Divest from War, Invest in People
- It’s true; some of President Trump’s policies actually extend wrongs
enacted by previous administrations. Other presidents and their
spokespersons have championed an escalating war on the global poor under
the pretenses of humanitarianism and democracy. They wore “masks” that
were easier for many in the U.S. to look at and accept, and yet their
policies caused terrible bloodshed, starvation and death. A widespread
drone war, annihilating civilians from the air, is an example of a
brutal rightward turn that some liberals accepted. Was drone
proliferation seen as an improvement on previous means of warfare
because it was presented in an articulate, professorial tone? During a
previous Democrat administration I recall protesting brutal economic
sanctions which, halfway through their 11-year reign, had contributed
directly to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children aged
four years or younger. The antiwar movement tends to demobilize when a
well-spoken Democrat is in office.