Last year I wrote that Trump’s speech at the UN General Assembly was perhaps the worst speech ever delivered from that podium, certainly by a Western leader. This year he surpassed himself.
Why is there no rule to say that someone who openly
- violates the basic norms of the United Nations
- continuously threatens other countries in contravention of the UN Charter’s Article 2.4
- condemns internationalism and multilateralism
- advocates a narrow nationalism/patriotism (to make America great again)
- stops funding the UNESCO
- condemns the International Criminal Court (ICC) and threatens its officials
- withdraws from UNRWA
- withdraws from the Paris Climate Accord
- withdraws from the UN Human Rights Commission
- withdraws from the UN Security Council-based nuclear deal with Iran (JCPOA) etc.
– can not automatically expect to remain a member of the UN world body that is in charge of those organisations and advocates those principles on behalf of the world’s peoples?
His two favourite countries that he singled out as examples for other countries to follow are Saudi Arabia and Israel (if you think I am joking please listen to the speech again, see below), while he attacks Germany, Sweden, China, Iran, Syria and many other countries.
People laughed at his initial remarks when he said that his administration had achieved more than perhaps any other US administration, but they should have left the hall when he started to attack the UN and its organisations in the way he did, and openly declared war against two sovereign states, Iran and Syria, and economic war against China, Russia and others.
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Jan Oberg’s comments
1. And the German delegates shook their heads when he talked about total energy dependence on Russia.
2. President Trump also violates the UN Charter Article 2.4 which stipulates that “All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.”
3. In this – disturbing – speech Trump also said: “The United States will not tell you how to live or work or worship. We only ask that you honor our sovereignty in return.”
So how then shall we interpret the US Empire’s policies for war and regime change, intervention, CIA and other foreign presence, blatant interference in other countries’ domestic affairs and elections, coup d’etats in dozens of countries since 1945. And who has threatened the sovereignty of the US?
4. If there is a speech that illustrates how the President – and thereby the US Administration at present – ca not possibly be trusted and is the singularly most dangerous to the world, this is it.
Below is the full speech and here is the highlight from the New York Times.
