peacefare.net

Part 1: Is this what you voted for?

J. F. Carter, US Army (ret LTC) 1968-1992, United Nations (ret D-1) 1992-2009, and European Union (ret D-1) 2009-2011, writes:

Dear Fellow Americans,

It is time to wake up from your slumber and face the truth.  Our nation is in peril.  Trump’s selection of Hegseth as SecDef and Gabbard as DNI, as well as VP Vance’s statements in Munich in support of the Alternative für Deutschland neofacists, reflect a dramatic change of direction. The President is conceding to Putin’s expansionism and betraying basic American principles. The credibility, rules-based order, national sovereignty, and freedom that have brought prosperity for the past 80 years are at risk.

Putin’s savior

Trump has thrown President Putin a lifeline.  The Russian economy and military are exhausted. Ukraine would have prevailed, but Trump blinked.  He is the 21st century version of Neville Chamberlain, who surrendered the Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland to Hitler.

Likewise, Trump is yielding the national security of Ukraine and its citizens to Russia.  Secretary of State Rubio will meet Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov in Saudi Arabia to negotiate a deal. This will be done without consulting Ukraine or the European Union.  It will weaken NATO, which stands on the front line with Russia.  That makes the US much more vulnerable. 

The broader implications

Trump is signaling both Putin and President Xi. They now understand that they can do as they want, even if it means giving up Europe and Taiwan.  Trump is also adding fuel to the fire in the Middle East.  His pandering to Prime Minister Netanyahu will fuel Arab hatred of the US and inspire ISIS attacks on the US. 

There are ongoing discussions of an Israeli strike against Iranian nuclear facilities.  We can expect a catastrophic response. Trump is creating the conditions for igniting WWIII, or complete Western capitulation.  We can only pray that a new Churchill or Roosevelt will sound the clarion call to reason and freedom.

Gutting American security and economy

To further undercut US security, Trump has gutted USAID and its soft power diplomacy.  He and Musk are purging the FBI, CIA and the national intelligence community, as well as our world class military. He will install compliant loyalists.  This is akin to Stalin’s purge of the military in the 1930s, which weakened the Soviet defense against Hitler’s army.  Perhaps Trump thinks he can make a deal with Putin as Stalin did with Hitler in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. That effort to buy peace between the two totalitarian nations led to catastrophe for both.

Not content with undermining our national standing and security, Trump is also undermining the economy. Tariffs, mass deportations, budget cuts, and gutting of the regulatory and oversight bodies will kill the Biden expansion.  The Trump-Musk team fired 300 National Nuclear Security Administration employees and had to hire them back. It has fired 350 EPA and 1000 Veteran Affairs staff, as well as threatening to fire 90,000 IRS staff.  How will that help to collect the millions of dollars needed to address the national debt? 

Farmers will be particularly hard hit with the loss of markets that will never return.  Canada, Mexico, Latin America, and some Asian nations will seek other trading partners. The EU, Russia, and China will benefit. US exports of oil, gas, steel, autos, and agricultural products will be replaced by less mercurial sources.

The budget

Will the average citizen be more financially secure with the MAGA Project 2025 budget proposals?  It promises 4.5 trillion in tax cuts for the ultra wealthy and austerity for the rest of us.  To partly compensate, $2 trillion in budget cuts are anticipated. These include Social Security, Medicare, Veterans Affairs, supplementary nutrition and aid to 40 million low income families. 

The result will be more interest to be paid on the national debt, something traditional Republicans decry. Also a weaker dollar, weaker purchasing power, and much higher inflation.  Republican President Lincoln warned:

It is the same old serpent that says work and I will eat. You toil and I will enjoy the fruits thereof.

The rule of law

Trump’s vindictive attacks against our system of jurisprudence and rule of law will further undermine US security. He released the convicted January 6 insurrectionists into society.  What example does that set for law enforcement? 

Are we now ruled by a mafia oligarchy like Russia?  Trump has unleashed an unelected and uncleared citizen, Elon Musk, to access private data in the name of efficiency.  This is in exchange for his $225 million donation to the Trump campaign and free unlimited X endorsements. The Trump Administration also tried to award Tesla a $400 million contract for its armored Cybertruck. Only publicity undid the deal. The Age of the Robber Baron is back!

Minorities and opposition

Trump’s people attack minorities, immigrants, non binary peoples, females, free choice, and books not sanctioned by them. Anything other than what their orthodoxy declares legitimate is fair game.  Anyone different becomes a target for hatred and vitriol.  It is the same scenario that Hitler used against communists, socialists, Jews and non whites.  Divide and Rule!  Us Against Them!  The Soviets, Khmer Rouge and ethnonationalists in Yugoslavia all used these tactics. I personally witnessed it in Cambodia and Yugoslavia.

Hungarian PM Orban, Turkish PM Erdogan, Slovak PM Fico, the German AfD party, and Putin are all in with Trump!  They suppress the media and fee speech. They call any opposition the “enemy of the people.” The White House even denied access to the Associated Press because it refused to rename the Gulf of Mexico.

Education and religion

Trump is trying to re-educate and dumb down the public by abolishing the Education Department. His followers are instituting their own curriculum, banning books, and endorsing the Bible in public schools. This violates the First Amendment provision of separation of church and state. The new Secretary of Health and Human Services, RFK Jr., symbolizes the current anti-science trend.

Are these people Christians as exemplified in the New Testament?  Where is their compassion, love of fellow man or even sense of humor?

Questions we need to answer

What can explain Trump/MAGA actions that weaken the US and our allies? Why are they empowering Russia, China and other authoritarians?  Have we become so ill educated that we elect inept clowns to entertain us? Where are the competent leaders to set the example of pride, dignity, courage, real strength, and placing country before self? 

A small time bully and wanna be mafioso who bends to Al Capone-Putin is leading us to destruction. Are we Rome under Caligula or Nero, awaiting the fall of the Empire? What dirt does Putin have on Trump?  Or is he and his ilk fascist at heart? Do they support the German AfD, Orban, and Putin to bring on chaos from which they will profit?