359 - Trump Could End Horrendous Wars

Instead of unnecessarily and wastefully hammering universities for supposed, greatly exaggerated, and politically imagined wokeness and antisemitism, Trump has the capacity and the unvarnished bully pulpit to shut down a phalanx of deadly wars that deprive millions of Europeans, Asians, and Western Hemispheric residents of their lives, livelihoods, and fundamental freedoms. Trump should be using what influence and power he still retains to bring dictators and warlords to heel. He could start using his office to do good rather than enriching himself while smugly spreading chaos everywhere.

1 Ukraine

Trump promised to end this war within his first presidential twenty-four hours. Now he alternates between mostly praising and parroting Putin and, with less frequency, criticizing Putin for bombing Ukrainian cities and causing massive deaths. But he has never (for fear of failure?) taken a firm stance opposing Putin's ambitions for territory, for unassailable power in eastern Europe, and for the enduring containment of Ukraine (keeping it from joining either the European Union or NATO).

Because of his own insecurities and his lust for unbridled authority (as in China and Russia, not to mention Hungary and Belarus), Trump wants both to cosy up to Putin and to chide him mildly for being a murderous dictator. Now, in the third summer of a senseless and ruthless war that has already cost 1 million Russian and 400,000 Ukrainian lives, Trump needs to stop dithering and publicly to demand that Putin agree to an enduring peace. He needs to be more assertive, more declarative.

Trump could ratchet up sanctions and join Europe in curtailing the sailing of Russia's shadow fleet of unregistered oil tankers. He could step up the transfer of military supplies to Ukraine and make a public show of so doing. That could bring Putin to a bargaining table and, also, show China's President Xi Jinping that Washington still has some muscle and some as yet undisplayed truculent power. Trump needs to focus on Ukraine rather than trying illegally to destroy the Smithsonian Institute's National Portrait Gallery.

2 - the Gaza Strip

Trump may well be the only world leader who can speak forcefully to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. He needs to make Netanyahu understand that despite the strong possibility that Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich might leave his ruling coalition and force a new election, Israel needs to stop the killing of civilians in the southern Gaza Strip. Firing into crowds jostling to acquire scarce relief supplies does Israel no good and fails to persuade Hamas to lay down its arms. It is an immoral and failing strategy that Trump should stop.

Taking investments from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is worthwhile, but not if Washington and Trump let Israel run wild in the Strip, in the West Bank, and in southern Syria. We give and sell materiel of war to Israel. Let's cut off all aid until Israel ceases killing civilians in the Strip and raiding Arab villages in the West Bank as a prelude to annexation. Even if the two-state solution is increasingly unlikely, using threatened aid cutoffs and large doses of oval office criticism ought to be able to turn Israel back into a major Middle Eastern peace provider, not an unprincipled force for disruption and death.

3 Sudan

As I have written earlier, Sudan is the home of one of the world's most unyielding humanitarian crises, with at least 150,000 dead, 12 million in acute hunger, and 25 million afflicted with food and water shortages. A real genocide, not the imagined ones that Trump blathers about, is underway in Darfur, Sudan's westernmost province, as the Arab Rapid Support Forces (RSF) slaughter Africans of Marsalit, Fur, and Zaghawa descent, forcing millions to flee into neighboring Chad. This is a repeat of the acknowledged earlier genocide (same actors, same victims) in 2003-2005.

The RSF, led by Lt. Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemeti, is backed financially and militarily by the UAE. It supplies drones and artillery to the RSF, largely in exchange for the gold that Hemeti extracts from mines in Darfur. He has become enormously wealthy thanks for the war, the gold, and his alliance with the UAE.

When Trump was in Dubai and Abu Dhabi last month he welcomed large investments from the UAE's sovereign wealth fund and from its rulers. He has arrangements with the sheikhs who run the UAE that profit him (think emoluments clauses) and them. But what he could do very easily is demand (publicly) that the UAE cease supporting Hemeti and the RSF. Doing so would immediately slow or end the horrific conflict in Sudan. It would enable Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan's regular army to restore order and some sense of stability to Sudan, Africa's third largest land mass, reduce the ethnic cleansing episodes in Darfur, and -- with U.S. and European assistance, begin the reconstruction of a devastated Sudan.

All it takes is Trump using his bully pulpit and his bravado for good, rather than (as now) simply searching endlessly for fistfuls of lucre.

4 Ethiopia, the Congo, and Myanmar

Instead, as I've said, spending foolish hours expelling Chinese students, bleating about congestion pricing in New York City, or the virtue of immigration raids on innocent youths in cities like Milford, MA, Trump could actually accomplish something by restraining Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed from massacring Amhara and Oromo rebels in western Ethiopia. He could call imperious Rwandan President Paul Kagame and demand that he disband the Rwandan-backed M 23 guerrilla movement, a greatly destabilizing force in the eastern Congo. Or, a bigger stretch, he could publicly announce support for the indigenous Burmese Christian and Buddhist armies that since 2021 have battled the military junta that seized power from an elected government in that year. Even his voiced support would make a difference.

5 Haiti

Gangs control 90 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Trump could too easily demonstrate his lust for recognition by sending in an American military detachment primed to knock heads and restore order to the poorest and most dangerous place in the Western Hermisphere. Mercenaries from the U.S., the latest ploy, will be no more successful than the seemingly frightened Kenyans who were airlifted into Port-au-Prince months ago.

Haiti could be a true test of Trump’s bravado. Is he up to it?

6 Not a Chance?

Readers will rightly ask, could Trump do any of these things? He could, but he is unlikely to, and vast opportunities for peace will be lost. But in the foreign policy realm, these initiatives are much more decisive than on and off and on tariffs, or endlessly bloviating about situations that betray ignorance. Indeed, Trump could actually accomplish something if he adopted even one of the suggested projects. What we need (and will not easily get) is a retreat from endless chaos. He could deliver a positive movement toward peace if he subdued a restless narcissism.