Abu Hena :After weeks of flip-flopping on the issue of 11 million undocumented immigrants , mostly Hispanics, Donald Trump , the Republican presidential nominee, decided to lay out his policy on immigration before a rally in Arizona on Wednesday .But before doing that he made an impromptu journey to Mexico responding to an invitation of its President Enrique Pena Nieto to discuss the immigration issue and building of the wall which he wants to build along the southern border. Angry Mexicans who were greatly agitated by Trump’s indecent remarks about the Mexicans, took to the streets in protest carrying placards: “Go home Trump”, and the cartoons made him an object of ridicule.
After the meeting, Trump appeared before the press along with the Mexican president and looked extremely sober when he said that things have been discussed in a cordial atmosphere and the problems would be solved through mutual discussions and negotiations .That was what the Tel-e Prompter wanted him to say. But Trump’s diplomatic gesture evaporated as soon as he crossed the border. Affronted and enraged by the rocky reception, Trump, who became a different man altogetherafter returning to Arizona, burst into the rage of the sea and declared before the rally: “We will build a great wall along the southern border and Mexico will pay for the wall-one hundred percent.” It will be ‘a tall, beautiful and strong wall’, he said ,and there will be enough manpower to supplement the wall. Trump’s concept of the wall resembles the Great Wall of China, an insurmountable barrier, especially to the passage of information and communication. Trump, who is a real estate developer, is obsessed by the idea of building a wall which, he now says, will be ‘tall, beautiful, and strong’, as a show-place attracting visitors .The wall , so special, will offer him an opportunity for a display of his skill as a builder.
There were similar instances in the past when a professional naysayer influenced America’s foreign and defense policy. Dick Cheney, who served as CEO of Halliburton beforebecoming U.S.Vice-President, appointed Halliburton as the contractor for reconstruction of Iraq, before the Iraq war was even declared. In the Iraq war $900 billion of U.S. taxpayers’ money were spent or approved for spending through October 2010. Of this $19 billion were either lost, mismanaged or wasted. Trump is not George W. Bush. He wants to march with his troops, occupy the Middle East again and “keep the oil”. He is a perfect businessman. “Mexicans”, in his words, “bring crime, they are rapists..criminal aliens.” He vowed to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants from ‘day one’, stamping out any scope for Amnesty. And he decrees with all powers at his command, “I will make Mexico paying for the wall”. The Mexican President who slammed Trump’s policies as ‘threat’, tweeted, “Mexico won’t pay for the wall.”
Indeed, Donald Trump has issued a ‘threat’ that he would be invading Mexico as Hitler invaded Poland and make Mexico pay for the ‘tall, beautiful and strong’ wall which the Mexicans may also admire . Trump sees no reason why he should not get what he wants either by stealth or by force. In the case of ordinary people, the psychology is obvious. In the case of Donald Trump, who wants to be the President of the United States, the leader of the free world, the psychology is extremely complicated, but it finally leads to the same conclusion-‘miscalculation’.
He thinks he can march into Mexico and force the sovereign country to pay for the wall. This is an offensive statement for which Mexico, an important trading partner of the United States and a friendly neighbor can justly demand Trump’s apology. Ron Rosenbaum, author of Explaining Hitler, said,”He showed how much lower we could go and that what was so terrifying. It gets us wandering not just at the depths he showed us but whether there is worse to come.” Trump is the perfect replica of Hitler, a delinquent,whose reckless aberration made the world unsafe. Trump, if he wants to be president, must understand that the story of the modern world is the story of freedom’s triumph : the victory of democracy, of free enterprise, of tolerance, of free minds and free markets.
America’s FoundingFathers prided themselves on their “descent respect to the opinions of mankind”. Lack of it is proving to be the greatest barrier to America’s ascendancy to the supreme position of greatness ever attained by any nation in history. For all good reasons America is the world’s indispensable superpower. When it comes to the use of force, America must come out of the 19th century world of self-serving power politics of predatory colonialism, which believed in exploitation and domination. Dick Cheney former CEO of Halliburton dispatched the American armed forces to control Iraq’s oil deposits. Donald Trump, a real estate developer, may lead the U.S. army to Mexico to compel the Mexican president to pay the builder to erect the wall. But that’s not the job of the U.S. military or the President. The citizens of the United States truly believe that they are a unique nation, exceptionally entrusted with the lead role to free the world for the sole purpose of defending democracy, liberty, and world peace. Arguing on behalf of a new consensus to promote open market and trade Robert Zoellick made the point: free trade is about freedom. Economic freedom creates habits of liberty, and habits of liberty create expectations of democracy. Whether one likes it or not, America today is a ‘universal nation’, committed irreversibly to its maintenance and expansion asserting its unquestioned military supremacy with a globally deployed force.It’s not the time to build another ‘Berlin Wall’. It’s the time to demolish all barriers.
The daunting task of governing the ‘universal nation’ has fallen on the shoulder of the President of the United States. It is a hard task, which demands the quality of a surefooted operator, skillful in diplomacy and war-a leader in American statecraft, looking towards the creation of an open and integrated world of which the United States will hold the key.Donald Trump is not the man who can visualize that American greatness. He has hired a campaign team which, in his own words, comprise “fantastic people who know how to win”. He has appointed as his campaign chief executive Stephen Bannon, the chairman of Breitbert News, a hard right conspiracy-tinged website. It denounced Republican leaders in Congress as ‘establishment shills and enemies of the working man’. According to the New York Times Trump is being advised on his upcoming debates with Clinton by Roger Ailes, a media strategist who resigned as chairman of Fox News amid allegations of sexual harassment by former female employee. Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, who was charged for having extra-marital affair with his secretary while his wife was down with cancer, is his patron- adviser. Paul Manafort, his campaign chairman, was a highly paid consultant to a Ukrainian political party with close ties with Russia. Another of his adviser was an adviser to the Russian oil-giant Gazprom. Donald Trump himself is a great admirer of Vladimir Putin.He sent an open invitation to Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’ emails, almost shamelessly. Winning the election is his only mission and he wants to accomplish it either by fair or foul means .
Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, on the other-hand , named the heads of her White House transition team on August 16. The team which will vet potential senior members of a Clinton administration and begin policy planning, in a standard practice for major party nominees-will be chaired by Ken Salazar, ex-interior secretary, known for his pro-trade and pro-business instincts. The choice of the American voters is, thus crystal clear. Hillary Clinton is now leading Donald Trump by five to seven percent in a four-way race.
[Writer was elected MP in the 7th and the 8th Parliaments of Bangladesh]
