America’s Foreign Policy Is Irresponsible
Under its current administration, America seems to have a confusing foreign policy. Donald J. Trump, our 45th U.S. President, has made understanding his goals quite a task for congressmen and citizens alike. During my research, I attempted to locate firm foreign policy goals, directly from the White House. My only result was a vague point: “to promote security, prosperity, and peace.”
Much of America’s foreign policy agenda resides in President Trump’s rhetoric, which may or may not be truthful; this is important to bear in mind, especially considering this particular president’s past statements.
It was decided that the Guantanamo Bay prison should remain open. By making this decision, Trump is dehumanizing terrorists, which supports his idea of continuing unethical interrogation methods.
Along with those methods are his views on people below the southern border. His fear has generated a stall in the government because of his demands for five billion dollars in funding for the southern border wall, even though the vast majority of illegal immigrants find their way to the U.S. via plane or other methods. To add to this, Trump has ridiculed the Dreamer Act as well, saying that “Americans are dreamers too.”
Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement (PCA) was based on a “scientific” belief that global warming is not an issue. He even mentioned a plan to use “beautiful, clean coal.” In several instances throughout his campaign, he proclaimed that the agreement was terrible to sign.
Trump has even gone so far as to blame China for creating a conspiracy theory. On Twitter in 2012, he stated that “the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” This is a classic representation of his protectionist worldview, i.e. “America First.” In addition, we are currently in a trade war with China, so goods are much more expensive.
But not all is lost. We seem to be doing quite well with leaders such as Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin, whose prowess Trump has complimented. We still do not know the full extent of the relationship between Trump and Russia, however, because they have been having closed-door meetings.
This is just a shred of the ridiculousness in our foreign policy at the moment. Ambiguous and irresponsible, these are the words I would use to characterize our current foreign policy. May the world forgive us for our mistakes, and let us rejoice in the possible future, rather than a dreadful present.
