Donald Trump's contradictions in his criticism of NATO over Iran

One of the great flaws of many politicians is the lack of coherence, not being consistent with their principles and their words.

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Sometimes, this lack of coherence manifests as a verbal incontinence that seems guided by the principle of speaking without thinking about what one is saying, giving free rein to any whim and sending contradictory messages to the public. This is exactly what Donald Trump is doing.

On Tuesday, April 7, the President of the United States posted a message on Truth Social in a threatening tone: "A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. " He was referring to Iran, and it was a very clumsy message, since his military offensive in that country was directed against the Islamist dictatorship, not against the people, and threatening Persian civilization with destruction contradicts that purpose and benefits the ayatollahs.

Astonishingly, in the same message and immediately after making that threat, Trump stated: "now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail." I don't know where Trump sees regime change in Iran, beyond the fact that much of the Islamist dictatorship's leadership has been eliminated. That terrorist regime still exists and continues to execute political dissidents: is that being less radical?

To complete the inconsistencies, after threatening to destroy their civilization, Trump ended that message by exclaiming, "God Bless the Great People of Iran!" What message does one send to the Iranian people if, in the same paragraph, you threaten to annihilate them and end by asking God to bless them? In any case, many will think it's a good idea for Islam to prohibit alcohol consumption, because a message like that seems written under the influence of excessive drinking.

I'm bringing all this up because a few hours ago Trump posted another message criticizing NATO, with these words: "NATO wasn't there when we needed them, aand they won't be there if we need them again. Remember Greenland, tha big, poorly run, piece of ICE!!! President DJT." To begin with, as I already pointed out here a few weeks ago, the United States is the only country that invoked Article 5 of the Washington Treaty after the attacks of September 11, 2001, and the response from the other NATO countries was to send troops in support of it to Afghanistan, a war in which many European and Canadian soldiers died fighting alongside their US allies. With his words, Trump demonstrates that he either has no memory or is ungrateful, and he is also showing disrespect to those fallen soldiers and their families.

Furthermore, it's important to remember that NATO is a defensive alliance. Its function is not to support any member country in offensive actions against third countries, even if there are very good reasons to carry them out. Trump has done the United States a disservice by offending allied countries like Canada and Denmark, suggesting that the former become the 51st state of the United States and aspiring to annex Greenland, a Danish territory, by hook or by crook. Allies must be respected and cared for, because you may need them tomorrow. What you can't do is treat them with such disrespect and then complain that they don't help you with something they are not obligated to do by any treaty.

Finally, it's inconsistent that Trump would one day boast that he could annihilate an entire civilization (and it's clear he could if he wanted to, since the United States is the world's leading military power) and then complain that he needs his allies in a military operation whose planning he didn't even involve. But what's most regrettable is seeing the most powerful politician in the world posting messages online like a capricious teenager throwing a tantrum because something didn't go his way. With great power comes great responsibility, and Donald Trump seems not to have grasped such a basic principle.

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Photo: The White House.