The new world pariah
The anarchy and devastation that Donald Trump has caused to the whole world as the current United States president, have been more than the combined equivalent of Osama bin Laden’s bombing of New York’s Twin Towers and the COVID-19 global pandemic. While Trump has confined economic and military actions (by itself or through its proxy, Israel) only to Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, and Palestine, the consequences on the rest of the world are headed toward the degree of disaster caused by a world war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shares a big part of the blame for his complicity in the US/Israel attacks against Iran, and his own country’s attacks against Lebanon and its continuing genocide in the Palestinian territories. But Trump is in a league of his own as the world’s biggest villain because of his primary role in causing all the mayhem and disaster that bring tremendous pain and suffering all over the world.
Trump has committed monstrous criminal actions by destroying civilian infrastructure, educational institutions, and public utilities that are indispensable in the lives of the people of Iran. The bombings he and Netanyahu ordered on Iran have caused more than a thousand civilian deaths, including hundreds of schoolchildren. He has used shocking rhetoric about further violent actions that are interpreted as threats to use nuclear weapons on Iran and to commit genocide. As of this writing, Trump has agreed to a two-week suspension of further military action against Iran, purportedly to give way to negotiations, but the momentary peace may turn out to be the lull before the storm, considering Trump’s unstable propensity for violence when he does not get his way.
All that Trump has managed to do, however, is to make the US seize from Iran the title of the pariah of the world. Trump has transformed Iran’s image into an underdog persecuted and terrorized by a superpower gone rogue.
Trump has also used his country’s military armada to impose a blockade on the shipment of oil to Cuba, sweepingly depriving electricity and power to a whole nation, and causing warlike suffering and damage to an entire civilian population. Deaths occur among hospital patients because they are deprived of access to lifesaving equipment. Food production is tremendously affected for all Cubans. Trump has also caused incidents of extrajudicial killings by authorizing the bombing of boats and territory in South America, which are merely suspected of involvement in illegal drugs.
The veneer of these economic and military attacks, supposedly intended to assist oppressed people in overthrowing their oppressive and undemocratic governments, has been exposed for its fakery. After violently abducting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Trump has virtually installed a new president who was forced to agree to have the US profit from Venezuela’s vast oil resources. Trump declared that the US can “make a fortune” from Iran’s oil if it seizes the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump has been able to cause so much chaos and destruction because he has been allowed to misuse his country’s military, economic, financial, and technological superiority over the rest of the world. At the beginning of his current second term, he anchored his mandate on the support of a majority of the American electorate that voted him to power. But going by recent surveys, his support has thinned out to a mere minority.
What is enabling Trump to continue causing worldwide mayhem comes from three sources of support. First is the cowardice or conspiracy of his political allies in the US Senate and the House of Representatives, who refuse to exercise the immense powers of Congress to stop and disallow Trump’s abuses, and even more justifiably, to oust him from the most powerful post on Earth.
Second is the failure of his former supporters-turned-detractors to publicly add their voices of denunciation against Trump. Until these former supporters openly come out, their ranks will be counted and their silence will be deemed by Trump as continuing proof of wide support for every irrational and senseless move he makes.
Third are the religious groups, who give him a facade of moral anchor and religious validation for the vicious and horrible deeds he has been perpetuating around the world. These religious groups bring disrepute and disgrace to all of Christendom by trumpeting Trump as a “Christian” leader.
From all indications, Trump does not listen to voices of protestation from the outside world, but he responds to signals that the rug is being pulled from under his feet by his nation’s people. The world must put pressure on Americans, and Americans must demand that Trump shape up or ship out.
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