America the Ugly?

Oh the irony and the hypocrisy of it all!

Rex Tillerson, Exxon’s ex CEO (and supposed ‘Secretary of State’ of the United States of America – yeah, right) just lectured Iran’s leaders about freedom of assembly and freedom of the press. He did this while standing next to Saudi Arabia’s leaders after signing a deal whereas the US sold them $110B worth of military equipment.

The USA just showed its true colors yet again. Values be dammed. Moral highroads just hit the gutter. A new low…

Does ANYBODY care that the first Country our illustrious President chooses to officially visit has a human rights record WORSE than Russia or Iran – or Cuba for that matter?

 “[Saudi Arabia] does not allow for the existence of political parties, trade unions, or independent human rights groups. One cannot worship any religion other than Islam in public. And public gatherings, even if they are peaceful, are prohibited.”… More

But hey, we just sold them billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment – and they have lots of oil… (Please spare me any reference to how ‘Obama was their friend too.’ That does not make this visit any less hypocritical.)

Here we go again. Seen this movie before: Arm our (supposed) friends because we are fighting a common (supposed) enemy – an enemy we helped create – and then in the not too distant future those same arms are used against us… Hmmm…. Who wins with this approach? You guessed it! The arms makers and the arms dealers… Who suffers? Everyone else.

(Are you watching Exxon stock while all of this is going on? Did you know that Trump registered eight companies   in Saudi Arabia in 2016?)

In the good ol’ days most of America’s foreign policy was guided by some semblance (at least in appearance) of aspiration; of moral leadership; of values driven endeavors… Nah. No more… Let’s just make sure we keep access to that oil – and Trump Enterprises prosper while at it.

Now foreign policy becomes transactional. ‘You buy weapons, invest some of that money in U.S. corporate world, make a few rich friends richer, create international chaos so we can sell more weapons, and the cycle starts all over again.’

=> No thought to how different a world it would be if we invested in other countries’ hospitals and schools instead of bullets and bombs.

=> No recognition that by being the world’s weapon producer and dealer we can guarantee only the establishment of order by force rather than goodwill.

=> No attempt at conveying expectations of respect and honor for civil discourse and pluralism because we have shattered all expectations that we will do that in our own land.

America is fast becoming a laughingstock. The Ugly American is rearing its very ugly head.

America the beautiful; America the graceful; America the caring is harder and harder to find… And it’s only being a few months.

Welcome to TrumpWorld. #resist we must.

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