The idea of Russian interference in US elections is largely bullshit. No more than a smoke-screen aimed to obscure Trump’s own nefarious capers.

What would Russian interference be attempting? to get Trump elected? Or to defeat him?

During his election campaign Trump did cosy-up to Putin. Being such a professed genius of a businessman, he would not do that without expecting something in

return. We now know that he was probably expecting an easy run for his projected Moscow Trump Tower.

What did he have in mind?  Perhaps a blot on the landscape dwarfing the Kremlin and Moscow University.

What should certainly be of concern is the blatant interference in the presidential and other American elections by Israel. The richly-funded and powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPA) exists for this purpose.

During his election campaign, Trump said that previous administrations had invested too much blood and treasure in being the policeman of the world, meddling in the affairs of other countries.   Under his presidency this would stop.

In future, America would be devoted to looking after its own interests. “America first. America first.”

His speeches concluded with the prayer, “Gud (Americanese for God) bless America.”

God-fearing man, that he professes to be (in order to court his rightwing evangelical following),  he should know, from the Sermon on the Mount, that ”blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” (Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5). Meek he is not. His ignorance is exceeded only by his arrogance.

Like the millions of Trump devotees, he is allergic to the slightest hint of socialism. Socialist Cuba, like socialist Venezuela, refuses to bend the knee to Washington and denies admission to American big business. Hence Trump’s relentless blockade of both countries and attempts at interference.

His latest onslaught is on Venezuela, a country whose economy, under earlier successive dictatorships, became totally dependent on its oil, because this is the way the US oil moguls wanted it. Now CIA money is building up the country’s rightwing in order to provoke a coup. Unsurprisingly, Trump’s endeavours are backed by Israel and Brazil. His latest move is an attempt to usurp the Venezuelan presidency by recognising an eager stooge as the president-in-waiting.

From his scriptural readings, Trump will know that “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. (Matthew, chapter 5)”.  Peacemaker he is not.  His armed forces have been bombing in Syria and have been up to their necks in Yemen, although we are not supposed to know that.

Now he plans to tear up the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty.

This is the treaty which helped to bring an end to the Cold War by seeing that America and the Soviet Union scrapped short-range and intermediate-range nuclear missiles, so-called “tactical” nuclear weapons, which would wreak damage only on the scale of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs.

Despite the INF treaty, both America and Russia have maintained massive nuclear arsenals, but at least the abandonment of tactical nuclear weapons reduced the likelihood of their use. The INF led to the removal of American nuclear missiles from the UK and the rest of Europe

One can be sure that the use of a Hiroshima-size bomb would result in retaliation in kind possibly escalating to the destruction of humankind: mutually assured destruction (MAD).

 

Trump’s excuse for ripping up the INF is that Putin has continued to develop nuclear weapons, but he has himself talked of developing a “small bomb and delivery system, the nuclear penetrator”, for inflicting a controlled amount of damage, and his equally unbalanced henchmen have talked of such a weapon being useful against North Korea, Russia and China.

If the INF is torn up, our compliant UK government would be under pressure to allow back American missile bases.

Yesterday, 23rd January, CND was right to launch a campaign for retention of the INF.  The last thing we need in this deeply troubled world is a renewal of the arms race.