By engaging in a war of choice in a critical region for global trade and utterly ignoring the probable consequences for the economies of its closest allies, the Trump administration has destroyed the legitimacy of American power,” asserted Anatol Lieven of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.
What do I say to this assertion?
TRUE!
The United States of America (actually, our current president, acting as though he, as president, was entitled to make an individual decision that the United States should go to war) has made a huge and consequential mistake.
When someone (an individual or a nation) makes a mistake, the responsible party needs to apologize. And to be effective, an apology needs to be more than simply "verbal." The apology needs to be accompanied by some sort of action that fully acknowledges the error made, and that demonstrates an effort to show genuine remorse, and some significant effort to set things right.
We, the people of the United States, are bearing the responsibility for the mistake made by our current president. I don't think there is a way to set things right without an apology accompanied by doing something to make clear that we, the citizens of the United States, do fully understand and apologize for what has been done.
Our Constitution provides a couple of ways for the nation to make such an apology, in a manner that would have a chance, at least, of being accepted by the nations of the world (and particularly our "friends," our "allies," those whom have been so dramatically impacted by what has been done).
Who can take such an action? First, our current president's Cabinet.
Second, The Congress of The United States of America.
Absent action by the Cabinet, there isn't a way to make the right kind of apology, other than by Congressional action. If the nation wants to recapture the "legitimacy" of our conduct affecting the world, Congress must take action, and "partisan" votes are not going to do the trick.
Action!
Promptly Undertaken!
That might have a chance.
From my point of view, living in Europe, it seems unlikely that we will be able to regain the world's respect any time soon. Unfortunately over half of our countrymen voted for Donald Trump not once, but twice, even after he incited an insurrection against the government itself. An apology would be nice, but our country has really lost its credibility and I'm not sure we can easily reverse that. In 2020 when Biden said to Macron "We're back!" Macron answered "Yes, but for how long?" It seems to me that we, as a nation after WWII were instrumental in inspiring other nations to create the Liberal World Order that was effective for many years in bringing mostly peace and lifting up peoples. Somewhere these ideals of "truth, justice and the American way" were eclipsed in our own country by corporate greed. I'm not sure we can patch up what we have now. Some very fundamental changes will have to be made.
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