diplomacy

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The Future of America?


When March 2020 arrives, I will celebrate birthday number 71. I have seen a lot and traveled at lot during those years. I lived in three different countries, Korea, Italy and Micronesia, and been witness to their way of living. I have visited the Middle East, most of Western Europe to include Poland and the Czech Republic. I have also been to 44 of our 50 states. There was much to be seen and learned. I wish I could say I saw it all and learned to an expert level but that just is not true. But what I did see and learn was uniformity.

It did not matter what country I visited, Korea, Syria, or any state, everyone is about the same. Those people I met, Palestinians, Cypriots, Marshallese, each was friendly and welcoming. And so my takeaway from this is that it did not matter what country I was in, people are not political parties, religions, rich or poor, they are just people who are making their way through life in their own particular way. I never expected people to speak English. I always believed the language barrier was mine to be broken down and that usually worked. And those times when the other person did speak English, well, that was a bonus of which I always was grateful.

One thing which was common to almost all the people I visited was they were very nice but hamstrung by the governments which claimed to represent them. I seldom found that to be the truth. I visited Syria, for example, in 1972. That was only five years removed from the 7-days war Israel fought which brought extreme fear and unrest to the entirety of the middle-east. But walking among the people, you would not know that. In Syria, a country which at the time had no U.S. Embassy, the fact that I was American, something that was known when I crossed the border from Lebanon to Syria, seemed of little or no consequence to the military who controlled the border crossings. And once we reach Damascus, the entire bus of people I was with was treated with great warmth and to my surprise, the tour was done in English. There, at the Central Mosque, I learned that in Islam it is believe the head of John the Baptist lies in that Mosque and he is considered a prophet in their religion. And soldiers visiting the golden cage at the spot where the head lies, kneeled and cried before moving to a corner of the Mosque which faced Mecca where they prayed.

Today, when I think of a country, I never think about its government but of its people because they are the true representatives of their country, not their elected officials.

America today is in the most unfortunate position of having a President who has shown no appreciation for the absolute necessity of America getting along with the rest of the world. Worse, it appears this President has taken America backwards and into a 2nd Cold War. When you deal with the devil, as is the case with Putin in Russia and Kim Il in North Korea, it is necessary to present yourself as the protector of those countries they would seek war, to include America itself.

During his years as President, Barrack Obama made serious in-roads in diplomacy with Iran. That was extremely important for peace in the Middle-East and has since been undone by the present administration. When Russia invaded the Crimea, the present President offered no help to the Ukrainian government to stem that incursion. To Russia, that was not a test of the Ukrainian military but of the resolve of the rest of the world, America in particular, to intervene against an illegal act and yet no one did anything. Now Putin knows he can retake former USSR territories with impunity. Are Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania next? Or is he setting his sights on Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and the other former USSR satellites of that region?

The United States has in place rules for countries where corruption is an issue which can limit or completely withhold U.S. aid to such countries. But what if they become targets of the Russian government. Do we stand by and watch it happen or do we form a coalition to stem any such incursion? Remember now, in even the most corrupt nation, the average person is honest and hard working and deserving of protection of his freedom. Right now, America is not that country and what a shame that is.

Over the past three years, America has acted shamefully towards the rest of the world. Its isolationist policy, its arrogance, and its ignorance, in the form of its lack of action, of issues problematic to most of the world, makes America a country upon which the rest of the world cannot rely. Is this who we really want to be? We desperately need a leader who has a healthy respect for the power of good diplomacy and a diplomatic policy the rest of the world will once again respect. We need a new President.

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Despotic Donald: The Ultimate Narcissist


Let me start by telling you that I have over 30 years of service in the federal government, am now retired.  I spent the first almost 11 years of that service as a member of the U.S. Army on active duty: 1968 – 1979.  Then from 1987 – 2007 I was a systems analyst/computer specialist for the U.S. Department of transportation.  I mention this to validate what I know from experience within the government.

I have listened very carefully to Donald Trump and two things occur to me, both scary.  He is an absolute narcissist.  A narcissist cannot image that anything he says or does is wrong.  He believes that he is always misunderstood when people try to correct him.  But worst of all, a powerful narcissist, as Trump is, feels he can do just about anything with impunity; he believes he is above the law, that he has certain privileges that set him apart from most everyone else.  And as a despot, he wields his power without an sense of responsibility when things go wrong.  In his case, he does not feel stiffing people their wages when his companies went belly up is wrong.  And just last night (September 26), he thought the fact that he did not have to pay any income tax on over $600 million income meant he was smart.  Those were his words actually.  Had he paid only the 14% tax rate most of the middle class pays, he would have paid $84 million.  Don’t you think some school systems, some public health agencies, some poor municipality could have used that money?  It makes me wonder just how much income over the years he has paid nothing on.  And in that same sense, how many others do the same?  But that’s another subject.

Trump stated last night that he had been endorse but the Federal Agency ICE.  That is a very interesting statement since no agency, by law, can endorse or engage in any political activity.  And to do so would require action from that agency’s inspector general with possible criminal charges.  Every year I worked for the federal government I was required to attend ethics training and that is one subject, particularly during election years, that was emphasized.  It is a prohibited action.  I think more likely he got some official to say he is support Trump in his run.  But that official cannot say those words publicly as a member of ICE for to do so would “give the appearance of a conflict of interest,” very damning situation in the government.

Trump was born June 14, 1946 which means he was required in 1964 to register for the draft.  Curiously when he registered he was a student at the New York Military Academy, a military prep school.  I too went to a military prep school and I can tell you with certainty that a very large portion of my classmates went into the military.  We had 10 out of a class of 69 who went to one of the service academies, several others went to Virginia Military Institute and The Citadel.  We had a feeling of duty to our country.

Trump, like so many, got a college deferment while he attended Fordham University and after 2 years transferred to Penn.  That means he graduated in 1968, the height of the Vietnam war.  He did not continue on to grad school and probably would not have gotten a deferment had he, the exceptions were medical school and theological studies.  We know he is neither Dr. Donald nor Rev. Donald, so how did he avoid military service.  He was not married until 1977 so that was not it either.  He was quite the patriot!  What he was doing during the early 70s was using his family money to buy real estate, housing mainly.  It was also the first time, of many, that he was charged with “anti-black bias” in a suit brought by the Dept. of Justice.  In turn he filed suit against the federal gov’t for $100 million because he said the gov’t was trying to force him to rent to welfare recipients.  Contrary to what Trump said last night, the affair ended 2 years later when he settled with the DOJ.  The narcissist looks back upon such incidents and claims no wrong doing, no fault, no responsibility, and states he was innocent of anything said against him even when the facts show the opposite.  He cannot see such facts because they do not suit the narcissistic mind.

One of the strong-holds of the Republican Party has traditionally been the military.  Trump claims to have been endorsed by over 2o0 admirals and generals.  Why have we not seen this list?  You would certain want such a list front and center to prove your validity as Commander-in-Chief.  I suspect he had 2 or 3.  I noticed time after time during the debate Trump’s penchant for speaking in hyperbole.  And since he refuses to show proof, then hyperbole of the worst kind it is then.  Our military is literally tired from all the wars it has been forced to fight.  They are war weary.  But if you listen to Trump, it takes no imagination at all to see he is hell-bent on starting a war somewhere.  He thinks that is the was to kill of ISIS, and other undesirable elements.  Trump will probably still get a large portion of the military vote but it is unlikely he will get the 90% most Republican candidates have enjoyed over the years.  It is very difficult to have confidence in a commander-in-chief who has absolutely no military or government service experience.  And as an aside, if elected, he would be the first president to have neither.

There is one thing all president over the past 50 plus years have understood implicitly.  They knew you dealt with friends and enemies both via diplomacy.  The military necessarily is the last resort, when all forms of diplomacy have failed, AND, you are under attack.  Trump definitely does not understand this.

The man is dangerous and I am at a loss for what people see in him as a realistic leader, as someone who will keep our country safe and do what is best for the country, not what suits him.