Threatening Panama

By Daniel Nardini

Lawndale News Chicago's Bilingual Newspaper - CommentaryHe has not even been inaugurated as president of the United States, and already he is talking like a crazy man. He wants to put on 25 percent tariffs against Canada and Mexico, and he is now threatening the sovereignty of Panama over the Panama Canal. Why is U.S. President-elect Donald Trump threatening our allies and threatening war at a time when the United States has barely been at peace for almost four years since the disastrous Afghanistan War? It is beginning to look as if Trump is becoming less mentally stable as he becomes the America’s premiere statesman. But the real issue is why on earth is the Republican Party even remotely allowing this man to say and do the things he wants to do without any real consequences?

Actually, this is not entirely accurate. There is no doubt that the Republican Party wanted Trump in the first place because he espouses extreme inflammatory rhetoric tens of millions of Americans love to hear. This suited the desires of the Republican leadership because it meant Trump has remained not only popular with his cult-like base but also to millions of Americans sick of inflation, supply-chain issues, and the feeling they have been left out of the decision-making in the U.S. government. I have rarely seen such an angry vote for the presidency as I have seen in this election. Critical thinking has not gone into most peoples’ minds about why they voted, and both the Democratic and Republican parties did not give us much choice for candidates either.

But when Trump “got out of line” the Republican Party leadership reluctantly but firmly said “no” to Trump’s interference in the legislative process. First they thoroughly shot down Trump’s pick for U.S. Attorney General Matt Gaetz, then they absolutely did not allow Trump to get his way with funding the U.S. government to prevent it from shutting down, and finally the Republican Party leadership are now questioning many of Trump’s cabinet picks when he assumes the office of president. It is something to see even the Republican Party having questions about Trump being in power. Now they are having buyer’s remorse over their boy?

The problem is that this boy is clearly going into mental decline, and he has a loaded gun to make his point. He could easily order the U.S. armed forces to invade another country like Panama. Would the Republican Party stop him? As commander-in-chief of the U.S. armed forces he has the authority to do this. Only the U.S. Congress has the power to declare war and to fund any war. Would they stop Trump from trying to use the U.S. military against Panama? Both the Democratic and Republican parties did a lousy job of stopping former U.S. President George W. Bush from invading Iraq when there was no evidence of any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Have we learned nothing from the whole Iraq War that giving any one person so much power that they can invade and conquer a whole country with no evidence of a threat to the United States, and based on a complete lie just because then President Bush wanted to overthrow a sovereign government because he wanted to? Has this country learned nothing from history? President Bush brought shame and disgrace to the United States, made America’s allies less trusting of this nation, and had made the presidency an imperial office out-of-control of any and all other parts of the U.S. government that has yet to be resolved. I hope that the new year does NOT ring in with the invasion of Panama or any other country. The United States has already had too much war in this century as it is.

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