Ok, so obviously, Trump’s U.N. address was a disaster.
First of all, the nationalist rhetoric is a road to nowhere. As Xi Jinping conveyed earlier this year, the world should be working towards becoming a human community with a shared destiny. Globalization is inevitable and from a utilitarian perspective, it’s highly desirable. It’s not realistic to believe that we, as human beings, can maximize our collective chance of survival in the universe without relegating nationalist tendencies to the dustbin of history.
That doesn’t mean we can’t maintain our identities and/or preserve our unique cultural heritage(s), but it does mean that we need to accept the fact that at the end of the day, we’re human beings first and Americans, Chinese, Indians, Germans, Russians, etc. second. If we don’t recognize that, we won’t make it. Period.
So what you’ll hear in the following clip, is nonsense:
President Trump to world leaders: I will always put America first, just as you should put your countries first https://t.co/OxhZbq7QKT pic.twitter.com/3j2A77IPPB
— CNN (@CNN) September 19, 2017
But let’s just try and let that slide because as profoundly destructive as that ideological bent most assuredly is, we all knew it was coming.
After regaling the world with Steve Bannon’s nationalist vision, Trump went on to call Kim Jong-Un “rocket man.” So if you thought he was going to confine that to Twitter, you were wrong. I’m not sure what possessed him to think that the U.N. General Assembly is an appropriate forum for jokes (maybe he was inspired by the outpouring of likes he got on the initial tweet), but he “went there.” Here’s the clip:
Donald Trump describes North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un as "rocketman" in first UN speech https://t.co/BwxP1Worl2 pic.twitter.com/5J21Amy1TS
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) September 19, 2017
Note that he also threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea in the same breath that he feigned empathy for the North Korean people.
Then he started in on Iran. Again, this was expected, but the rhetoric was the very definition of reckless. Here are some highlights (or “lowlights” depending on how you want to look at it):
- TRUMP: `WE CANNOT LET A MURDEROUS REGIME CONTINUE’ ACTIVITIES
- TRUMP: IRANIAN GOVT MASKS CORRUPT DICTATORSHIP
- TRUMP: IRAN DEAL IS `EMBARRASSMENT’ TO THE UNITED STATES
He clearly indicated that the U.S. is prepared to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal (which would be a terrible decision for all kinds of reasons that should be immediately clear to anyone with any foreign policy experience whatsoever) and then, he parroted the same old line about Iran being the world’s worst offender in terms of exporting terrorism. That is a patent falsehood. It’s a bold face lie. By virtue of Washington’s ties to Riyadh, the U.S. is pot committed to pushing what everyone knows is a disingenuous line about Hezbollah. It’s one thing to say “look, Hassan Nasrallah isn’t a guy I’d invite to Sunday dinner, and we have to support our allies in Israel by doing our part to stop the spread of Iranian influence.” But it’s entirely another to gloss over the fact that when it comes to combatting the Sunni extremist groups that are now attacking the West on a near-weekly basis, no one is more effective on the battlefield than Hezbollah and their allied militias in Iraq. That’s irrefutable. Further, Trump painted a picture of Iran as a dusty, uncivilized backwater run by barbarians and populated by oppressed peasants. That’s completely ridiculous.
And the President’s harangue just went on, and on, and on as expected.
In the final analysis, this was an absurdly divisive speech that serves to validate everyone’s worst fears about this administration. Worse than that, Trump is pushing the world further down the path to isolationism while simultaneously championing a nationalist message that has no place in modernity and frankly, that a whole lot of people died trying to stamp out.
We all knew this was going to be bad, but it was orders of magnitude worse than expected no matter what kind of spin anyone tries to put on it.
Speaking of spin…
LOL…
TRUMP SAYS UN SPEECH WENT `REALLY WELL,' FOX NEWS REPORTS
— Heisenberg Report (@heisenbergrpt) September 19, 2017
And summed up…
https://twitter.com/VICTORLEONARDIB/status/910143183677530112
You are so right! Katie bar the door. We are painting ourselves into a corner with rhetoric that is further alienating us from all the countries in the world (except Israel). I guess we better increase that military budget. We are going to need it.
How long will the US and world suffer this man’s embarrassing insanity and resulting incompetency to perform the tasks required by the Office of President? Is the Republican Party so dense as to think that history will not paint them with the same tar brush of incompetence as Trump in their self-serving failure to remove him from office?
on the Hezbollah thing, the reason these lies are so egregious is that you don’t have to lie.
there’s nothing that says you can’t acknowledge the threat that Hezbollah clearly represents both to Israel and the region in general but *also* acknowledge the fact that comparing Hezbollah to ISIS and al-Qaeda (which is what he’s doing) is not only absurd because it ignores the ideological divide (Sunni-Shiite) but also because it lets Saudi Arabia off the hook for sponsoring Sunni extremism and then on top of that, it makes stupid people think that Shiites are the ones running over people with box trucks in Western capitals.
Hezbollah represents an entirely different kind of threat that more approximates a state-actor acting on behalf of another, more powerful state actor (Iran). They have a pretty clearly-defined set of goals and objectives that are nefarious in their own right (especially with regard to Israel), but most certainly do *not* include running around Paris with Kalashnikovs.
The difference between them is not IF but the timing of when to run around Paris with Kalashnikovs.
that is nonsense. you clearly have no background in Mideast politics.
we are on deep trouble…as Mueller gets closer, Trump gets closer to war w NK…of course with a war he can call off Mueller for National Security reasons..
and the markets, at least the major equity indices, continue to climb up
this is getting truly insane…everything is backwards or upside down in a house of mirrors
Interesting article, it helped me to nail down a few things concerning you.
Not an American, globalist who happens to live in America due to birth. (puts information in context, making it more useful to me)
Odd how many think history’s (future) point of view matters to those in office.
So do you think NK will not attack anyone as long as Trump is nice to him?
This is an important question; Do you think NK is not a client state of China?
Do you honestly believe NK and China can be bribed into going along with globalist ideals.
When it concerns ideals you like you don’t seem to be able to separate propaganda from honest intent.
Quoting Xi Jinping as if he would support a one world government Not ran by the Chinese Communist party.
Sorry didn’t mean for that to be anonymous.
thx
conobs
sorry, sounds like a lot of hoohah there in your response….
uhg
thx
bob