OPINION: Who calls out America’s leaders for ’bad’ foreign affairs decisions

We should not buy the idea that foreign affairs is just for the experts; that citizens should refrain from critiquing foreign matters, lest they be seen as disloyal. Since the officials and the experts represent and speak for us, we should not just remain “silent” partners to whatever goes down. Much good can derive from community wisdom, just as much havoc can be reaped in our name when we “just let it flow.” 

Even as we speak, America is embroiled in an expensive, unnecessary war, based on bad foreign affairs decisions. President Trump, in his first term, abolished a treaty with Iran that had resolved the issue over which the administration now claims to be fighting. In addition to that, Trump proceeded to attack Iran without provocation. As the war spread, he has criticized America’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies for not joining him in the war. This foreign affairs blunder follows closely on heels of the decision to invade Venezuela, capturing its president and first lady, after having bombed and killed numerous alleged, but unconfirmed drug smugglers off its coast. Meanwhile, he has used economic warfare to cripple Cuba, threatened to seize Greenland, and launched military strikes against Yemen and parts of Nigeria and the Congo.

These were all bad foreign policy decisions, resulting in acts of war for which American citizens are paying and which Congress did not authorize. While some few American allies have complained and some congresspersons have spoken out against, the American people as a whole should be up in arms because the actions spends money in their name, kills in their name, and otherwise puts the country on the wrong side of history.

On the one hand, this president has gone over-board or should we say, out of his mind, in the matter of foreign affairs. On the other hand, it is fair to say that he is not alone in making bad foreign policy decisions while too many American citizens have remained silent. America should not have been in Viet Nam, should not have invaded Iraq or been in Afghanistan, should not have plotted to overthrow the Patrice Lumumba regime or the Muammar Gaddafi regime, and so on down the line of many other foreign affairs matters. These military actions cost lives and money on both sides of each war.

Beyond the military actions, it is important to look at other foreign affairs matters where bad decisions were made. We could begin with America’s participation on the Transatlantic Slave Trade. We can proceed with America’s refusal to sign the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (This was particularly ironic since former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the committee which drafted the document and made many of the inclusions herself.) We also can cite the refusal of the American delegation to the United Nations to vote in favor of the recent resolution declaring the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the Racialized Enslavement of Africans as the greatest crime against humanity.

The point to be made is that because America purports to be, and in many ways strives to be a democracy, citizens can and should enthusiastically exercise their First Amendment right to call-out their leaders when they make bad, un-American, anti-humanitarian foreign policy decisions. Taking such stands would help stamp citizens as truly genuine and loyal Americans.

In a real sense, America should be the moral model for the rest of the world since being American does not mean being simply another tribe or ethnic group. Being American means deliberately choosing to be a part of or remaining a part of a global society that reflects and represents humanity as a family. We can become such a society, but only if we willingly make the effort.