The angry diplomacy of President Donald Trump is Washington's way to scare off North Korea's traditional ally, China, and disrupt what has been, till now, quite a smooth Chinese economic, political and military ascendancy in Asia that has pushed against US regional influence, especially in the East and South China Seas.
What makes the horrible fate of the Rohingya in Burma particularity pressing is that the west is now fully on the side of the very government that is carrying out these atrocious acts. And there is a reason for that: Oil. Massive deposits of oil that have remained untapped due to decades of western boycott of the junta government are now available to the highest bidder.
There is a whole generation of Palestinians in Gaza that grew up knowing nothing but war and siege, and have never seen the world beyond Gaza’s deadly borders. These are the voices of some of these young Gazans, who kindly shared their tragic personal stories, hoping that the world would heed their calls for freedom and for justice.
Both Trump and Kim are dubious figures, driven by fragile egos and unsound judgement. Yet, they are both in a position that, if not reigned in soon, could threaten global security and the lives of millions. Neither Washington, nor Pyongyang, Tel Aviv or anyone else should hold the world hostage, exacting political and economic ransom in exchange for not destroying our planet.
On August 1, the Palestinian Bedouin village of Al-Araqeeb was destroyed for the 116th time. As soon as Israeli bulldozers finished their ugly deed and soldiers began evacuating the premises, the village resident immediately began rebuilding their homes. If the repeated destruction of the village is an indication of Israel's stubborn insistence to uproot Palestine's Bedouins, the rebuilding is indicative of the tenacity of the Bedouin community in Palestine.
No matter how hard White House officials try, they cannot construct a coherent ‘Trump doctrine’ that would make sense amid the chaos that has afflicted US foreign policy in recent months. However, this chaos is not entirely the making of President Donald Trump alone. Since 1945, the United States has vied for total global leadership.
Copyright Toward Freedom 2019