DONALD TRUMP FOR PRESIDENT?
by Robert Edwards
(ESA No 59, Spring 2016)
An
old associate recently expressed the view that he would like someone
to shoot Donald Trump. He said Trump is a racist and says unkind
things about women. I have never regarded either of these positions
to be worthy of a bullet in the head. He is a member of the Labour
Party and seems to have forgotten what happened to former MP, Jo Cox.
My communist father was opposed to capital punishment but thought the
Duke of Windsor should have been hanged for treason. Neither my old
associate nor my father could see any contradiction in this kind of
double thinking. Neither thought it wrong.
Donald
Trump, for all his provocative, challenging posturing, has revealed
himself to be a man of peace surrounded by a political establishment
(Republican and Democrat) that is devoted to permanent war against
other countries. It is a violent system based on a belief that
America is exceptional among all the nations in the world, thus, it
is this “exceptionalism” that defines America’s global
totalitarianism.
He
has opened up a debate on issues that were scorned or simply ignored
by this Establishment. He poses these questions and answers them and
much of America likes him for that, as so should we:
–“Should
the United States always be the world’s leader and policeman?
–“What
is NATO’s proper mission today, 25 years after the end of the
Soviet Union and when international terrorism is the main threat to
the West?
–“Why
does Washington repeatedly pursue a policy of regime change, in Iraq,
Libya, possibly in Ukraine, and now in Damascus, even though it
always ends in ‘disaster’?
–“Why
is the United States treating Putin’s Russia as an enemy and not as
a security partner?
–“And
should US nuclear weapons doctrine include a no-first use pledge,
which it does not?
His
“America First” platform means, of course, non-interventionism
and this rattles the neo-cons and AIPAC, otherwise known as the
Jewish Lobby.
In
a Washington Post interview, Trump said, “I watched as we built
schools in Iraq and they’d be blown up ... and we’d build another
one and it would get blown up. And we would rebuild it three times.
And yet we can’t build a school in Brooklyn ... at what point do
you say hey, we have to take care of ourselves. So you know, I know
the outer world exists and I’ll be very cognisant of that but at
the same time, our country is disintegrating, large sections of it,
especially in the inner cities”.
He
talks of improving schools for African-American children as
opposed to dropping bombs on brown children in other countries. This
man is most definitely not a racist.
America
is tired of foreign wars, or at least a large section of it is.
Hillary Clinton, however, has a history of war-mongering and has
never apologised for any of it. Do you remember her response after
the murder of Colonel Gaddafi? She said, “We came, we saw ... he
died”, and then that mad cackle with the mouth opened wide. Since
the destruction of Libya, Europe has been faced with large swathes of
migration from North Africa with absolutely no control from its
source. Not only was the bombing of Libya and the murder of Gaddafi a
mistake but they were terrible crimes. Then, America doesn’t see
anything it does as wrong because American “exceptionalism”
doesn’t recognise international law or the Geneva Conventions ...
rules are for other, lesser nations.
Trump
believes Iraq was a crime and wants peace with Russia and China. He
calls for collaboration with President Putin. Under Obama’s watch,
American-led Nato troops are massing near Russia’s border. Why? For
no other reason than to provoke war. It is America that is the
aggressor.
Trump
is now favoured by the European Left. The physicist Jean Bricmont
wrote of Trump, “He denounces the empire of US military bases,
claiming to prefer to build schools here in the United States. He
wants good relations with Russia. He observes that the militarist
policies pursued for decades have caused the United States to be
hated throughout the world. He calls Sarkozy a criminal who should be
judged for his role in Libya. Another advantage of Trump: he is
detested by the neoconservatives, who are the main architects of the
present disaster”.
You
are still frightened by Trump? Don’t be. Hillary Clinton is the
biggest threat to the entire world. William Blum wrote an article
titled, American
Exceptionalism and the Election Made in Hell
(Or Why I’d Vote for Trump over
Hillary).
He
wrote, “My main concern is foreign policy. American foreign policy
is the greatest threat to world peace, prosperity and the
environment. When it comes to foreign policy, Hillary Clinton is an
unholy disaster. From Iraq and Syria to Libya and Honduras, the world
is a much worse place because of her; so much so that I’d call her
a war criminal who should be prosecuted”.
America
can change all that by voting for Trump over Clinton. Trump
wants peace in this world and Clinton does not. That much is clear.
copyright©Robert
Edwards2016
