The View from the “Other Side”

During my morning review of feeds through The Old Reader, I realized that none of my sources in my “World News” category came from the United States. Two of them come from the United Kingdom (BBC and The Guardian); and the other is Al Jazeera, whose news I try to watch once a day, even if the only way I can do so is through YouTube. As might be guessed, Al Jazeera has its own take on how our country’s policies guided by our President are evolving.

Woman walking past a mural in Tehran protesting the United States military forces (from an Al Jazeera Web page)

This morning that take was captured in the following headline: “Trump says US forces to stay near Iran, ready for ‘next conquest.’” As of this writing, there is a ceasefire between our country and Iran, which, ironically, was brokered by Pakistan. Regardless of who was doing what, I felt I could breathe easier knowing that I would not be reading news of further hostilities. Nevertheless, I still had misgivings, first with the noun “conquest” and then after reading the following paragraph in the article with the aforementioned headline:

Yet Trump’s language underscored how quickly the truce could unravel. He reiterated US demands that Iran abandon any nuclear weapons ambitions and ensure safe passage through the vital shipping lane, while boasting that US forces were “Loading Up and Resting, looking forward, actually, to its next Conquest”.

The Guardian is having a say of its own in this matter. This morning ran an article about George Clooney giving a speech to 3,000 high school students in Cuneo, Italy. (Mind you, this setting allows Donald Trump to accuse Clooney of being un-American!) Here is what Clooney had to say:

Families are losing their loved ones. Children have been incinerated. The world’s economy is on a knife’s edge. This is a time for vigorous debate at the highest levels. Not for infantile name calling. I’ll start. A war crime is alleged ‘when there is intent to physically destroy a nation,’ as defined by the Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute. What is the administration’s defense? 

This November’s election will have an impact on the membership in both houses of the Congress. I see this as a “litmus test” to measure how many voting citizens in the United States are willing to push back on Trump’s approach to foreign relations. My greatest concern is that this may be too long of a wait!