With control of the White House, the House of Representatives, the Senate, and obvious support from the Republican-dominated Supreme Court, United States President Donald Trump wields almost unprecedented global power.
And while there is great disquiet currently over how to figure out what is the endgame of the path being pursued by the Trump administration, we are not yet concluding that all is doom and gloom.
The pre-Trumpian world was by no means a perfect one and has, in our view, been yearning for leadership that puts peace over war, prosperity over poverty, inclusiveness over divisiveness, and problem-solving over political cravenness.
With his power, and an eye to a great presidential legacy, Mr Trump should move decisively to try to resolve some of the great crises keeping the world from being a better place for the Earth’s inhabitants.
Much of the current approach or policy matters outlined in executive orders do not seem, on the surface of things, to be heading towards constructive resolution. Mr Trump may be keeping things close to chest, but the pro-US world, including Jamaica, needs to see clear signs about intent and how they would be affected.
Starting with the Russia-Ukraine war, we think that leaving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy out of direct talks between presidents Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin do not lend itself to confidence in the negotiations.
Separate talks are bound to cause the Ukrainians, who did not start the war, to feel as if they are less than, and not to trust that agreements reached will be in their best interest.
This is compounded by the non-inclusion of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) members who were allies with the US in the war under the Joseph Biden administration.
Mr Trump’s comments on Tuesday, as quoted by The New York Times, that Ukraine “should have never started the war”, are puzzling. The rest of the world has accepted that Russia started that war. Mr Trump should therefore share what he knows that the rest of us do not.
The contretemps between the US and Ukrainian leaders risks opening up a new front in the war, rather than achieving the peace which the world is hoping for and which Mr Trump is well poised to help bring about.
Moving on, we believe the potential for business between the US and Russia is big and would potentially give a gigantic boon to the world economy, if Russia could be persuaded to abandon its anti-democratic ways and enter the family of freedom-loving nations.
The proposal to develop Gaza, if it is to be pursued, should not be as a “Riviera in the Middle East”, but as an economic centre for the Palestinians, and a potential game-changer in the long and bloody conflicts between them and the Israelis.
If Mr Trump could bring this to pass he would etch his name in history, while changing the trajectory, perhaps forever, of the nature of relations among the nations of the Middle East.
Finally, it is known that poverty is the main driver of immigration. Perhaps countries like the US and Canada, if they can come together, could commit to using the huge swathes of undeveloped lands in North America to accommodate the hopelessly lost.
Obviously we don’t think there is any magic wand to bring these about. But Mr Trump can start something truly disruptive.
—Reprinted from the
Jamaica Observer.
Samatha Buresh
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