In his last days Trump eases imperialism, but relies on death as a control mechanism

By SJ Otto

As the end of our President, Donald Trump closes in, I find two contradictorily views that I find really strange. As an anti-imperialist I couldn't be happier seeing the headline; "All wars must  end, ' new defense chief says."[1] I saw this in The Wichita Eagle, my hometown newspaper. Some other articles I read are about Trump ramping up executions here in the US.

According to the first article, Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller said:

"We are not a people of perpetual war- it is the antithesis of everything for which we stand and for which our ancestors fought. All wars must end."

I have complained for years that we don't need to occupy other people's countries. I don't know why Trump is against these wars, other than his "Americafirst" view. What ever the reason it is good news for people like me.

Unfortunately, Trump is not against unnecessary killing of human beings. Here in this country, he is pushing to make sure that people on death row are executed. He has also opened the door for the US to use assassinations as a tool of foreign affairs. As for executing people here in the US, Rolling Stone reports:

"Precisely one week before Thanksgiving, Orlando Hall became the eighth person incarcerated in federal prisons to be executed this year after Attorney General William Barr lifted a 17-year ban on the federal government’s implementation of the death penalty. When Hall, 49, was killed by lethal injection, he became the first person that a lame-duck administration has executed in more than 100 years.

This wasn’t some sort of scheduling happenstance, caused by a rapid succession of appeals that pushed Hall’s date down the calendar. No, his date quickly followed the killing of Christopher Vialva in late September, and Barr has scheduled five more before Biden is inaugurated as president. His Department of Justice just concluded that there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud, which we all knew — but Barr clearly realized weeks ago that he and the president would be out of a job come January 20th. Why else would they have started scheduling executions, rushing to kill those who are incarcerated on the federal government’s death row? Perhaps because these prisoners might be otherwise spared under President-elect Biden, who wants to eliminate the death penalty?"

So why do conservatives such as Trump, want people executed so badly? Why do conservatives such as Trump love the death penalty so much? I have read several articles by people who complain that Communist countries have killed more people than any other ideology. Yet many right-wing capitalists believe in executions. They want to kill people. Quoting TimeMagazine, Yahoo News said:

"The Cuban leader’s passing comes at a time of change between the two nations, which have had a tense relationship over the past five decades. President Obama sought to reverse that in his last term in office, reopening an embassy on the island and opening up channels for both travel and the exchange of some goods. “During my presidency, we have worked hard to put the past behind us, pursuing a future in which the relationship between our two countries is defined not by our differences but by the many things that we share as neighbors and friends,” Obama said before offering condolences to the Cuban people and the family of Castro.

“As they do, the Cuban people must know that they have a friend and partner in the United States of America,” Obama concluded.

His statement stands in stark contrast to that of President-elect Donald Trump, who called Castro a “brutal dictator” whose legacy was one of “firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights.”

“It is my hope that today marks a move away from the horrors endured for too long, and toward a future in which the wonderful Cuban people finally live in the freedom they so richly deserve,” Trump said."

On top of our executions, we also have a drone program that kills suspected terrorists and if they are around their families, their family members are killed. They also like the drone program that kills people in foreign countries seen as a threat to this country. The assassinations take place without any due process. Our government simply kills people, and if their families are present, women, children, they are killed also. If terrorists do that to us, we complain. But when we kill their innocent people, we are OK with that. Trump seems to be using assassinations of all kinds in his presidency. Press Reader has posted an article: "Targeted Assassinations could open a Pandora's Box,"

Also according to CBS News:

"Satellite-controlled machine gun with "artificial intelligence" was used in last week's assassination of a top nuclear scientist in Iran.....

....Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was driving on a highway outside Iran's capital Tehranwith a security detail of 11 guards on November 27, when the machine gun "zoomed in" on his face and fired 13 rounds, said rear-admiral Ali Fadavi."

It has been reported that Israelis have been blamed for the action:

"Iranian authorities have blamed arch foe Israel and the exiled opposition group the People's Mujahedeen of Iran, known as MEK, for the assassination." 

But at the same time, some pundits say that Trump was behind the attack and simply used another country to actually carry out the execution. Again we see a fondness for executions.

The death penalty has been outlawed in most of Europe, with the exception of such authoritarian/ fascistic countries as Turkey. The US refuses to get rid of executions, either for criminals in the US or suspected and accused opponents in foreign countries. It is time to end the death penalty and the assassination of foreign personnel. It is obvious that conservative Republicans as Trump will continue to use death as a means of control over our population. It is primitive, outdated and just plain cruel. The possibility of innocent people being killed is not worth the use of death as a control mechanism.