Can US be policeman, judge, jury and executioner of the world?
The US, unlike the UN, is the ultimate guarantor of human rights, says John Hajjar of the American MidEast Coalition for Trump. However, we see the bad results of US world policing in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, argues investigative journalist Rick Sterling.
US military commanders are now being given free rein on the battlefield by the Trump administration.
Also, President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday that the US has “no choice” but to continue boosting its armed forces following displays of Washington's military prowess over the past two weeks.
Our military is building and is rapidly becoming stronger than ever before. Frankly, we have no choice!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 16, 2017
RT discussed the American leader's military policy with investigative journalist Rick Sterling and John Hajjar from the American MidEast Coalition for Trump.
Rick Sterling, investigative journalist and a member of the Syria Solidarity Movement, argues that the US actions in Syria are “a betrayal of Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to reduce tension and to not intervene in Syria and to join with Russia and Syria fighting against ISIS.”
“It is a very dangerous move, an obvious violation of international law to attack a sovereign state. It risks a direct confrontation between two nuclear-armed states,” he added.
John Hajjar argues though that the launch by the US of 59 Tomahawk missiles against a Syrian air base following the alleged chemical weapons attack on April 4 was justified.
“The UN is not the ultimate guarantor of the human rights in this world. It is the US,” he added.
“Donald Trump wanted to set a precedent very early in this presidency that we will not tolerate this type of behavior from anyone. And what’s funny is that it dispels all the fear mongering and all the conspiracy theories on the left who said that Donald Trump is ‘in bed’ with Vladimir Putin. Obviously, this is not the case,” he added.
Hajar said he would not trust the US intelligence services under the Obama administration, but he gives them a lot more credence under the Trump’s administration.
“I think Trump is listening to his generals, listening to the intelligence services and he is certain that it was Bashar Assad that dropped the chemical weapons in Khan Sheikhoun,” he added.
So far, the US hasn’t presented any proof of the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government.
“It’s almost certain that it was the terrorists who committed the heinous act in Khan Sheikhoun,” argues Rick Sterling.
“Unfortunately, the notion that John Hajar is portraying of the US as a policeman of the world, as the judge, jury, and executioner - we’ve seen this before. The US war in Afghanistan is ongoing; the US attack on Iraq in 2003 claiming Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction which he did not turn out to have killed about a million Iraqis…The government of Libya was overthrown,” Sterling said.
He added that “it is easy to drop bombs, it is easy to start wars, it is easy to intervene. But the US history of the last 40 or 50 years shows it is easy to start and very hard to finish.”
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.