The President of United States is in a class all by himself because a lot of world peace depends on him. It follows that in anything the president says or does domestically or internationally must be very measured. All national leader take the actions or words of US President as a joke.
The current president of US seems to be making statements that make much of the world nervous. I saw my Primary Care Physician last week. She was preparing to go to Korea and she was afraid that there may not be “Korea” while she is there or even before she goes. Reason? President Trump says that he is sending an armada to the Korean peninsula and the President of North Korean says that he would sink the Aircraft Carrier if it ventures into the peninsula. My PCP’s worry is “everyman’s” worry. Xi Jinping, the Chines Leader in his statements of the tension in the South China Sea calls on both sides to ratchet down their comments and statements. It is a voice of reason but it also carries a note of fear.
The world cannot go about its business in fear.
Last week the President Trump sign a decree imposing a 20% tariff on Canadian lumber in the name of protecting America’s interest. Canada responded very critically and threatened a retaliation. Taken together with Mr. Trump’s beef with NAFTA it looks as if there is a looming economic warfare with Canada. Mr. Trump’s views on building a wall along Mexican border and his perception of Mexican immigrants are well known. Can America afford an economic war with both her northern and southern neighbors? Will the President force a new treaty that binds Mexico and Canada but excludes the United States?
America’s security, including economic and military safety, depends largely on her relationship with her neighbors. If President Trump revokes Mr. Obama’s opening to Cuba he would be creating a nation surrounded by enemies on all sides.
US’s air strike on Syria was not amusing to Russia. It has forced Russia to scale down the level of cooperation in the fight against ISIS. Without cooperation between US and Russia ISIS hands would be strengthened
This is bad news for the United States since it considers ISIS the greatest threat to her national security interests.
Even the most reliable America’s friends in Europe have expressed some doubts about their US relations: Germany, France, even UK. To say nothing about NATO as an organization.
If Mr. Trump’s foreign policy agenda make significant parts of the world (Russia, China, Korea’s, Arabs, etc.,) nervous his domestic policies are also dividing the nation.
His vision of former President Obama as a sworn enemy of United States and the democrats as anti-American party members create my America VS your America war at a time when national unity is most needed. Ordinary Americans are beginning to get the feeling of a nation at war.
This feeling has been induced by the fights over health care reform, over tax reform, over the president’s resolve not to make public his tax filings as all recent presidents had done, by the president’s and his senior staffs’ past relationship with Russia.
At the beginning of the 20th century Germany was the strongest power in the world a position currently held by US. Then Germany became arrogant and started threatening her neighbors. It did not take long for European nations to begin to gang up against their unruly “big brother.” The world wars of 1914-1918 and again in 1939-1945 demolished Germany and divided the nation and stripped her of her foreign territories. The total deaths from both World Wars has been estimated up to 89 million. And only two nuclear bombs by USA were dropped. In the 21st century who knows how many would be used.
Germany’s history ought to be our yardstick for measuring how far a strong nation should go in threatening the rest of the world. A nation that wants to threaten the world must at least have a united front.
Written by Benjamin Obiajulu Aduba
About the Author
