Bob Liebman
bobconsult@msn.com
Americans have different opinions about the presidential candidate Donald Trump, but many feel he has the behavioral makings of a ‘demagogue,’ somewhat like Adolph Hitler, from WW II, and his enormously rude and controlling behavior since our electoral process began last year is finally beginning to generate grass roots opposition. This opposition has taken the form of organized resistance in his rallies, which to me, up to a point, is simply ‘part of the American Way,’ although also open to legal challenges. Trump has called this resistance to his generally arrogant and rude behavior interruption of his 1st Amendment (to the US Constitution) rights to free speech, and both condoned physical violence toward the resistors, as well as threatened them with lawsuits. But- of course- the resisters have rights to free speech as well, and it’s interesting to me that they are finally beginning to do what our ‘stock politicians’ haven’t managed to, which is to interrupt and/or stop ‘The Donald’ in his seemingly ceaseless, frequently errant and overwhelming ‘blather.’ Certainly since the US presidential campaign began, Donald Trump has continued to interrupt most of his inquisitors, mainly news persons covering the campaign in one manner or another, as well as his fellow debaters along with those news persons facilitating the debates.
A great many of Trump’s claims have been either strongly exaggerated or just plain false, and to now our Presidential election system hasn’t produced sufficiently knowledgeable and charismatically strong candidates to adequately counter him. Recalling Adolph Hitler in his rise to power in the early 20s of the last century, there were various background factors, such as the unfair Versailles Treaty in the wake of WW I, that led to Hitler’s emergence as a strong candidate for national power in Germany, along with his strong powers of oration that succeeded in overwhelming many or most of the key persons and parties then operational in Germany who attempted to oppose him. In my opinion, there is too strong a comparison between Trump and Hitler for Americans not to oppose him, unless he drastically changes his ways, and the time we have between now and the November general election is probably not enough to determine that, if it were possible in the first place.
If Hillary Clinton is elected president of United States of America, I believe that many American policies with and toward Pakistan will either remain the same as under President Obama, otherwise be enhanced in favor of both countries and their respective ongoing challenges. I also believe that as ISIS is defeated in Syria and Iraq, it will allow both mutual goals and the resources to implement them to be expanded in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, hopefully enabling either an outright defeat of Al -Qaeda and the Taliban, otherwise a better ‘settling’ of religious matters in your two countries.
Should Trump be elected, there is a strong probability of an enlargement of the US military, accompanied by what he sees as pertinent deployment of larger both Special Warfare as well as conventional forces, along with whatever various meetings and agreements between the three countries to accommodate same. In essence, a President Trump will most likely want to ‘force the issue,’ regarding both ISIS in Syria and Iraq, as well as regarding Al -Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
‘True Spirituality,’ in my opinion, comes from a wide variety of origins, and is evidenced by and has roots around the world in various forms of Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, and many others, to include ‘non-religious,’ and we must work together to eliminate and re-educate those who have errantly gotten themselves into such disastrous outlooks and movements as radical Islam and perhaps others, both for ourselves and for themselves, in addition to providing adequate defenses to protect our societies until these radical groups have sufficiently dissipated.
Hillary Clinton comes to us with the background and experience of her husband, Bill Clinton, 42nd President of the United States, as well as of Barrack Obama, our current president, along with her positions in those administrations, and although I personally have some misgivings about her performance in the ‘Benghazi Episode,’ I believe she is far and away the candidate who needs to be elected President of the United States of America at this point in time. Donald Trump is a strong bull shitter and controller of speech, who would need serious ‘training’ as a new President by those who might know, but who also might NOT know, and lead us all into disaster. Ted Cruz claimed two or three months ago that he would ‘carpet bomb’ ISIS, and if he truly knows anything about ‘carpet bombing’ (think ‘Dresden’ in WW II), makes him both ignorant as well as another prospective disaster in the making. He’s already managed to shut down Congress in an effort to end the relatively successful healthcare program ‘Obama care,’ and purportedly about NO ONE in the US Senate likes him. Sanders’ policies have merit, but the USA already has very deep budget deficits to overcome, and if Sanders’ economic and financial plans were not to work well, we could all be in for very serious economic and financial difficulties, starting here in the United States, but then ‘ricocheting’ off of Europe, Japan and China, and eventually managing to bring us all down. And although Marco Rubio is now out of the race, I think he was a bit young and immature to have been running for President in the first place. I must say that Republican John Kasich, of Ohio, has some strong merits, but he unfortunately lacks charisma, and it is extremely doubtful that he will manage to go much further than winning his own state of Ohio, which he recently accomplished, also allowing for the remote chance that he might do well if there is a brokered Republican convention.
Finally, Pakistanis might wish to some extent to compare Hillary Clinton to their own Benazir Bhutto, with perhaps not the charisma Bhutto held, but perhaps more maturity and experience. I personally liked Benazir, and feel saddened that her life was not allowed to continue longer, for what she might have further contributed to Pakistan.
In the end, I hope that as we in the States and Pakistan continue to cooperate as allies, we will manage to overcome that very small % in the Muslim faith that constitute the so called ‘radicals,’ who have bred and continue to breed so much alienation, hate and destruction around the world, and get back to building the spiritually sound and generous societies that are helpful to all.
The writer is a consultants based in Albuquerque, New Mexico USA.
