The “America First” vision — a distorted, selfish mission in practice — of US President Donald Trump appears destined to create global instability and large-scale destruction worldwide. His mounting aggressive adventures and imperialist assertions around the world continue to threaten peace and security, while also instilling fear and panic in the entire international community.
Moreover, Trump’s intense desire to acquire Greenland from Denmark, along with his efforts to instigate regime change in Iran amid ongoing internal disturbances, has contributed to the overall destabilization of the already complex international landscape. This situation is further complicated by the fierce ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, as well as the armed conflict between Israel and Hamas.
In West Asia, various regional actors — including Israel, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan — are already engaged in bitter clashes, either individually or in mutually supportive groups, taking sides against one another.
Added to the international woes is President Trump’s successful intervention in Venezuela on January 3, along with consistently threatening behavior towards Colombia, Panama, Cuba and Mexico, as well as his militarist, assertive policies regarding China, Russia and North Korea, on the one hand, and harsh tariff structures against India, Brazil, South Korea and more.
“America First” and the revival of the Monroe Doctrine
While President Trump is directionless in his so-called America First vision, he is reviving the Monroe Doctrine, propounded by the legendary American President James Monroe in 1823. This shift reflects his intemperate behavior and fickle-mindedness, which ultimately manifests in his imperialist-expansionist policies. He shows no respect or regard for sovereign nations and their national leaders in Europe and the Arctic, particularly in Denmark and Norway. His approach extends even to Arab nations. Furthermore, his conflicting stance on European unity and larger Euro-American interests has alarmed NATO states in Europe about their own unity and their collective stand on regional and global issues.
In fact, Trump’s extensive military preparations aimed at encircling and devastating Iran are ostensibly intended to stop the ongoing brutal repression of protesting citizens by the country’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. Khamenei’s government is deeply mired in widespread corruption. However, the actual motivation behind these preparations is to topple the Khamenei regime, which is reportedly covertly engaged in uranium enrichment operations at the Natanz, Fordo and Isfahan nuclear plants in order to manufacture nuclear weapons. This poses a direct threat to Israel — an adversary of Tehran — and to the US military bases and armed forces stationed in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and several other Arab states, including Iraq, Egypt and Gulf nations such as Qatar, Bahrain and Oman. These countries enjoy American support, as well as Washington’s significant investments in oil wells and the presence of technical personnel.
If America ultimately initiates military action against Iran, as it looks highly probable now, the consequent scenario will inevitably drag all regional partners into the so-aroused controversy by taking sides either for or against Iran as well as America, depending upon their individual strategic ties with the US, Russia or China.
While Turkey, the sole Muslim member of NATO, will part with the Muslim Arab world having anti-American grudges, the rest of the NATO alliance will obviously go with America, and the so-obtained complicated situation will obviously shatter the unity and strength of this military alliance and also that of the West Asian region.
Evidently, this polarization will prove very destructive to the fragile peace and security of the region, often characterized as a burning cauldron in the world, as Iran has also threatened massive retaliation against the US. Although Iran can’t match the US’ awesome, state-of-the-art military power — with large-scale networking of American military bases, deployed with ever-larger aircraft carriers, aircraft, and well-trained and equipped armed forces — and may not be able to directly target America with its own weapons, the assured Russian and Chinese support, followed by that of North Korea, Yemen and Lebanon, have obviously bolstered Tehran’s morale. Its consequent commitment to retaliate with all-out might against Washington obviously hints at ominous portents not only for the region but for the entire peace-loving community throughout the world.
Escalating tensions and global risks
Perhaps to make matters worse, the US has repeatedly captured Russia’s oil tankers in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and elsewhere in the Caribbean Sea. In fact, the US has encircled almost the whole world under its imperialist agenda, including Asia, Africa, the Arctic, Latin America, the Caribbean Sea, the Middle East (or West Asia), the Straits of Hormuz, the Red Sea, the Black Sea and the entire Pacific region. This expansion is not just to allow the US to spread and consolidate its sphere of influence across continents and regain global hegemony in the current multipolar world order, but also to extract rich natural resources — minerals, ores, gas and crude oil.
Since the hitherto established traditional economic and technological powers, namely the US and Russia, are being reasonably surpassed by most of the fast-developing major powers — such as China, Japan, Germany, England, France, Italy, Australia, Israel, Brazil and India — the uniqueness of the US’ highly destructive military power still assures President Trump that the US can prevail over the whole world to execute its sole wishes however illogical or troublesome that may be in the larger interest of humanity.
Environmental neglect and the threat of war
It appears that he has no care for the environment, climate, water, air or the mother earth that provides shelter to the ever-swallowing human race and several other living beings, which may be subjected to unimaginable loss or immense ecological imbalance resulting in tremendous calamity for all if a nuclear war triggers anywhere in the world. An outcome that will most probably be due to the prevailing war of nerves between the US-led NATO powers and China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.
This is perhaps why US citizens are expressing their resentment of President Trump’s precarious imperialist foreign policy, reflecting a “America First” mania to subjugate sovereign leaders on the pretext of internal disturbances, drug trafficking, or anything else he deems suitable to satiate his self-seeking and irresponsible ego. That aptly manifests in Lord John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton’s ageless wisdom: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
In this scenario, President Trump must first cool down and ponder many times over that any wrong decision, such as initiating air strikes against Iran, Greenland or North Korea, or carrying out naval attacks at sea against Russia, China or any sovereign nation in Latin America, South America, Africa, or anywhere else can engender unimaginable destruction that would devastate peace, progress and security worldwide.
If President Trump is frustrated by not winning the Nobel Peace Prize to secure his monumental place in world history, why is he putting global peace at risk, possibly by helping to throw the global peace-loving community into a major global crisis, most likely the Third World War?
[The Times of India first published a version of this piece.]
[Kaitlyn Diana edited this piece.]
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.
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