Hard to believe much of the U.S. media is letting Donald Trump get away with the supposedly “Statesman-like” speech he gave in Warsaw. There he was, like some modern-day Churchill, there was Donald Trump, questioning whether or not the Western Civilization has the “will to survive”
“Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost” he gravely intoned….Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it.”
What an incredible joke—coming from Donald Trump, the man who incarnates the real threat that Western Civilization faces today. Not Isis, not terrorist-trained migrants, not “government bureaucracy” but the destruction of what were once considered the West’s—and America’s--basic values—respect for Freedom, Liberty, for the Press, for democratic institutions, like the courts and the office of the president itself. There was also once the idea that America was, somehow, a beacon to the rest of the world. But there he was, in Warsaw, spouting his hypocritical garbage even as he praised Poland’s would-be dictator President Andrzej Duda. Trump is also the same man, it can’t too often be noted, who—on his own say--has the power to launch a nuclear war
There he was, preaching to the rest of the world, the man who would pull out of the Paris accords and slam the door on immigrants, at the same time as he works to cripple programs aimed at countering the flood of destitute from the most poverty stricken regions of the globe.
There he was, the man who recently strutted proudly aboard the new, incredibly sophisticated American aircraft carrier, the Gerald Ford, which cost more than $13 billion dollars and is only part of the huge new military build up that Trump has ordered. (A lot of good that bristling floating behemoth will do against enemies like ISIS and the North Korea.)
Ironic though—that $13 billion price tag—is more than the amount the U.S. decided it could NOT afford to build another rail tunnel between New Jersey and Manhattan. Indeed, not just the tunnels and Penn Station, but much of America’s antiquated infrastructure has sunk to Third World status.
But the ultimate irony of Trump’s Warsaw address is that it should have been directed to Americans—not Europeans. Those in the best position to defend basic Western values right now are the leaders of the Republican party. Until they are ready to publicly admit what they all privately understand—that their country is being led by a dangerously incompetent psychopath—until they are ready to admit and act on that knowledge, then not just Western values—but global civilization will continue at risk.