Remember the song by the band Chicago from 1975, America Needs You, Harry Truman? (It was only 50 years ago. Why wouldn’t you?) Harry was a guy who told it like it is (or was), had a sign stating, “The Buck Stops Here” on his desk, ended WWII, created NATO, devised the Marshall Plan to shape a post-war American economy, played the piano, advocated for expanding Social Security, civil rights and public housing, and issued executive orders to desegregate the U.S. Armed Forces. How times have changed.
Today, with Donald Trump in the White House, we have a president who wants to start wars (kiss that Peace Prize goodbye, Donny Boy), who lies and constantly passes the buck by blaming every mistake or miscalculation on anybody within reach, is intent on destroying NATO and the U.S. economy, cutting Social Security and other benefits for the public, has ended any recognition for the accomplishments of African Americans by removing monuments, awards and even markers for those in the military who died in battle. And this is the bigot a bunch of us picked to lead the country? Gag me with a spoon.
Harry Truman did things that many of us don’t like, me included, but his heart was in the right place. Trump’s invasion of Venezuela being about drugs is questionable. He couldn’t give a desiccated wiener about the Venezuelan people. It was always about oil. The wars begun under Bush1 and Bush2 were, too.
I remember hearing from Colin Powell’s Chief of Staff, Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, concerning the night before Colin was being pressured to announce to the American people that we were going to invade Iraq because Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Colin didn’t believe Saddam had any and that he’d end up the fall guy for saying he did, which is just what happened.
Wilkerson played a key role in presenting the false claims about Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) in the 2003 UN speech, a moment he later deeply regretted, calling it a “lowest point in my life” and renouncing the Iraq War, attributing the intelligence failures to a push for war by figures such as vice president Dick Cheney. Wilkerson became a prominent critic of the Bush administration’s WMD justifications, revealing internal doubts and the CIA’s errors regarding mobile labs, and continues to speak out about the flawed intelligence leading to the Iraq War.
Trump’s surely jealous that his pal Vladimir Putin one-upped him by unlawfully invading a country. Donald figured he’d show him by doing his own unlawful invasion of a country, even doing Putin one better by getting a bunch of oil as an added bonus. So it’s illegal and immoral, what’re you gonna do about it?
Ah, well, ooblahdee, ooblahdah, life goes on, Harry Truman … et al.