of Congress, and for Congress to declare war there typically has to be a clear and present danger or an attack on the U.S.

So as an American citizen here’s what you have to be concerned about: how would we respond to an attack from North Korea? It’s not a question of if, because of Trump’s statement, or a matter of why, but more a question of how do we respond? Ultimately we don’t get much of a say in the military decisions of the U.S. However, don’t be afraid to call your representatives to give your opinion on the matter. If you don’t want the U.S. to potentially start another war in Southeast Asia that could go on for who knows how long, then I urge you to express that to your representatives in Congress.