The challenges we face
We, who believe in the rule of law and upholding international law and the United Nations Charter, face enormous challenges.
BACKGROUND
See,
1) Phillips P. O’Brien, “Weekend Update #123: The Week The USA Started Killing Ukrainians; Part 1: The Trump Plan to Damage Ukraine and Help Russia,” Phillip’s Newsletter, March 7, 2025;
2) Phillips Payson O’Brien and Eliot A. Cohen, “Russia Is Losing the War of Attrition; Ukraine is not on the verge of collapse. That makes the Trump administration’s decisions particularly shortsighted and tragic,” The Atlantic, March 7, 202 (11:13 a.m. ET);
3)Dana Milbank, “Trump is fast dismantling the free press. We all have to stop him; It’s part of a broader crackdown on the civil liberties of those who disagree with the president,” Washington Post, March 7, 2025 (7:15 a.m. EST);
Waking up this Saturday morning and looking at the newspapers, one experiences an enormous feeling of dread. The future does not augur well, either in the United Staes or internationally.
There can be little doubt now that President Donald Trump is acting as a Russian agent, implementing actions that further Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy goals and objectives.
Trump is literally contributing to the killing of Ukrainians, as Phillips P. O’Brien points out in the article cited above.
Trump has cast doubt on whether the U.S. would honor its commitment under Article 5 of the NATO Treaty to cone to the assistance of any member state that is the object of an armed attack.
That is the bedrock commitment upon which NATO was founded in 1949.
By casting doubt on that commitment Trump has cast doubt not only on all U.S. security commitments, but also on all treaty commitments entered into by the United States.
Trump’s statements merely confirm that his lawless regime respects no law, whether international or domestic, though its observance of domestic law and the Constitution seems to depend on the political consequences of violating either or both. To date, theTrump administration has largely complied with court orders, though there are a few important exceptions.
What should be done?
What can be done?
That question leads to a second cause of morning dread.
The first question admits of numerous possibilities, and invites vigorous discussion.
The second question leads one to grave doubt.
Americans, except for a relatively small group of concerned citizens who are paying attention, appear to be in a nearly comatose state, or to be remaining silent out of fear.
Most don’t follow or understand the basics of foreign policy. In the past they deferred to the informed judgments of respected political leaders and experts, who did understand foreign policy. With the metamorphosis of the Republican Party into a fascist party under the control of Donald Trump, this is no longer the case with Republican leaders.
Democratic leaders are so inwardly focused on holding their caucus together that they seem unwilling and unable to undertake vigorous action against Donald Trump, such as building the case for his impeachment.
The principal political issue in the United States today is whether the rule of law is to be observed.
Yet Democrats shrink from posing this issue in such direct terms, and from explaining to younger generations why the rule of law is important.
What should be done?
It is important to have a clear idea of what we think should be done, even if at the moment it is not apparent how it might be done.
To this writer, at least, it seems clear that the first order of business should be to remove Donald Trump from the Presidency.
Until we do, Trump will proceed with a daily outrage in tearing down the democratic institutions and programs of our American democracy, and in dismantling the international institutions of the U.N. Charter-based international legal order and policies designed to uphold them.
Trump and his accomplices are lawless nihilists hell-bent on destruction. He and they must be stopped as soon as that can be done.
The first step is to launch an impeachment investigation in the House of Representatives, with hearings.
That would require only five or so Republican “Profiles in Courage” in the House.
In the meantime, readers and other citizens might look within to see if they can find the courage to overcome their fears and themselves speak out.
FURTHER READING
1)Jacques Follorou, “Les périls cachés derrière des pourparlers de paix sur l’Ukraine, selon les renseignements baltes; Les services d’Estonie, de Lettonie et de Lituanie estiment que « la Russie se prépare à une confrontation à long terme avec l’OTAN »., Le Monde, le 7 mars 2025(modifié à 16h20);
2)Jacques Follorou, ”The hidden dangers behind peace talks on Ukraine, according to Baltic intelligence; The services of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania believe that “Russia is preparing for a long-term confrontation with NATO,” Le Monde, March 7, 2025 Updated at 4:20 p.m.).
3)Erwin Chemerinsky,”The One Question That Really Matters: If Trump Defies the Courts, Then What?” New York Times, March 7, 2025.
***
James Rowles is a former Lecturer on Law at Harv Law School and professor of international law at other universities.
He studied the history of Nazi Germany at Stanford, and has studied and worked on human rights, judicial reform, and access to justice projects in many countries in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and in Afghanistan and Russia. At Harvard Law School, he taught a course on “Law, Human Rights, and the Struggle for Democracy in Latin America”.
At the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the OAS, he worked on human rights cases involving forced disappearances, executions, and torture in number of authoritarian countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Recent Books by the Author
James P. Rowles, The Rape of American Democracy: Republican Actions and Democratic Failures, 2016-2021 (2024). Available on Amazon, and from IngramSpark by clicking on a link here.
James P. Rowles, Don’t Be Stupid. Pay Attention, Damn It! Advice for Undecided Voters and Voters Leaning Toward Trump (2024). Available on Amazon,and from IngramSpark by clicking on a link here.
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