President Donald Trump has made the United States into an
unreliable ally, a loose cannon on turbulent terrain, and a careless
superpower—careless in both senses of the word, meaning reckless and without care, oblivious to the consequences of its conduct.
Four incidents, just this past week, clinch the case. First,
and most notorious, was Trump’s comment, during a state visit by
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, about the war in Afghanistan.
“If I wanted to win that war,” Trump said, “Afghanistan would be wiped
off the face of the earth.” He added, “I could win that war in a week. I
just don’t want to kill 10 million people.”
On an obvious level, the remark was merely stupid and callous.
On a deeper level, it reflects a profound ignorance about war in
general and the war in Afghanistan in particular—and should give ulcers
to the leader of any country that depends on the U.S. for its security.
“This is a bad regime,” Pompeo said. The recent
back-and-forth, involving seized tankers and shot-down drones, is
happening not because of Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal
and his imposition of sanctions, but rather “because the theocracy, the
leadership in Iran, their revolutionary zeal to conduct terror around
the world, for now four decades, continues.” He added, “I am ultimately
convinced that the Iranian people will get the leadership behavior that
they so richly deserve.”
If anyone still needed proof that regime change is the true
policy of the Trump administration—or at least of its top diplomat—there
it was.
As long as Pompeo’s message is regime-change-or-nothing (and as long as
Trump says nothing to contradict this), the Iranians will have no
incentive to return to the talks, and EU nations will keep seeking ways
to circumvent Washington’s policies. Allies are good to have in wars and
diplomatic confrontations; by alienating them, Trump and Pompeo are
thus weakening their own position.
The Digest Group
Almere-Digest
EU-Digest
Insure-Digest
Turkish-Digest
For additional information, including advertising rates - e-mail:Freeplanet@protonmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment