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Eduardo del Buey
Foto: Ap
La Jornada Maya

Jueves 15 de marzo, 2018

On February 13, 2018, President Donald Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson by means of a tweet. President Trump didn’t have the courage or manners to fire the man to his face, preferring to tweet the news to an unsuspecting Secretary Tillerson and to an astonished world.

The firing came one day after Secretary Tillerson accused the Russian government of poisoning a former Russian FSB agent on British soil. To date, President Trump has preferred to protect Russian President Vladimir Putin from strong criticism regardless of the evidence at hand. From my perspective, it seems that President Trump is far more concerned with Russian security than he is with protecting US interests at home and abroad.

For the record, Secretary Tillerson was not my hero.

He was an ineffective Secretary of State who leaves little in the way of legacy. His main contribution to US diplomacy was to gut the State Department of its best and finest and leave US diplomacy bereft of international diplomatic experience for at least a generation.

President Trump constantly derided his Secretary of State publicly, and foreign leaders knew that Tillerson didn’t speak for the president – a sad place to be when you are in effect your country’s chief diplomat and international spokes-person. Undercut by his President, and hated by his diplomats at State, Tillerson spent much of his fourteen months in office isolated from both excellent sources of diplomatic information and advice in his Department and from a President who seems to dislike competence and expertise.

Moreover, reports that he called President Trump a “moron” after a meeting did not endear him to the President. Nor did his insistence that North Korea be handled diplomatically rather than militarily, or that the Iran nuclear deal was the best deal that the US could hope for.

What is left of US foreign policy?

President Trump’s Secretary of State-designate – Mike Pompeo- is viewed by many as an extremely right-wing Islamophobe who has advocated a military solution to the North Korean nuclear crisis. He graduated first in his class from the prestigious military academy at West Point. As a Congressman, he stood against current scientific findings on climate change and advocated for an end to US participation in international environmental discussions.

As CIA Director, he is reported by underlings to have doctored intelligence briefs to meet Trump’s beliefs rather than provide clear, objective information and analysis of the current state of affairs. This is especially true of Russian interference around the globe.

Catering to President Trump’s worldview and his constant need to be right is something Pompeo is expected to continue as Secretary of State.

President Trump’s Chief of Staff and National Security advisors are both US generals. His Secretary of Defense is a general as well. His CIA Director-designate has been accused of using torture during the George W. Bush administration and advocating its use contrary to US law.

When the National Security Cou-
ncil meets now, it will be a mostly
a meeting of generals with little input from knowledgeable civilian diplomats and officials who can advocate for alternatives to military action.

There is an old adage that when the only tool you have is a hammer, everything begins to look like a nail.

US government was designed by its founders to have a system of checks and balances to ensure that excesses by any branch of government can be avoided. There seem to be few checks and balances in the Trump administration. While the US military have produced a number of soldier-statesmen (President Dwight D. Eisenhower and General George Marshall come to mind), the administration’s current crop of generals in office – with the possible exception of Defense secretary Jim Mattis - lacks the broad vision or diplomatic expertise required for a balanced Cabinet.

With Russia posing a clear and present danger to the US and others and playing an increasingly prominent role in Middle East diplomacy, North Korea posing a nuclear threat, China rapidly expanding its global footprint, and Iran always on Trump’s radar screen, now is not the time for a cabinet with a generally military outlook or a State Department bereft of knowledge and expertise.

With a leader like Donald Trump, who has little knowledge of international affairs, a disdain for diplomatic expertise, and a constant need for the kind of adulation being a wartime president would bring, at least in his mind, now is not the time for the US to find itself with no diplomatic tools in hand. President Trump is now without a team of diplomats capable of designing and implementing diplomatic strategies capable of providing the US with the wherewithal to deal with these multiple international challenges.

When he ran for office, candidate Trump promised to bring the best and the brightest into his cabinet. One year into office, most of his cabinet is composed by individuals who have little expertise for their portfolios and whose only claim to fame is complete obsequiousness towards a president who is himself severely limited in his ability to govern. The Trump administration is known for conflicts of interest, corruption, and inefficiency, and his cabinet have contributed to this impression since day one.

Now it is also a nest of military officers with little civilian control, led by a President who seeks the type of glory that only military solutions can bring.

The only hope in the Cabinet is, in fact, a military officer.

Defense Secretary Mattis agreed with Tillerson that diplomacy had to be the first alternative in dealing with foreign crisis. As a military man, Mattis has some protection since Trump may have little appetite for taking on a military hero.

One hopes that Mattis will find a way to put on the brakes to any rash presidential decisions.

As well, one hopes that the Republican Congress will find the testicular fortitude to challenge Trump and rein in his more egregious tendencies.

Somehow, given the current composition of the Republican leaders hip and the Republican Congress, I doubt that this will happen.

Sad.

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