Donald Trump, Man of Peace

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