The hypocrisy of Trump and his Caravan Crusade

There is some hypocrisy to the way Trump is handling the caravan approaching our southern border. To the casual observer, Trump is making a sales pitch, and he’s barking a pitch that the military will protect us from a vulnerable group of immigrants fleeing their violent and impoverished homeland. Implied in Trump’s message is that those people in the caravan are going to storm the border to get in. Trump claims patriotism, and I recall long ago, that someone told me that patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels.

While some reports — The Guardian has a good example here — have noted that the members of the caravan are fleeing a Central American homeland torn by poverty, corruption, violence from the drug war, few of them really bother to explain how that came to be. For many decades, American intelligence and its mighty military have been running interference against Central American governments that do not align themselves with American foreign interests.

America is also one of the biggest customers in the world for the illegal drug trade. The drugs we buy are grown in places like South America, and they pass through Central America along the way. Some of our largest banks, HSCB comes to mind, have laundered money for the drug cartels. Yet here we are, decrying the refugees of the war on drugs.

American armed forces have been deployed for numerous interventions in South and Central America. American funds have been sent to support “anti-communist” forces, only to be diverted to unaccountable authorities in the target countries.

And it’s not just South America. America has military bases all over the world. America is one of the most influential countries in the world. Who can name a failed state where American intelligence or military were not there to see to the failure of that state to begin with?

Some say that we are the world’s policeman. If that is so, our sword has two edges: one for good and one for bad. We complain about Russian interference in our elections yet turn a blind eye to all the elections we have interfered with around the world. We complain about corrupt governments around the world, yet turn a blind eye to the money we send to those countries as foreign aid. We complain about the conflict in the Middle East, yet turn a blind eye to all the weapons we sell there.

And don’t forget that Trump has already admitted that he has given millions in campaign…