Food for Thought
Food for thought:
- How do you create a lasting peace when you do not include in negotiations the people who need to be involved to make it work (Ukraine and Gaza)?
- How does someone who considers himself a shrewd negotiator sacrifice his trump cards (NATO, Donbas) before negotiations even begin?
- How do you believe and trust people who have shown repeatedly that they do not honor their commitments that they agreed to (Russia, China, Trump)?
- How do you trust people whose decisions are swayed by spite and retribution?
- How do you cut the cost of living for Americans by imposing tariffs that increase the prices of the goods that they buy?
- How do you cut the cost of groceries when you deport the people you need to pick the crops and get them to the market?
- How do you increase your exports to your trading partners when you slap a tariff on what you import from them, and they retaliate?
- How do you improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government through layoffs of hundreds of thousands of employees irrespective of the talent you will need to move forward?
- How do you improve relations with your allies when you bully and insult them?
- How do you Make America Great Again considering the above?
You don’t!
Much of what is transpiring in the new administration does not make sense to me. I am not alone. Yet, neither the President’s Cabinet, nor Congress, is questioning the merits of his blitz of Executive Orders, pronouncements, and his actions. I would hope that they would challenge him to forestall making strategic blunders. But in the fable, The Emperor’s New Clothes, no one was willing to tell the emperor about his new suit before he made a fool of himself. They were afraid that they might fall out of favor. I am concerned that an analogous situation applies here.
