What’s happening to America?

Cesar Gorillo .

THE Glory that was Greece; the Grandeur that was Rome. This was the usual description of nations that have lorded over the world in terms of power and influence but later turned to oblivion by series of events brought about by ineffective governance.

This is happening to the United States of America right now. It is simply unfortunate that it has a President whose policies are declared on his Twitter account without first consulting with the best minds that America has.

In Israel and Palestine, at least five Palestinians are killed everyday simply because Trump has triggered an old animosity between Palestine and Israel. Trump transferred the US embassy to Jerusalem, a very sensitive issue which was avoided by the best minds in foreign policy prior to and before Henry Kissinger.

Then he unilaterally dumped the Iran nuclear deal, an agreement signed by powerful countries, including France and England, to contain Iran’s dangerous nuclear program on the ground that there were provisions disadvantageous to America not knowing that this agreement was forged after years of discussions by the top minds in foreign policies by these countries.  After this, Israel bombed Iran’s facilities in Syria thus triggering another set of dangerous conflict which may led us to nuclear war.

The worst of all is that after the North Korean leader forged an agreement with South Korea that they will dismantle their nuclear testing sites came another move by America to actually carry another round of war exercises with South Korea. It triggered an angry response from the North Korean leader to scrap the agreement to dismantle their nuclear testing sites. The United States should know that this type of exercises always creates animosity on the part of North Korea. The would-be historic meeting with President Donald Trump is now in limbo.“Tama na ang pagpakitang gilas.”

Then the Unites States is now into bombing orgies in Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen by supporting any group it believes to be in need of help. The end is not very clear and there’s a question on whether these groups will eventually be friends of America in the long run. We know these groups are just seeking the help of the US to attain their ends.

And last but not the least is this constant bullying of China. China is becoming a huge economic power and the US does not like this. As a result, they recently slapped a 20-percent duty on all Chinese steel exports to the US, triggering a potential massive trade war that will make poor countries like the Philippines innocent victims in the end.  Not only that, many of the so-called American foreign policy “experts” are foisting to the hapless public the danger that China poses under many imagined scenarios. All I know is that the Chinese are simply wise businessmen as against American extravagance.

I am getting afraid these developments are triggering constant threats to world peace. No less than Pope John Paul II had warned President George Bush about the danger of bombing Iraq but the US President then never listened. Because he never listened, that bombing created the Al Qaida, the Isis, the Jemaah Islamiya and the Mautes — and the non-stop wars are now taking place in Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen. And we also see stabbings in Paris, London and other European countries committed by rabid religious extremists.