Trump's Outrageous Designs on Greenland and Panama
By Rich Bernstein
Colin Powell said that when America’s great military fought foreign wars beyond our borders, it was for freedom, and “the only land we ever asked for was enough land to bury our dead. And that is the kind of nation we are.” Let us be honest with ourselves: In a free and fair election, the American people have elected as our commander-in-chief a President, Donald Trump, who recently has espoused a potentially very different view about the use and threatened use of America’s military abroad.
President Trump invoked “National Security” and stated that “the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity” and that “we will” be there. And President Trump threatened to “demand that the Panama Canal be returned to the United States of America, in full, quickly and without question,” invoking rationales that The Wall Street Journal later debunked. (See WSJ, “Will Trump Invade Panama?”, Dec. 24, 2024) President Trump also posted an image of the “United States Canal.” Perhaps President Trump is merely offering to initiate negotiations for purchases of territory at full and fair prices – offers that Greenland and Panama are free to decline without military consequence. But another possibility is that President Trump is threatening military action that would take territory from another country. So far, President Trump has not removed the military possibility.
In the current circumstances, American military action to acquire all of Greenland or part of Panama would be both wrong and unconstitutional. Although smaller in scale and destruction, as a matter of morality, any American attack on Greenland or Panama would not be different in kind from Russia’s war on Ukraine or China’s threatened attack on Taiwan. A militarily stronger nation would be waging a war of acquisition based on nothing more than might makes right. Moreover, an American war of acquisition would be unconstitutional without congressional authorization.
A WAR OF ACQUISITION IS A ROBBERY
What Jesus said of people is true of nations: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36) Jesus himself embodied the antithesis of the might-makes-right principles of that era’s conquering superpower, the Roman Empire. (See Mark 10:42-45) America should not emulate the Roman Empire.
https://harrylitman.substack.com/i/153835590/trumps-outrageous-designs-on-greenland-and-panama
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