After the audacious and illegal kidnapping of Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro, which the United States president claimed was effected in pursuance of American law enforcement policies, Donald Trump has effectively lost his moral ascendancy before the community of nations.
Trump cannot claim to champion international law, which he so violently and maliciously violated several times, nor would he rightfully impose compliance to it by other sovereign nations.
President Trump can no longer justify his country's call for a "rules-based" order in the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Pacific and the Atlantic---or any where else in the globe, because he himself treats this with disdain.
The global outcry over the US seizure of Maduro continues to get louder and louder, and the United States' criminal indictment of the Venezuelan leader is being unmasked as plain harassment by a strong country against a weak one.
The blurry picture has become clear, and even members of the US Senate and House of Representatives are pointing out that countries cannot use their own indictments to attack another state.
Leaders of various countries are one in condemning Trump's aggressive action against Venezuela, and his continued adherence to the old Monroe Doctrine that considers the western hemisphere, particularly South America, as the United States' backyard where other countries would have to seek US approval to stay and do business.
What many analysts fail to see is that the Monroe Doctrine was later strengthened by the Roosevelt amendment to the original policy, and later was even given more teeth with the way Trump implements the doctrine.
While the Monroe Doctrine states that European countries should stay out of Latin America, the Roosevelt Corollary takes this further to say the US had the right to exercise military force in Latin American countries to keep European countries out.
Well, at least Trump, in his characteristic egocentricity and braggadocio, admitted that he considers himself outside the ambit of international law.
Donald Trump has dismissed international law, saying only his “own morality” can curb the aggressive policies he is pursuing across the world after the abduction of Venezuela’s president.
“I don’t need international law. I’m not looking to hurt people,” Trump told The New York Times on Thursday.
The POTUS vowed his willingness to abide by international law, but it "depends what your definition of international law is," which is tantamount to saying he makes his own rules in the global stage.
Trump is ready to use the brute force of the US military to achieve his foreign policy goals---and this sends a chilling signal to nations he perceives as US adversaries or even allies whose lands and resources he wanted for his own.
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