The Thinking ‘Kat: Respecting Sovereignty
There is deep irony about the current practices of Donald Trump’s US government. Reflect, if you would, on the founding of the United States of America. The colonials had had enough of imperial misadventures and foreign rule. Hundreds of years later, what would the Founding Fathers make of Trump’s imperial adventures, carried out in the name of drugs, but in reality, all about oil?
Make no mistake, Trump does not care about the drugs trade. If he did, why did he pardon former Hounduras president Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted of funnelling 400 tonnes of cocaine into the USA?
The reality is that Trump is waging an imperial campaign centred around ideology. Hernandez is a conservative, and deposed Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro is deemed a socialist. Between this, and the vast oil reserves in Venezuela, Trump betrays his true colours. Money talks, oil appeals, and the drugs only matter if Trump doesn’t like the policies of the regime in charge.
Trump is also in it for himself. Control of the resources of Venezuela will not benefit the average American, nor the average Venezuelan. Any money to be made will line the coffers of oil magnates and their allies in power. It is obvious this is a power grab, nothing more.
What makes this all the worse is that Trump may not be finished with his agenda. He has continued to sound off about Greenland, and continued to refuse to rule out using military action to take the sovereignty territory of an ally. He claims to want Greenland for security purposes, but under the arrangements of NATO those purposes are already fulfilled, so don’t be fooled by his rhetoric. Greenland is rich in natural resources of its own, and Trump wants those to line his pockets (again, without benefiting the average American).
All of this emboldens the likes of Putin with their own agendas. How can Trump decry any future actions (imagine if China invaded Taiwan tomorrow), given his own? He has made it impossible for anyone to take any future denouncements of imperialism seriously. His threats and statements undermine the importance of NATO. His lack of respect for the founding principles of his own country is clear and obvious. It is also clear that this is a bid to distract from his ailing domestic performance.
Despite his actions, you can guarantee his diehard supporters will not only turn a blind eye to his misdeeds, they will celebrate them. On Twitter, scores of Trump worshippers have delighted in the Venezuelan action, and want Trump to take similar action against Greenland. They are content to be ignorant of their own nation’s history, just as Trump is. They have no qualms over his enabling of authoritarian regimes around the world. They cannot or will not see that the world is a more dangerous place with Trump threatening allies.
‘Kat Comments