OPINION: Trump is a warmonger
“If we allow a lax defintion of war to dictate the morality of state violence, we’re satisfied with the success of a clever warlord,” writes columnist Ried Kurkerewicz.
President Trump greets North Korean head-of-state Kim Jong-un.
Republicans tend to heap praise on President Donald Trump, no matter what he does, but the president sometimes receives credit from establishment Democrats and mainstream punditsfor his foreign policy decisions.
This praise comes from politicians who held power during both the Obama and Bush administrations.
Despite a recent peace deal with the Taliban, and his campaign promise to end endless wars, Trump’s foreign policy maintains Washington’s status quo.
Trump’s military only just killed Iranian General Qasam Soleimani on Iraqi soil — possibly in violation of international law, as his administration has yet to prove the “imminence” of any need for self-defense, according to UNofficials.
This leap in hostilities led to 176 civilian deaths, mostly Iranians and Canadians, when Iranian forces, on high alert, shot down a plane. On U.S. culpability in this tragedy,Iranian leadership and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau agree.
The Iraqi government then demanded U.S. forces leave Iraq before Trump threatened economic sanctions harsher than those imposed on the Iranian people. Trump’s critics rightly argue that sanctions mostly hurt peaceful civilians while doing little to affect the government.
Whether or not Trump asks Congress for a declaration of war on Iran should be a well-considered constitutional issue, which an ideologically deadlocked House and Senate are unequipped to handle. This democratic paralysis should mean the U.S. conscientiously withdraws from it’s policing of the international community instead of continuing its deadly, tax-payer-funded intrusions.
Avoiding the outright declaration of war is merely a tactic to avoid the popular backlash that would ensue from calling a war a war. Trump’s proposed increase to the already unprecedented military budget is a clear indicator of his intentions.
The laundry list of Trump-induced international violence is long. Trump’s missile strikes in Syria happened before congressional authorization of the vaguer “military engagement,” which increasingly grants dictatorial military power for U.S. presidents.
Trump’s exit from the Syrian civil war left the devastated country under the influence of a bloody dictator with Russian backing.
Trump also abandoned and therefore endangered allies in the battle against ISIS, the Syrian Democratic Forces. Trump says the remaining troops are there to “protect oil.”
Trump’srecent peace plan for Palestine leaves tension in the region unabated and Palestinians without recourse for the Israeli occupation, as reported by the Guardian.
In North Korea, the tyrannical leadership remains entrenched and continues bomb tests, even as Trump praises dictator Kim Jung Un.
Trump also sold $8 million in arms to the monarchs in Saudi Arabia, who used these weapons to aid in the killing of thousands of civilians in the horrifying civil war in Yemen.
The president does not deserve credit for stagnating international conflicts with cynical, politically motivated carnage. If we allow a lax definition of war to dictate the morality of state violence, we’re satisfied with the success of a clever warlord.
Timothy Kennady • Sep 19, 2022 at 9:06 am
Where’s you Biden foreign policy assessment? Ukraine? This weekends threat to go directly to war with China?
Or was this just a Trump Syndrome thingy?
Dr. Anthony Marsh • Sep 3, 2020 at 11:00 am
Donald Trump is a psychopath that gets a sick (and very likely erotic) thrill from the act of killing.
This man is a world leader whose criminality and absence of the ability to distinguish right from wrong was very clear for the world to see when they voted for him.
So what is wrong with the masses?
They have been brainwashed by war story and horror comics as children, and crime television that glorifies killing by the media when adults who prioritize power and profit over life….
There is something reminiscent of the mindless hysteria of blood thirsty crowds shouting for the release of the mass murderer, Barabbas with similar chants and identical hysteria from being whipped up by a demagogue lunatic who’s performing on a (this time, concrete) stage. Now we can add USA’s very own mass murderer to the list of Caesar, Hitler, Alexander “the Great”, Idi Amin, Mao… Killing thrills our president, plus he profits from it, and gets masses of attention – which he craves like a drug.