Friday, October
26, 2018
About Politicians who Befriend Criminals in
Power
By Dr. Rodrigue
Tremblay
(Author of the
book “The
Code for Global Ethics”, the book “The New American Empire”, and the
recent book, in French « La
régression tranquille du Québec, 1980-2018 »)
“Regrettably, though, the idea of the
benevolent autocrat, the just dictator, is being revived in the Arab world.“
Jamal
Khashoggi (1958-2018),
Saudi Arabian journalist, a permanent resident of the United States and a Washington Post Global Opinions
contributing columnist,
assassinated by the Saudi government of Mohammed bin Salman (1985- ),
in Istanbul, Turkey, on Tues. Oct. 2, 2018. (In a keynote speech at a conference in
April 2018 organized by the Center for Middle East Studies at
the University of Denver and the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy in
Washington D.C.)
“They [The Saudis] had a very bad original concept, it was
carried out poorly, and the cover-up was one of the worst in the history of
cover-ups. (…)
Very simple, bad deal; should never have been thought
of. Somebody really messed up. And they had the worst cover-up ever. And where
it should have stopped is at the deal standpoint.
Whoever
thought of that idea [of
assassinating Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi], I think, is in big trouble, and they should be in big trouble.”
Donald
Trump (1946- ),
current American President, (statement made to reporters, on Tuesday, Oct. 23,
2018, in the Oval Office)
“When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they
will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.” Edmund Burke (1729-1797),
Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher.
As
a politician, Donald Trump is the image of the United States government, which
attempts to maintain the American military-industrial
complex. He needs “enemies”.
He seems to need “enemies” to establish his own political identity and to
possibly deflect attention from his own flaws. He has no adversaries; he has “enemies”,
whom he brands “enemies
of the people”.
This is not a
trivial matter because this is a totalitarian rhetoric. Indeed, some violent,
oppressive and fascist dictators and demagogues have been known to use the
epithet in the past. We think of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) in Nazi Germany, Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924) and Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) in the old USSR. Their aim:
to stir
up political hate and
to delegitimize their “enemies” and anybody who dared to
criticize their totalitarian governments. Mind you, those were bona fide dictators. That Donald Trump
casually uses violent
political rhetoric to delegitimize his opponents
should be a source of concern for anyone who values democracy.
Donald Trump has
called the Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, an “enemy”, going
so far as accusing her of being crooked, without advancing any evidence for
such a serious accusation. He has also called the free
press and journalists his “enemies”. He brands them as “fake news media”. He has often attacked
athletes and Hollywood stars in the same manner, and he has insulted
scores of others. Trump has bullied everybody else, including the Fed
Chairman who should have politely told him that his reckless pro-cyclical
economic policies are politically motivated and are contrary to good
economic management.
That politician
Donald Trump can get
away with such rowdy and incoherent behavior is most astonishing. At
the United Nations, in September, he was openly laughed
at, and he has become a source of derision and fear around the world.
His blind supporters do not see that, but the world does.
In a true
democracy, leaders do not vie for absolute power for themselves or their
family, and do not consider those who run for office in free elections as being
“enemies”, but as legitimate opponents. Calling political adversaries who
advance different political proposals “enemies” is the language of dictators
and autocrats.
On the other
hand, President Donald Trump seems to have a penchant, if not an open
admiration, for autocrats and totalitarian
leaders in other countries. For example, he has professed to be an
admirer of communist China President-for-life Xi Jinping, going as far as
publicly joking that this was “great”
and that “maybe, we’ll have to give that a shot some
day!”
Donald Trump has also been cozy with
North
Korean dictator Kim Jung-un, with Turkish autocrat Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with Philippines dictator-to-be Rodrigo Duterte and with other similar junta autocrats or tyrants while turning a blind eye to their records of brutality and
oppression. The world is now witnessing this with astonishment, because it is a
throwback to the 1930s, when many democracies were replaced by dictatorships.
Donald Trump’s Special Relationship with the murderous
regime of Saudi Arabia Prince Mohammed bin Salman
However, nothing
beats the efforts Donald Trump made to jump
to the defense of the Saudi government and to cover up the
assassination and dismemberment (with a bone saw) of Saudi journalist and U.S.
permanent resident Jamal Khashoggi. That odious crime was carried out by a
Saudi 15-man kill commando in the Saudi Arabia Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey,
on October 2, 2018. Initially, Trump said that he talked to Prince Mohammed
bin Salman who
assured him that “he had not given the order” for Khashoggi’s assassination, even
though some of the killers were members of his entourage and were his
bodyguards. Then,
Trump went out of his way to say “he believed”
bin Salman’s denials, as if an alleged killer would admit such a barbarous
crime!
When
the Saudi government came up with the most outlandish fabrication that the
journalist had died in a “fistfight” with a 15-man kill commando who had come
from Saudi Arabia to assassinate him, Trump declared that the Saudi claims were “credible”, even though the entire world met such claims with
derision. Indeed, it defies logic and common sense that in a totalitarian
religious state like Saudi Arabia, paid agents of the government would take it
upon themselves to assassinate and dismember a known critique of the regime,
and do that in a foreign country, without an explicit go ahead from the very
top.
However, when there were reports that the dismembered parts of the journalist’s body were found in
the garden of the Saudi consul general’s home in Istanbul, and
when the Turkish government declared that it had evidence that Khashoggi’s
assassination inside the Saudi Consulate was premeditated and carefully
planned, and that “from the person who gave the order, to the
person who carried it out, they must all be brought to account”, Trump’s
attempt to cover up bin Salman’s crime became untenable.
Then,
Trump stated that the killing
of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul was “a bad deal” (sic) and that “someone
really messed up.” He went on to announce cosmetic “sanctions” against the
members of the killing commando, but without mentioning the higher-ups who
ordered the killing and especially, without implicating the alleged culprit, Mohammed bin Salman.
Donald Trump
seems to place emphasis on the way the Saudis have “botched” the crime, not that they had “committed” the crime in the first place. Some say that Donald Trump
is an amoral and immoral person, being unable to rely on any personal ethics to
distinguish right from wrong, in order to assess a situation. This could be a
vivid example.
Conclusion
As days go by and
President Donald Trump reels from crisis to crisis, my assessment of the man from
day one stands, i.e. that ruthless businessman Trump’s imperial
presidency is “a threat to American
democracy and an agent of chaos in the world”.
_________________________________
International
economist Dr. Rodrigue Tremblay is the author of the book “The
Code for Global Ethics, Ten Humanist Principles” and of “The
New American Empire”, and the recent book, in French « La
régression tranquille du Québec, 1980-2018 ».
Please visit Dr.
Tremblay’s site:
Posted, Friday,
October 26, 2018, at 8:30 am
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________________________________
© 2018 by Dr.
Rodrigue Tremblay