On April 9, I expressed a negative opinion of Trump’s new Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson:
“From what I read that the new Secretary of State has been saying, he doesn’t know zilch about Russian politics or diplomacy. This isn’t surprising since his career has been in the oil business. I think he’s going to be a disaster in this political post. He should go back to the oil business.”
The next day, Tillerson makes this expansive statement: “We rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world.” All right, this was commemorating a German Nazi massacre committed in Italy in 1944. He wanted to condemn the heinous Nazi crimes. This is understandable.
However, Tillerson cannot possibly mean what he is saying about “holding to account any and all”. This is an impossible doctrine. The U.S. doesn’t even hold itself to such an account or standard. The U.S. itself has committed huge crimes against innocents in many places, like Central America and Southeast Asia. Is Tillerson going to begin this moral purging process by acknowledging the crimes of his own government? His boss, Donald Trump, has already killed innocents in Yemen and is supporting such killing at this moment. Will Tillerson accuse his boss?
What in the world is Tillerson saying? Has he taken leave of his senses? There are costs. There are limits. Implementing such a doctrine has ramifications that may be and probably are worse than the alleged crimes being punished. Does this mean that the U.S. will actively punish whatever it deems to be crimes committed by governments? Will it begin with Egypt, proceed to Israel, Syria, Iran and Russia? Will Pakistan be on the list? Does this mean the U.S. is going against the U.N. charter and abandoning international law? Has Tillerson just declared a unilateral global government run by the U.S.?
I repeat, Tillerson should go back to the oil business. We’d be better off if Trump had left all the government posts unfilled and then ordered every federal government employee to find other jobs. We’d be better off if they were all given 6 months or even 12 months severance pay. Then permanently leave their posts vacant. Generous, yes, but infinitely less costly than the existing amounts extracted from taxpayers. We should bribe Congress to dissolve itself and this Union in the same way. If every member were given $10 million, the total would be only 5.35 billion dollars or so. It’s a bargain.