First appeared in Asia Times.
Dear Mr. Trump:
You ran for the President of the United States on the promise that you would make America great again. You haven’t said how, but that’s your promise.
Here are some suggestions for you to include in your coming acceptance speech to show that you are serious on delivering on your promise.
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump delivers a speech in Virginia Beach, Virginia U.S. July 11, 2016. REUTERS/Gary Cameron
Make America safe again
Before you can make America great, you need to make America safe again.
To that end, you need to find a solution that would stop the police from shooting African American civilians and black civilians from shooting back.
However, racism runs deep in this country and it may not be realistic for you to come up with a solution overnight to resolve a problem that has been around since the founding of our nation.
But, with a presidential order, you can mandate a total ban on the use of real bullets. Only rubber bullets would be allowed.
The amendment on the right to bear arms did not specify that the arms have to come with metal bullets. Soft rubber bullets would greatly reduce fatalities.
Detractors might argued that only the criminals would then have access to real bullets, but that wouldn’t be so if you ban all domestic production and the import of real bullets into the US.
Criminals intent on mayhem would have to smuggle in the metal bullets. Since you are planning to stop immigrants and other undesirables from entering America, they would be stopped at the border.
As part of the ban, you would mandate that folks could shoot each other only with rubber bullets made in the USA. No made in China rubber bullets allowed.
This would become a brilliant boost to the domestic economy. Rubber manufacturing centers in the heartland of America that used to make tires can restart again and make bullets.
The Great Trump Wall
You have also said that you want to build a wall on the border between the US and Mexico. Again, you haven’t said how.
Actually the only people with thousands of years of experience in wall building are the Chinese. Why not contract them to do the job? They can complete the wall on time and under budget.
The only challenge is how to finance the project. The Wall would not qualify as part of China’s Xi Jinping’s Silk Road initiative. And it would not be considered an infrastructure project that could be financed by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
You are famous for financing a great many real estate projects. Call this one the Great Trump Wall and you shouldn’t have trouble attracting the attention of potential investors.
There must be many would be investors that have not yet experienced what it’s like to invest in your projects, and would find being associated with your name appealing, and could be persuaded to invest in this one.
A foreign policy to make America great again
You have hinted that your foreign policy will differ from your two predecessors and indeed this is where you will have the opportunity to make America great again.
History will show that the blitzkrieg invasion of Iraq under George W. Bush was America’s worst miscalculation ever. Instead of a liberator’s welcome that we expected and we are hemorrhaging from a 13-year-long quagmire and the bleeding is still continuing.
His successor, Barack Obama, accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on the premise that he was going to restore order in the Middle East, but he turned out not to be up to the challenge.
He failed to contain the religious fanatics but allowed the jihadists to spread to Syria. Obama was so intent on imposing a regime change in Syria that he missed seeing the gestation and formation of ISIS in Syria right under his very nose.
He also jumped to the conclusion that Arab Spring was a positive outcome of Arab countries following the leadership of American exceptionalism. Instead, the vacuum in Libya has allowed ISIS to take control and the new regime in Egypt is worse than even under Mubarak.
In short, the two predecessors have left a mess for the next POTUS.
To begin to straighten the mess, it will require a different approach. With your complete blank record on international relations, you have a distinct advantage over your presumptive opponent, Hillary Clinton.
Clinton, as Secretary of State, was the author of Obama’s continuation of the disastrous strategy begun by Bush. You can legitimately argue that she is not likely to have any novel approach.
A new approach requires the full and complete American attention on the absolute and total defeat of ISIS. It means working with and not opposing other governments on the common goal of stopping the Islamic jihadists.
Some pundits point to the recent terrorist attack in Nice as a sign that ISIS is losing ground at home. That’s nonsense and the logic baffling.
A new approach to ISIS
Defeating ISIS means not just cutting off the head but every tentacle in every part of the world to make sure another head doesn’t regenerate. That’s why collaboration with every legitimate government is necessary.
If you are thinking why not just pull out all the troops and leave the mess in Middle East behind — that won’t do. Like the rule in the porcelain shop — we broke it — now we own it.
The Western European countries already own the refugee crisis that we Americans created. They have their hands full and do not have the political will or resources to tackle ISIS without us.
Furthermore, if we do not deal with ISIS in their home base, they will surely find us in our home. The attack on World Trade Center on 9/11 and more recently, the terrorist attack in Southern California, amply illustrate this truth.
You have expressed willingness to work with Putin of Russia. You should extend your willingness to China’s Xi Jinping. Both have the same common interest in putting down the Islamic radicals as we Americans have.
You can begin by calling back our navy flotillas from the South China Sea. These ships are wasting fuel and burning a hole in our defense budget for no other reason than defending a bogus notion — that freedom of navigation is somehow imperiled –created out of the fertile imagination of misguided policy makers in Washington.
Taking on the task of world leadership to defeat ISIS will win the world’s gratitude and make us great again. These are some thoughts for your consideration as you draft your acceptance speech and in the campaign to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment