There is a lot of noise in the American media, both broadcast and print. The latest one is about President Trump awarding his Florida resort Doral the contract to host the G-7 Summit.
However, the consistent noise for the past few weeks has been regarding two major issues: President Trump’s impeachment because he invited a foreign country to intervene in an American presidential election and the other issue is his decision to withdraw US forces from Syria paving the way for Turkey to enter the Northeastern parts of Syria.
A ceasefire has now been achieved but the matter is not dying down. Well, primarily because the ultimate sin of ending wars is unforgivable in Washington. But will get to that momentarily. Let us first examine the issue of Trump inviting Ukraine to interfere in the American presidential election of 2020.
The fathers of the US constitution were wary of foreign intervention primarily from the United Kingdom. Therefore, they treated allowing foreign intervention in American democracy as a high crime. It was what Alexander Hamilton described as, “the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils”.
Little did the fathers of the constitution know that it would be the United States itself as the “foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant” in other nations. That it would be heavily involved in the intervention of other countries’ elections. That kidnapping and assassinating leaders, as well as engineering elections, would become a key feature of the American foreign policy.
When Trump-while sticking to his campaign pledge about ending wars-ordered the withdrawal of US troops from Syria, everyone went berserk
It is always justified in the name of national interests and national security. Speaking of which, Turkey entered Syria for the cause of national security. There is a history of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (P.K.K) threatening the state of Turkey. In the 1980s, they had launched a brutal separatist strategy. The party has been declared as a terrorist organisation by both Turkey and the United States.
The P.K.K has links with and shares the goal with the People’s Protection Unit (Y.P.G) across the border in Syria. This represents an existential and imminent threat to the security of the state of Turkey. So, that foreign intervention on the part of Turkey has some strong reasons.
Just as the Americans wouldn’t tolerate and actually obliterate any Mexican group aligned with other Mexicans inside the United States who are involved in violent activities to achieve the separation of Texas from the United States or Cuba based group aiding a Cuban separatist group based in Florida working toward the separation of Florida from the US. Turkey is no exception.
Read more: Attempts at Defanging Pakistan: How World is Pushing Pakistan to a War
Now, the calls for impeaching Trump are emanating from his phone call with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. In that conversation, Trump is believed to have urged Zelensky to find dirt on Hunter Biden, son of former Vice President Joe Biden who happens to be a serious Presidential candidate threatening Trump’s presidency in the 2020 US presidential election.
Trump is also believed to have allowed the Russian intervention in the American presidential election of 2016. The most interesting part in this entire drama is the behaviour of the elected officials in the United States.
The Republican party is opposing the calls for impeachment and Trump’s strong ally Lindsey Graham has even mocked the phone conversation saying, “I have zero problems with this phone call. There’s no quid pro quo here.” That has been the thinking of the majority of the Republicans. The Democrats, unsurprisingly, believe that Trump committed an impeachable offence by inviting a foreign country to interfere in the coming American presidential election. The opposition to the calls for impeachment is mainly divided along the party line.
Donald Trump is an exceptional president because unlike previous presidents, he is not waging wars, he is not going around the world looking for countries to invade
However, when Trump-while sticking to his campaign pledge about ending wars-ordered the withdrawal of US troops from Syria, everyone went berserk. The media, the Republicans, the Democrats, pretty much everyone started speaking in sync criticizing the ending of the American foreign intervention in a distant country.
The entire American governmental machinery across the board oppose the idea of a withdrawal of forces from Syria more than they oppose inviting a foreign country to meddle in the American democracy. That speaks volumes about what is more important to the American national security establishment. Protecting the sanctity of American democracy or protecting foreign intervention (when done by the US)?
Ending foreign intervention is sinful in the American power system tradition. This is an unwritten custom or tradition of Washington. This also shows that foreign intervention is supported only when America does it abroad not in reverse. And the reverse is merely confined to either finding dirt or some Facebook fake accounts trying to influence the minds of the American voters.
Read more: Under pressure at home, Trump puts sanctions on Turkey
Donald Trump is an exceptional president because unlike previous presidents, he is not waging wars, he is not going around the world looking for countries to invade. He is rather ending the existing wars and regardless of how despicable he might speak, we must support his war aversion.
The morally bankrupt media in America is basically drilling in the minds of the American people to only think about two things: Why did Trump invite foreign intervention in American democracy and why did he end a foreign intervention (by the US) in Syria? That, they would like us all to believe, is un-American.
Imran Jan is a political analyst. He can be reached at imran.jan@gmail.com. Twitter @Imran_Jan.
The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Global Village Space.