Lincoln: Beware the new world order of cowboy diplomacy

The absence of reflective judgment, the void in vision and its long-term impacts, the transformative decisions made on impulse, the braggadocio laced with arrogance —  these are the qualifying traits that define today’s most powerful world leader, Donald Trump.

In a mere matter of months, he has carved a world of constant unpredictability and chaotic instability, where erstwhile alliances and agreements are summarily cast aside, while culpable nations are treated with due deference, provided they are strong and powerful. The rule of law has become the rule of might.

It is indeed the world turned upside down. Modern Europe, which owes its tested cohesion and stability in great part to the generosity of the United States, is now treated with contempt and even derision. Canada, closest friend and neighbour of the U.S., is contemptuously described as the 51st state, our vast natural resources to become the rightful tribute to America the Mighty.

We used to think of the threats against us, or Greenland, as idle boasts of vanity and self-glorification. Suddenly these threats are becoming far more serious and real, especially for Greenland. For who among us could have imagined that the New Year would witness U.S. troops in the heart of Caracas and the spiriting away of the Venezuelan dictator for trial on U.S. soil?

Nicolás Maduro is certainly a contemptible personage, in power following a stolen election, presiding over a corrupt government where opponents were treated with ruthless cruelty, and which bankrupted the country while he and his regime basked in luxury. Yet he is only one of an impressive list of pitiless autocrats and dictators. Does U.S. logic imply others should follow, with the U.S. the sole arbiter of which to displace next?

What country should it be? Belarus, Myanmar … or Russia or China? Be sure it will be neither of the last two — bullies always target weaker than they.

When the assaults against Venezuelan boats started weeks ago, eradication of drugs was the stated reason. We now know, from Trump’s own admission, that Venezuela’s major oil reserves are the targeted prize. After all, he argues, U.S. oil companies were denied their right of possession when oil companies were nationalized by former president Hugo Chávez and fully deserve retribution. As if that oil does not belong to the people of Venezuela.

Whatever the reason for the attack, and regardless of Maduro’s undeniable corruption and cruelty, the UN Charter, of which the U.S. is a founding member, provides emphatically that no nation can take over or do deliberate harm to another.

The tragic lessons of the Iraq War still resonate in the U.S. and across the world. Yet, it needs noting that then president George W. Bush did obtain Congress authorization, besides having referred the case to the United Nations.

In the Trumpian era, such solemn obligations are mere details to be ignored in the name of America the Mighty. The established world order, the rule of law, international agreements and conventions — none counts in the omnipotent MAGA universe.

It is cowboy governance and diplomacy running full gallop toward the unknown. It is Animal Farm writ large. It is truly the upside-down world. Indeed, while valiant Ukraine is battered to exhaustion and fights for its very existence, in the MAGA world of Trump, “Russia wants to see Ukraine succeed”!!!

The world’s leading democracy, in its short-sighted attack on Venezuela, has not only sanctioned Russia’s savage invasion of Ukraine, but given licence to China on Taiwan. Only in the twisted world of Trump and MAGA would inimical adversaries of might be rewarded, and democratic allies and fellow NATO members threatened with invasion.

More assertively than ever, we in this peaceful country must close ranks with those like nations that strive for true democracy and a world order of peace, stability and respect for the other.

Clifford Lincoln is a former Quebec Liberal MNA and federal Liberal MP who retired from politics in 2004. He lives in Baie-D’Urfé.

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