The Great Betrayal

By Matthew Clark

As a resident of the Great White North (Kingdom of Canada) I have on numerous occasions raised the eyebrows of many of my countrymen/women by admitting that if I was an American citizen my vote in their national election would be for Donald Trump. Mister Trump is not popular amongst Canadians. This is particularly true since President Trump mused that Canadians lives would improve if the nation became the 51st state within the U.S.A.

Since the 2024 national election in America my impression of Mr. Trump had escalated on the positive side. DOGE, the crackdown on illegal immigration, scathing attacks on Ukraine President Zelensky, left me wishing that Canada would have political leadership similar to what President Trump supplied in the United States. Furthermore after observing the leaderless rule of Mr. Biden and the malignant administration of Mr. Bush and Mr. O Bama (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, unleashing the IRS on political opponents). President Trump was a breath of fresh air as he attacked government corruption , gang controlled illegal immigration, and the ever present NEOCONS.

As well the President government financial cuts to Universities and National Public Radio was/is hardly a threat to free speech. A genuine threat to freedom of expression is former President O Bama promoting the formation of a government department to control public information in the cause of fighting disinformation. (Quote:"We want diversity of opinion. We don't want diversity of facts." Government controlling the flow of information. No problem there. It is surprising Mr. O Bama did not finish his statement by proclaiming " All power to the Soviets")

So Mr. Trump appeared to be setting the United States ship of state onto the straight and narrow. Yet in politics, all politics, there is almost always a fly in the ointment somewhere. In this case that decades long bugaboo, Israel disportionate influence on American government foreign policy, reared it's ugly head within President Trumps' administration. That Mr. Trump might be acting irrationally in his mideast policy first came to light when he stated his intention to have his government annex Gaza (Palestine) and transform it into a resort vacation zone. This strain on logic, turning a war torn land into a luxury vacation destination, was followed by giving the Israeli cart blanche in their (armed force) conduct throughout the Middle East.

Israel has long had a strange inordinate influence on seemingly every American administration. It is a Jewish nation which stresses it's role in Judeo-Christian culture yet treats it's Christian subjects as second class citizens. While visiting Chrisitians to Israel are treated well in order to promote tourism, Christians living in Israel are not so fortunate. Christian Clerics within Israel are publicly assualted regularly, while ordinary Christians find themselves segregated from the general population. During the Israeli army invasion of Gaza an Israeli army sniper shot a Palestinian young lady who had taken refuge in a church. She was killed on that churches grounds. There was no discipline taken against the sniper until Pope Francis protested. Additionally repeated Israeli governments stress they are a bulwark protecting Western nations from predatory Moslem interests. They then belie that claim by repeatedly resorting to military actions against their neighbours, which converesly put Western jurisdictions in jeopardy. Despite these counter productive results repeated American Presidents have thrown their whole hearted support behind the Jewish state.

There was hope amongst many individuals both in America and outside it that Donald Trump would break the trend. During the 2024 general election in the United States Mr. Trump campaigned as a peace candidate. For instance he attacked U.S. support for Ukrainian President Zelensky, pointing out Mr. Zelensky had shut down political opposition in Ukraine to his political rule. Some churches in Ukraine, Mr. Trump publicized, have been shuttered for not being patriotic enough, while elections in that nation have been cancelled. Mr. Zelensky himself has dictatorially extended his position beyond his term limits. After making these points Presidential Candidate Trump asserted under his administration America would have "NO NEW WARS!" ANYWHERE!

As a result of his committments on the election trail Mr. Trump was voted into the Oval Office. "NO NEW WARS" had given the Republican candidate the moral ascendacy over his principal opponent, Ms. Kamala Harris. She made no such promise and displayed no such peaceful inclination. His victory, her defeat, appeared to be an act of principal over power, freedom over coercion.

Last weeks military attack by Israeli forces against the state of Iran, followed by retaliation from the Iranian government and it's armed forces on Israel, was another sad episode in the dystopian (recent) history of the Middle East. Nevertheless as long as the conflict remained between those two nations the consequences would be contained to the Middle East. Leaving the belligerants to duke it out between themselves is the only acceptable (albeit not rational) option. Therefore reports that President Trump was considering getting United States military forces involved in the dispute seemed nonsensical, especially after his pronouncements during the election.

President Trumps rationalization for intervention in the quarrel, that Iran was on the verge of acquiring nuclear capable weapons, was/is highly unlikely. Israeli government officials, including her present Prime Minister, have been arguing Iran is about to possess a nuclear bomb since the early nineteen eighties. Forty-five years later it still has not occurred. Moreover a month ago United States Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard claimed there was no evidence the Iranian Government was pursuing the acquisition of a nuclear weapon. Under such circumstances the "Iran is about to become a nuclear power" argument sounds suspiciously like the 2003 mantra "Weapons of Mass Destruction" used to justify the invasion of Iraq. Subsequent events after the Western invasion of Iraq revealed the Hussein Iraqi government did not possess weapons of mass destruction. Ditto Iran!

Despite the obvious flaws in his reasoning President Trump ordered American crews on Air Force Bombers to attack nuclear facilities in Iran on Saturday June 21/June 22. This order was quickly turned into action. Ironically it was June 22, 1941 that Adolf Hitler ordered German armed forces to invade the Soviet Union, thereby sealing his eventual demise almost 4 years later. President Trump is no Hitler, it is malicious to suggest so, yet he could well suffer, in a political sense, the same fate as the dictator.

Involving U.S. armed forces in the Israel/Iran conflict is the greatest of betrayals. Americans voted for the President to follow a new path, rather than step into the footsteps of Bill Clinton (Serbia), George Bush (Afghanistan, Iraq), Barrack O Bama (Libya), and Joe Biden (bombing everywhere). Mr. Trump has turned his back on his supporters both within his nation, and his backers internationally. The President has lost any moral high road he possessed. Individuals do often recover from their physical wounds, rarely is that the case from moral transgressions. In one step he has severely limited the legitimacy of his political rule.

There is a saying in Canada that when 'America sneezes Canada catches a cold.' America has greater influence on Canada than even Israel has on the United States. What effect President Trump's actions against Iran will have on Canada is yet to be seen. Yet however it metastasizes it will almost certainly be immense.

Betrayal always has a negative consequence. This particular traitorous behaviour by the United States President will almost certainly have severe repercussion for the President, his administration, his supporters, his countrymen/women, his nation, and the United States allies (us). For instance some innocent Iranians have probably already been killed from bombs dropped by the U.S. Air Force. Could the reverse not occur from Iranian sleeper cells in Western lands who launch drones against vulnerable targets within Western nations?

So another politician has become guilty of the second greatest of moral transgressions. Murder! Given the malevolence of the situation Mr. Trumps detractors should not crow about this recent turn of events. Instead they should join his betrayed supporters in realizing that a repeated tragedy, endemic to Western politics, has once again taken place. Perhaps that is the only political bi-partisanship we can expect for the future.