Nearly 60% of Americans oppose President Trump’s statement that Ukraine is to blame for starting the war. Our reputation is as the protector of smaller countries. We do not keep them out of negotiations that will determine their fates — which Trump did in 2018, shutting the Afghan government out of our negotiations with the Taliban for a U.S. withdrawal. He is now doing that with Ukraine.
We do not force a “peace” down the throats of smaller nations — then demand they repay us with their national assets. We do not run extortion rackets. Trump claimed he would end the Ukraine war in 24 hours, believing he had a deal Vladimir Putin could not refuse. But somehow Putin could and did. Twelve weeks later we still await Trump’s “overnight” peace.
The neo-conservatives who run our foreign policy were determined to knock Putin out of the box — even if it took the last Ukrainian. That has failed. Now Trump’s plan for world domination wisely picks far less powerful opponents: Canada, Mexico, Denmark and Panama. It is a project of imperial revival vastly more pathetic that President Reagan’s invasion of Grenada. Creating hostility in countries that have no hostility toward us is not smart. Hardly a recipe for avoiding endless wars.
So Trump fiddles with foreign policy while California burns. His amoral foreign adventures have prodded even some Republican senators to complain. It remains to be seen whether they will try to rescue our country’s last vestige of moral authority in the world.
Robert Supansic
McKeesport