President Trump says the impeachment inquiry is a “lynching”. Well, yeah ...that’s what they do to bad guys ...duh ...
If you need one solid, all-inclusive reason for not just impeaching President ‘Goldfinger’ but for removing him from office immediately, besides the fact that he’s nuts, dangerous, he’s broken the law and crapped all over the Constitution, here it is. His policy. He has none! There is no Trump Doctrine. Trump shoots from the hip like a cowboy gunslinger. He is quick to act first then either consider or suffer the consequences. This places you and me, and everyone else, not just in America but in the whole world, in harm's way.
Make America great again, America first, Nationalism, 'I killed Baghdadi!' ...pulling out of nuclear, environmental, and trade deals, tariffs, building walls, insulting and abandoning allies ...these are not Doctrine, this is advertising ...show business, and the moment by moment, knee-jerk ravings of a self-absorbed, narcissist and his infantile worldview and remedial world knowledge.
Trump's shameless chest-thumping, bragging, about how he killed ISIS terrorist leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and how "He died like a dog, like a coward." ...and then, unbelievably, taking credit for the original focus on Osama bin Laden, and going on about all the books he's (Trump) written? ... only shows how insensitive he is about anything or anyone but himself. I'm sure his base loves this sensationalism. It will bring him votes. But the ISIS retaliation could be severe. Trump has unwittingly, dangerously, stirred up the ISIS hornet's nest with his boastful, self-congratulatory broadcasts putting us all in harm's way, again. Think about how President Obama handled bin Laden's death ...he was cool, calm, collected. Trump's gory, cinematic braggadocio detail about Baghdadi's death is not Doctrine, it's show business. Not presidential, not cool.
A Doctrine is how a president views and executes foreign policy. It defines a president. It’s his legacy. A president’s policy is built on many elements including history, multi-level input, current social and economic conditions, intelligence, knowledge, compassion, maturity, wisdom, and the reality in which a president finds himself which is often inherited from previous administrations.
Every U.S. President has adopted a Doctrine or policy by which he navigated a course for American interests, securing America’s honor and place in the world, while securing the safety and basic human and constitutional rights of every American citizen. From Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Truman, Kennedy, Reagan, Bush ...to Obama, all of our presidents, they all formalized policies to reinforce America’s best interests both domestically and internationally. Some of these were based on trade, some on intervention, some on principle and some even on speculation and greed. But they were all thought through with proactive and strategic intentions by serious, dedicated leadership professionals. Sometimes they failed, they weren’t all boy scouts, but mostly they served to advance American values and credibility worldwide.
Roosevelt (FDR). The Roosevelt Corollary, as it was known, was an addition to President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt’s Monroe Doctrine. It stated that the U.S. would intervene in conflicts between European countries and Latin American countries to enforce legitimate claims of the European powers, rather than having the Europeans press their claims directly. The U.S. would act as mediator, a referee, a broker, to avoid war and bloodshed.
Eisenhower. Under Eisenhower Doctrine, a Middle Eastern country could request American economic assistance or military aid if it was being threatened by armed aggression. Eisenhower singled out the Soviet threat and international communism.
Truman. The Truman Doctrine was an American foreign policy whose stated purpose was to counter Soviet geopolitical expansion during the Cold War.
Kennedy (JFK). Kennedy voiced support for the containment of communism as well as the reversal of communist progress in the Western Hemisphere.
Reagan. “We must not break faith with those who are risking their lives, on every continent from Afghanistan to Nicaragua, to defy Soviet-supported aggression and secure rights which have been ours from birth.”
Bush (W). The principles of the Bush Doctrine include unilateralism and the use of preemptive war. After the 9/11 attack, the phrase described a policy that the United States had the right to secure itself against countries that harbor or give aid to terrorist groups, which was used to justify the 2001 war in Afghanistan. The Bush Doctrine became strongly associated with the Bush administration’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003.
(Regarding the Bush Doctrine, and not to pick on Sarah Palin again, but she famously had a problem answering a question about Doctrine. It demonstrates the danger of an ambitious yet naive leader with a lack of basic knowledge https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=sarah+palin+asked+about+bush)
Obama. It is still not agreed whether there was an actual Obama Doctrine. However, during an interview with the NewYork Times, Obama commented, “You asked about the Obama Doctrine, the doctrine is we will engage, but we will preserve all our capabilities.” Meaning, the United States is powerful enough to test out new policies with countries like Cuba and Iran (nuclear deal) without putting America at risk.
The Trump Doctrine, if one were to imagine one, seems to be that a country is an adversary if it runs contrary to whichever side of the bed Trump woke up on this morning. He is running America on personality not policy. He’s dumber than Sarah Palin and twice as gauche ...the proof is that he uses a fork to eat pizza, demonstrated when Palin visited him in New York https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=trump+and+palin+eating+pizza+with+a+fork Trump’s lack of savvy is only surpassed by his arrogance and ignorance. He should have picked Palin for his VP. What a team they would have made!
But seriously, if you need any further proof for impeachment and immediate removal from office, and of Trump’s reckless and cavalier, immature and narcissistic, dangerous and life-threatening worldview behavior and abuse of power, consider that all the above presidents have identified and addressed, among other things, the Soviet (Russian) threat to the U.S. and the world, and the threat of Middle Eastern terrorism. Conversely, Trump (President Goldfinger) flirts with terrorism by removing troops from Syria letting in the Russians and Turks leaving ISIS prisoners to their own devices, assists by supplying weapons to Saudi Arabia (‘because they pay well’), and kowtows to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Why? I still say it’s the ‘Pee Tape’. Putin’s got it. But I digress ...
Whatever it is, something’s very, very wrong at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
John Kushma is a communication consultant and lives in Logan, Utah
https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-george-kushma-379a5762
Some past articles and op-eds
https://muckrack.com/john-kushma/articles
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