Ashok Dhillon
Jul 15, 20176 min
The past week has been abuzz with the revelation of yet another, previously undisclosed meeting between the Trump family members, the Trump Campaign Manager, and some Russian individuals. As details were forced out, the supposed innocent meeting, as described by son Donald Trump Jr., the father President Trump, and the White House staff, is turning out to be anything but, and instead may be the first glimpse of a smoking gun in the many investigations underway to try and discover if there was any attempt at collusion between the Trump Campaign and Russia. This meeting gave the first evidence, in writing.
What is different between this undisclosed meeting with Russians coming to light and the previous ones, is, this time the details of the intent of the meeting, including the role of Russia, to affect the Presidential Election by damaging Hillary Clinton while supporting Trump, and the enthusiastic acceptance of the Trump people in working with Russians to make it happen, is all in black and white, in the form of a chain of e-mails released by Donald Trump Jr., when he realized the gig was up. Enforced transparency, so to speak.
This time, Trump’s off-hand dismissal of such meetings as ‘fake news’, or of it being of no consequence, is rebutted by his son’s own disclosures in the form of proof in writing. Donald Trump Sr., the President, of course does not allow such truths to alter his judgment to bold-facedly lie through this latest edition of the persistent saga of Russian interference in U.S. elections. The evidence of the many meetings with Russian government officials, and Russian business individuals, with Trump’s family members, his closest and highest placed confidants, surrogates, advisors and campaign managers, just keeps mounting.
The Trump family is led by Donald Trump, who is arguably the most prolific liar in public life. Yet, he continues to hold the highest position in America, that of the U.S. President. This matters - - - because the United States, as the most powerful country in the World, is the most dangerous country when led by reckless, less than honest people, as the two terms of President George W. Bush and his cohorts, Carl Rove, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales, Colin Powell, Paul Wolfowitz, Paul Summers, and others proved, by destroying countries, under false accusations, and then destroying entire economies.
The country they destroyed, famously, by lying about its threat of having ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’ (WMD) was Iraq. And the economy they destroyed through the crash of 2008 was the American economy, and then the World economy. Donald Trump, his administration, and his family, are acting in a similar arrogant and dishonest manner, lying through every wrongdoing and disparaging all criticisms as nothing but ‘sour grapes’ of the left for losing the election, and the questions regarding their dealings with Russia as ‘the greatest witch hunt in history’. This willingness to twist facts and truth is highly dangerous.
A quick trip down memory-lane may remind us as to the dangers of having dishonest self-serving people in power, especially at the helm of the juggernaut that is the United States.
The Bush administration outright lied to the American people and the World without any compunction or conscience. One remembers Colin Powell’s disgraceful speech and laughable illustrations of WMDs in Iraq at the United Nations, justifying an unnecessary and destructive war that killed hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians (some estimates put it at above 600,000) and totally destroyed a country to carry out regime change, and left it still at war, shattered and in multiple pieces.
The destruction of Iraq also led to the upsurge in internal insurgency, and international terrorism, that made Al Qaeda, (the harbouring of which by Saddam Hussein was the second justification for the Iraq war, which was also proven false), seem tame by comparison to the emergence of ISIS, in the vacuum left behind, after the removal of Saddam by the U.S.
Plus the false promise of freedom, equality and democracy (remember the war was called ‘Iraqi Freedom’, even though the context supposedly was the ‘War on Terror’) went on to shatter most of the Middle East and the countries of North Africa, creating millions of refugees that are today beggars at the door of the Western nations, who today debate their fate as if they (the West) had nothing to do with their current miserable state.
This of course doesn’t include the historical exploitation of these Middle Eastern countries by all Western powers in the then glorious colonial days, when territories were carved out by the stroke of a pencil by the competing English and European powers.
But to return to the original point, a less than honest U.S. President and administration can be lethally dangerous to other parts of the World, their citizens and economies, and therefore cannot be excused, as the Republicans have had a proclivity to do so, consistently, regardless of the many serious Trump indiscretions, and his consistent promotion of Putin and Russia, in spite of the misgivings of the U.S. intelligence agencies.
Under the Bush administration, U.S. and International laws were compromised and or ignored on a routine basis, while denials and excuses followed automatically upon discovery or questioning. Illegal wire tapping, illegal detention of suspects, illegal tortures such as water-boarding and worse, and mistreatment of detainees, were all part of the administration’s two terms with people like Rove, Gonzales, Rumsfeld, Cheney and others, driving an aggressive ‘America in your face’, Bush-led agenda. The deregulation, lessening of oversight, excessive liquidity with ultra low interest rates, coupled with the promotion of free-for-the-top wealth grab, led to the worst financial crash since the Great Depression that cost America and the World, tens of Trillions in economic value, and millions in job losses; and the longest, slowest, most fragile global economic recovery in history.
Trump and his gang are in many ways replicating the same behaviour. There is a scary disregard for reality and the truth, while the administration pushes ahead with its irrational, fundamentally challenged major policy initiatives of wholesale deregulation, gutting of the healthcare plan known as Obamacare, without a better/proper replacement, and a proposed major Tax Reform, both of which would further favour the rich at the cost of the Middle Class and the poor. And the pursuit of a job creation plan based more on protectionism, penalties, trade barriers and threats, than on any innovation, education or re-training programs, additionally, the administration’s hostility and suspicion towards foreigners and immigrants borders on irrational paranoia and not so subtle racism. The result is the proposals of walls, barriers and bans, rather than on any thoughtful, long-term immigration strategy that deals comprehensively with the protracted problems.
During his campaign, Donald Trump, to win over the Republicans and the fundamental far right in the U.S., was aggressive in his stated views on war and the use of American military power to reassert its authority in the World. He thought and declared President Obama to be weak and ineffective in withdrawing from the wars that America was involved in, and the banning of torture and mistreatment of war prisoners and/or detainees.
Trump promised the return of torture such as ‘water-boarding’, and worse, and ‘whatever else it took’, to make prisoners talk regardless of breaking U.S. and international laws, in order to keep America safe. He promised the full use of America’s considerable military force, and the massive rebuilding of the seriously (in his view) depleted Armed Forces to the point of it being an automatic deterrence to any individual or State foe and adversary. Trump loudly and often, proclaimed his willingness to use the sledge hammer of American military might to vanquish foes. He poured scorn and contempt for Obama-style restraint and the use of diplomacy in dealing with foreign threats, whatever their nature and origin.
On becoming President, Trump found his fanciful imaginings of being the most powerful man on Earth did not in-fact allow him to do whatever he wanted, instead he had to restrain his impulses somewhat, because of ramifications that otherwise would be too costly for him and the country. Still, his narcissistic nature, and his predilection towards untruthfulness, makes him and his administration dangerous, both from the point of view of being too aggressive in pursuing the goal of ‘America First’, even though it may be harmful to Americans, and of being untruthful in pursuing the agenda, which is based more upon political expediency and personal gratification, than on thoughtfully constructed policies for the betterment of America, Americans, and the World.
It’s only been about six months since Donald Trump became the President of the United States. During those six months no President in history has lied as much, and as consistently, as this one has. Some of his more prominent and as equally ambitious family members are proving to be just as untruthful as the President. Trumps closest senior most advisors have also proved to be less than honest regarding their meetings and activities in support of Trump’s campaign, especially in context to Russia’s material interference in the last election, in which Russia openly sided with Trump to discredit Hillary Clinton. As additional previously undisclosed meetings and activities, during the campaign, come to light, and the damning case builds up, the sins of the Trumps are accumulating to a point of permanently damaging the Trumps, and eroding all credibility of the Republicans in their support of their erring President, and his ‘too-smart-for-their-good’ family members, that tried to play the high stakes games of political espionage, and ‘King Makers’.