Trump is a threat to global order

As president Donald Trump spoke to the press at Mar A Lago, with his secretary of state, secretary of war and joint chief of staff behind him, a stunned world including his own country came to know that American armed forces had attacked Venezuela in the dead of night, abducted the president of that country, including his wife and America was going to administer the country allowing American oil companies to go back to Venezuela to resume their operations.

The declaration before the press strained credulity as nothing like this had happened before with America's Panama operation being a distant and unlikely comparison. Panama is a much smaller country and in the backyard of America. The allegation of Panama's then president Noriega's involvement in drug trafficking was based on some facts and was somewhat credible. But being a oil rich country Venezuela has no reason to resort to drug trafficking. Mentioning American oil companies' return to Venezuela to resume their exploitative operations revealed the cat out of the bag. All the posturing and statements made by president Trump and his acolytes about dealing with drug trafficking Venezuelan presidency have been exposed for what they are: red herrings to divert from the real objective of the American mobilisation of its mighty armed forces in the Caribbean viz to secure the oil resources of the country for American oil giants. It is now obvious that president Trump has taken this unprecedented action in the interests of the American corporate oil giants. Being a transactional man, there could have been a quid pro quo in this for president Trump's business concerns also. But that is not what the world is concerned about at this moment. What the world is examining is what does the latest unilateral decision by the present American administration implies in terms of international law and its bearings in the world order that prevailed before Donald Trump 2.0.

By any definition, what America has done is an act of war. A country can go to war in self defence or as an act of aggrandisement. For that the legal requirement is a declaration of war made beforehand. President Trump's administration made no such declaration any time in the recent past. Secondly, according to American constitution, an American president is required to get the approval of the Congress before going to war against any country. In this case no such approval was sought and granted. On the contrary, president Trump reportedly told the Senate Armed Services Committee that his administration was not going to wage war against Venezuela or sought to a regime change in the country. The Democratic Senator in the Committee who spoke to CNN shortly after the armed invasion of Venezuela informed this and alleged that president Trump had lied to the Senate Committee on this score

By attacking Venezuela, president Trump has violated its own policy embodied in Monroe Doctrine of 1813 which laid down that in exchange of European non- interference in Western Hemisphere (Latin America ) America would act as the guardian of countries in the Hemisphere to ensure their development. The just concluded armed invasion hardly fits into that promise and vision.

America is not only a member but the leader of the powerful security organisation NATO which provides for joint action under Article 5 in case of an attack on any member country. If America felt threatened in any way the least that was expected from America was an early consultation with NATO members. As it has turned out, far from being informed and consulted, America's allies have been completely blindsided. The British prime minister was seen completely flabbergasted and embarrassed when asked by BBC to comment on America's military intervention in Venezuela. All that he could mutter is that he would talk to president Trump on the matter to find out the details. America's other allies must be in a similar quandary as to what to say. Whatever their reactions may be, it should be crystal clear to them that president Trump does not believe in collegiality when it comes to military action anywhere, at any time. He proved this when American bombers took out the Iranian nuclear facilities, using long range stealth bombers. He has demonstrated his penchant for unilateral decision-making in the case of formulating a peace deal to end the war in Ukraine and signing of ceasefire deal in Gaza. In these two cases, America's European allies have been obliged to follow suit rather than taking an independent stand. The sense that they are chary about a frontal confrontation with America in decision making is unmistakable. President Trump is taking full advantage of this attitude of obeisance on their part and assuming their post facto consent for granted.

Only a year of the present term of president Trump's presidency is over and like the morning shows the day, the shape of things to come during the rest of his tenure can easily be anticipated on the basis of his performance in the past year. In short, it will be more of the same. What he has successfully achieved in the course of one year is to dismantle the world order that ensured both peace and development. He came to power with the promise to end all wars and yet no American president comes anywhere near him in warmongering. His penchant for war harks back to the days of European colonialism when countries in Europe conquered lands to colonise with a view to exploiting their resources. His peace deal in Ukraine will bind Ukraine in an agreement to allow extraction of minerals by America. The ceasefire deal provides for a euphemistically called 'Board of Peace' headed by president Trump. Why would an American president become the head of a development agency in another country unless there is material gains to be made by him and his country through reconstruction, real estate projects a la Riviera and an American military base in Gaza? His allies know this and yet kowtowed him at the signing ceremony lest he deserts NATO.

Before long president Trump is going to take over Greenland making short shrift of Article 5 of NATO. He has made this clear through his plain speaking on several occasions which is his only sterling quality he has by virtue of his big mouth. He has already warned Iran about American intervention in the country and this time it will be for a regime change. He has bombed northern Nigeria on the excuse that Christians are being killed there. South Africa has incurred his wrath ostensibly for persecution of white population there but actually for its filing a case against Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ). In short, the world is a much less safe place with Donald Trump and his extremist in power.

On the development side too, president Trump has already done much harm to global economic order. His abrupt imposition of wide ranging tariff on almost all countries during the last year and the hectic horse trading that followed have turned the global economic architecture upside down, arresting global growth. America's withdrawal from Paris Climate Agreement of 2015 under his watch has reversed the progress made so far in collective measures to combat global warming.

On both peace and development fronts, president Trump has already been an unmitigated disaster. All countries must come together to make president Trump and his cabal come to senses and behave responsibly. For this a headlong confrontation is required that will bite America politically and economically. The leadership for this confrontation should come from Europe, the seat of modern civilisation. There is not much time left for taming of the mad man in the White House.

For their part, the American politicians should realise what great harm is being wrought by president Trump to the reputation and image of their country and stop him in the tracks by initiating impeachment on a bi-partisan basis. His military invasion of Venezuela without the approval of Congress is enough to bring him on the mat.

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