Trump’s Incompetent and Un-American Foreign Policy
There is one major indicator of Trump’s incompetence in foreign policy, and one major indicator of Trump’s un-American foreign policy. His Afghanistan policy was grossly incompetent, while his pro-Russia/anti-Ukraine policy was shockingly un-American, bordering on treason.
By the time Trump became president in January 2017, there were very few American troops in Afghanistan, and their role was only to support Afghan troops, not to directly engage in combat against the Taliban. There were practically no American soldier casualties. With American air power support, the Afghan military was holding its own against the Taliban, and the major cities were generally secure, including girls schools. More and more girls were going to university. Private television channels were not subjected to religious censorship and were helping modernize Afghan society. Afghani women in the capital Kabul were increasingly in the work force, no longer forced to stay at home, no longer forced to wear burqas, which hide not only the body but the face. Some women were even elected members of parliament. The Afghan economy was growing and human rights were becoming more and more prevalent and entrenched. It was clear to most informed observers that with ten more years of American military support, with no American casualties, Afghanistan would be permanently transformed into a solid democracy upholding human rights, including women’s equal rights.
Inexplicably, with Afghanistan headed in the right direction, Trump decided to withdraw American military support for the elected Afghan government. He naively, simply irresponsibly, or in bad faith signed an agreement with the Taliban to remove all American troops from Afghanistan, in exchange for a very dubious Taliban promise not to overthrow the democratically elected government through violence. That was a horrendous and totally unexpected American abandonment of Afghanistan’s democracy and of its women’s human rights. Shortly after Biden became president, the Taliban predictably violated their promise and mounted a military attack, overthrowing the Afghan government and restoring the Taliban dictatorship. Trump disgracefully betrayed Afghanistan’s democracy and its women, but also American ideals and our nation’s long-time Afghan policy. For Afghanistan, Trump actually “saved defeat from the jaws of victory”. Such a monstrous incompetence should convince all rational and informed American voters that he is unqualified to be president. (Biden could not renege on Trump’s agreement with the Taliban, because to do so would undermine the credibility of future American commitments worldwide.)
When it comes to Ukraine, Trump acts as though he were a Russian agent, seemingly taking orders from Putin not to oppose or even criticize Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Putin illegally and immorally gave orders to invade Ukraine, a sovereign nation since 1992, member of the United Nations for over 30 years. Putin has clearly and unambiguously stated that he believes Ukraine is not a nation, notwithstanding Ukraine having its own national language, and an overwhelming Ukrainian ethnic majority compared with a small Russian ethnic minority. Putin also nonsensically asserts that Ukraine doesn’t deserve to be a sovereign nation for having been part of the Soviet Union until its dissolution in 1991, and previously part of the Russian Empire centuries ago. In both cases, Ukraine was forced to give up its sovereignty (Ukraine became a Soviet republic against its will in 1919).
Putin also intentionally fails to mention that in 1994 Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine signed the “Budapest Memorandum”, whereby in exchange for Ukraine giving Russia all its nuclear weapons, Russia, the USA, and the UK guaranteed Ukraine’s national and territorial sovereignty. By invading Ukraine, Russia egregiously broke its contract with Ukraine, violating its commitment to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty, and it outrageously violated international law, including the United Nations Charter which all member nations undersign and commit to observe and uphold.
Trump, unbelievably, has never criticized Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its wanton attacks on and destruction of Ukrainian civilian structures. He has never criticized Putin for the invasion, and has always sided with him. He even publicly stated that he believes Putin’s word more than the word of our own intelligence officers, an unconscionable statement. That is a betrayal of our country and of international law. It would be entirely rational to disqualify him from running for president.
Trump has always shown that he prefers foreign dictators to foreign democratic leaders, which is an affront to the history of the United States and our fundamental values. That is un-American. He damningly orchestrated the January 6 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, a violent coup attempt to prevent Biden from becoming president even though he won the presidential election in November 2020. That is un-American. He repeatedly lies that the January 6 violent insurrection was peaceful, that his MAGA insurrectionists were being patriotic, even though they were violating the peaceful transfer of power required by the Constitution. He shows unambiguous authoritarian tendencies. Trump is clearly un-American.
The only logical and fact-based conclusion about Trump is that he is a grave danger to our democracy and to democracy around the world, and that his personal allegiance is with Putin, a cruel, ruthless dictator, not with American democracy. It is a veritable national disgrace that so many Americans admire and support him, that he was ever elected president, and that according to the polls he is even with Kamala Harris just a few weeks before the next presidential election on November 5, 2024.
Should Trump be reelected, Trump voters will be responsible for his ending American democracy (his clear objective), an insult to our nation’s history. That’s what they seem to want, just like the Germans who wanted and loved Hitler. If Trump ends our democracy, instituting a corrupt police state as all dictators do, Trump voters and the Republican Party will go down in history as the biggest disgrace in history, far worse that Nazi Germans who had the partial excuse of having practically no experience with democracy, and were undereducated with no relevant history to guide them. We, instead, have the benefit of 20th Century history and of Hitler’s Nazi Germany, so we have no excuse. Except that all too many of our public schools are extremely mediocre with deficient curriculums, imparting a woefully inadequate education, leading to incompetent politicians and voters, Trump’s supporters.
Many Trump voters are Evangelical Christians who love Trump even though he violates all of Jesus’ principles. They show that they haven’t read the Bible, or at most very little of it. They irrationally and naively believe he is doing God’s will even while misbehaving badly his whole life. Why would God ever choose such a despicable messenger? They are gullible, they identify with Trump, they like him, they admire him, sharing his narrow education (while resenting “elite”, well educated citizens) and his angry grievances. They see him as a father figure, probably due to not having been properly loved as children by their parents, like Trump himself. They have never condemned the January 6th seditious insurrection or his constant lying or his boorishness. They are ready to follow aspiring dictator Trump, they don’t value democracy, they are ignorant of history, they are immoral.
Many of Trump’s supporters are arrogant Christian Nationalists who feel morally superior and want the U.S. to be a Christian republic, dismissing the fact that abominable Nazi Germany was a Christian nation; that Hitler and the Nazis were Christians; that the Spanish Inquisition was led by Christians; that thousands of children have been sexually abused by Christian priests over recent decades in the United States and in Europe, and that church leadership covered up their crimes; that American slave owners were Christians. Do the Christian Nationalists justify their self-proclaimed moral superiority with facts? They don’t. They ignore facts and history, or distort them, just like Trump. They are power-hungry. That’s not what Jesus stands for. Jesus was against hypocrisy, violence, dishonesty, arrogance, and mistreatment of others. Jesus was against his followers getting involved with politics. Furthermore, Jesus instructed his followers (Gospel of Matthew) that whenever they wanted to pray to God, they should go to their room, shut the door, and pray directly to God. They should not go to synagogues/churches to pray as hypocrites do just to be seen. Christian Nationalists haven’t read the Bible either, or very little of it at most. Just like Evangelical Christians, they would flunk any serious Bible exam.
© Edward Sonnino 2024
October 16, 2024
