COLOSSAL AND DANGEROUS STUPIDITY IN EUROPE AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS
Dr. Common Good
Let me just start with Europe. If the 400,000-plus American military members who perished in WWII could see the recent, ignorant and nauseous behavior of Trump, his chief minion JD Vance, and his flack Pete Hegseth in Europe, their souls would surely rebel. The United States once fought to defend Europe – and ultimately ourselves – from Nazi tyranny. Now, Trump caves in the most obsequious way to Putin, accepting his casus belli for invading Ukraine, and more or less giving him all that he demands before even beginning any negotiation to end the war. On top of that, Trump has thus far excluded Europe, and even Ukraine, from such discussions, even though (must I repeat the obvious?) it is Europe and Ukraine that have the most at stake. But he prefers to have his own cozy tête-à-tête with the dictator he wants to be. That is thoughtless, contemptible behavior towards our allies of more than 80 years, and demonstrates yet again his astounding ignorance of history and his sociopathic lack of decency. Neville Chamberlain looks like a visionary and tough guy compared to Trump. And the so-called Republicans in Congress who could put the brakes on some of this have abdicated their roles so profoundly it defies understanding, other than to acknowledge its rank cowardice.
Then there is JD Vance, the callow, undeservedly pompous little Trump spokesperson, lecturing Europe on true democracy and on their “real” problems. Nauseating. The countries who are at the front line of any further Russian incursion being told that their real problems were not Russia, or China, but from within – i.e., their attempt to exercise some control over pro-Nazi hate speech, and illegal immigrants. To rub that in their face, his only direct meeting in Germany was with the extremist right-wing AfD party. There’s more. Adding yet another layer of preposterous ignorance to all of this, so-called Secretary of State Marco Rubio justified Vance’s comments in a CBS interview by saying that “free speech was not used to conduct a genocide,” a sentiment soon echoed by Vance who doubled-down, repeating that indeed free speech didn’t cause the Holocaust.
The ignorance and arrogance of these comments is just staggering. Speech, and public speech, did indeed foment antisemitism and contribute to the Holocaust. Who, I ask, was Joseph Goebbels? What was his role? Do you, JD Vance, or Marco Rubio, not know this? Public speech is often used in this way. There are too many examples to list, but just think of what happened in mass radio broadcasts before the Rwandan genocide of 1994. That, too, was “free speech.” And right here, we saw Trump’s own public words that egged on the violent January 6 insurrection. There is just no question that public speech can be used to legitimize hatred and violence, and Europe – especially Germany – has every right and reason to be concerned about this. But Vance, for all his ivy-league law school education clearly has no worldly experience or plain common sense, only blind ambition. And Rubio? He should know better. He does have experience. But time after time, Rubio has shown that he has no courage whatsoever. He can be blown around like a cheap kite. And so it goes.
Let’s move from the Europe debacle to our foreign aid role, specifically USAID. Now we have Elon Musk, the unelected, Trump hatchet-man, reveling in his unchecked (and illegal) ability to chop away at government functions as he sees fit, never mind that he has almost $4 billion in contracts with federal agencies, which by itself is a disqualifying conflict of interest, and notwithstanding the fact that he has no knowledge of federal government, and no experience with the complexities of foreign affairs. So, on a whim, he decided to run USAID “through the wood chipper.” USAID is the primary agency managing our foreign assistance programs to the poorest and most needy of populations, whether through disaster and humanitarian relief, HIV/AIDS and other disease prevention efforts, the promotion of education, support for human rights, or support for climate change mitigation. The entire USAID budget is less than 1% of the total US budget, and yet USAID plays an essential role in maintaining positive relationships around the world, and, among other things, in preventing crisis situations from becoming generators of hostility or even terrorism. Sure, USAID has been criticized over the years for how it performs its mission. But those are typically critiques of the “how,” not of the “what.” Only fools would deny the importance of what has often been called “soft power.” Even in the sense of pure realpolitik, in a world where China, as one example, is all over the globe supporting development projects, the presence of some countervailing options is necessary. Dr. Common Good has seen this up close. For the US, USAID has provided much of that soft power capability, for relatively little cost to the American taxpayer. So where is all the “criminality” that Musk alleges? He has shown us nothing, and while cavorting in his impish playground, has gutted an essential element of US foreign relations. All the “America firsters” out there should know, by the way, that weakening our web of alliances and ties to the global world out there actually weakens the US. No country can stand on its own.
There will be more posts to follow on other Trump administration disasters and debacles, including Gaza plans, threats against Panama’s sovereignty, the absurd threats to take Greenland from Denmark, and the ludicrous renaming of the Gulf of Mexico.