American Herald Tribune| KIM PETERSEN: Former Ronald Reagan administration official Paul Craig Roberts�continues to take aim at the Left. Why this time? Apparently Roberts�supports Trump�s ban on Muslims (a ban on people from seven countries,�all Muslim majority countries).

�The mindlessness is unbearable,� writes Roberts of the Left�s�protesting the selective ban on refugees and migrants.

Roberts argues,
Clearly America�s wars on Muslims wreck far more lives than�Trump�s ban on immigrants. Why the focus on an immigration ban and�not on wars that produce refugees? Is it because Obama is responsible�for war and Trump for the ban? Is the liberal/progressive/left�projecting Obama�s monstrous crimes onto Trump? Is it that we must
hate Trump and not Obama?
Roberts asks questions as if the answer is only one-or-the-other. Many�leftists (anarchists, socialists, Communists among them) would distance�themselves from much of what liberals profess. One should not view�liberals as composing a Left monolith anymore than Nazis should be�viewed as representing a monolithic Right. The Democratic Party is not a�left party. So Democratic supporters of Obama are not considered leftist�in any meaningful sense by this writer. Nonetheless, there were plenty�of people from the Left who did oppose Obama and his wars. Those who did�not oppose Obama and his wars are, at best, pseudo-leftists.

Left and Right is an oversimplification. People ought to regard all�wrinkles of the political spectrum and the politicians within the�spectrum by supporting what is good and rejecting what is anathema.�Trump has positions that resonate with leftists; however, he also stakes�out positions that are highly objectionable. It is the balance between�the supportable and insupportable that should determine how the�politician will be viewed.

�Immigration is not a right protected by the US Constitution,��states Roberts. Whether immigration is protected or not by the�constitution is irrelevant because belief in such a �right� is�fundamental to the presence of non-Indigenous people on Turtle Island.�Their settler/colonial forebears believed in a God-given right to the�land. After all, the Catholic Church in the Papal Bull of 1493, Inter�Caetera, gave its blessing to taking territory belonging to��savages.�

Roberts opines, �The liberal/progressive/left is demonstrating a�mindless hatred of the American people and the President that the people�chose.�

This �logic� from the politico-cum-scribe is puzzling. How does�opposition to the policies of a president transmogrify to hatred of the�American people? First, the warmongering Hillary Clinton garnered more�votes than Trump. Second, approximately half of Americans didn�t vote,�and Trump received less than half of those votes. Therefore, the best�Roberts can claim is �a mindless hatred of [less than 25% of] the�American people and the President that the people chose.�

Accusations of �mindless hatred� is just ad hominem. But Roberts�does present good points:
The easiest and surest way for the Trump administration to stop the�refugee problem, not only for the US but also for Europe and the West�in general, is to stop the wars against Muslim countries that his�predecessors started. The enormous sums of money squandered on�gratuitous wars could instead be given to the countries that the US�and NATO have destroyed. The simplest way to end the refugee problem�is to stop producing refugees.
I am in 100 percent in agreement with Roberts here.

Unfortunately for all anti-war types, Trump is carrying on where Obama�left off by authorizing military strikes. This was done far from US�shores, in a country that poses no credible threat to the USA. Thirty�fatalities have been reported, including 10 women and children, among�them an eight-year-old American girl, Nawar Al-Awlaki � all murdered�in war-torn Yemen.

Why did were these thirty people killed? The New York Times�reported, �The main target was computer materials inside the house that could contain clues about future terrorist plots.� [italics added]�Thirty people and one American commando died for what _could_ be clues.�In other words, people slaughtered based on a maybe.

This attack would better be construed as �mindless hatred� and�terrorism. Although when US forces do this it is called��counterterrorism� by corporate media.

The Anti-war Focus

It didn�t take long. As of now, Trump has revealed himself to be a war�criminal. A focus of people opposed to war should be on charging,�bringing Trump to the docket, and prosecuting him.

A war on warmongers is what should guide people of conscience.

Trump has clearly demonstrated that he does not differ from the�Bush/Obama war on Muslims.

Opposition to wars is a crucial issue, but this does not demand, except�in the mind of Roberts and like-minded people, that support for fellow�human beings and opposition to other human rights abuses should be in
abeyance. Surely one can oppose war and at the same time oppose racism,�sexism, torture, and other heinous practices.

Conclusion

I agree wholeheartedly with Roberts that wars must be ended. But now�Trump stands revealed as a war criminal, a warmonger, and he must be�opposed as well as his warmongering.

A deterrent must be firmly established. Trump and his presidential�predecessors � Obama, the Bushes, Clinton, Carter � should all be�prosecuted for war crimes during their administrations.