Tony Abbott: Trump is finishing Pax American. We should not get worse

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It makes no sense to add to the dismay that currently addresses the president of the United States, Donald Trump, because he will not do any good and will surely worsen a bad situation. On the other hand, the former allies of the United States only need to accept that now there is no country whose freedom the United States will easily protect apart from yours and will do everything possible to ensure that American Pax does not become a new global disorder where it could only be correct.

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The televised fight last week between the leader of the free world and the leader of the country who heroically fights for his freedom as soon as the cause of freedom progresses; And, in the same way, the tariffs of the president of the United States against Canada and other allies barely advance the cause of prosperity. Of course, the withdrawal of US support for Ukraine will be emboldened to aggressors everywhere and any indiscriminate tariff war will impoverish everyone; But what matters to this president is not global well -being, but that of the United States in the first place.

The first weeks of this new transactional presidency have been shocking and demoralizing because Trump’s America disagree with the old character of the United States as a world leader. In Ronald Reagan’s word, America was “a brilliant city in a hill” and “the last best hope of humanity.” In the words of John F Kennedy, the United States was ready to “pay any price, have any load, fulfill any difficulty, support any friend, (and) oppose any enemy to ensure survival and success of freedom.” However, denouncing President Trump as “historically ignorant and strategically naive” will only antagonize the current administration given its main conviction that the United States allies have been free in the United States for years; Especially because, at least in this, they are right.

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The challenge is not to attack the president of the United States and add to the growing crack between the United States and traditional allies, but to address their justifiable complaints, since the United States remains the only country with force, and traditionally the benevolence, to be the police that the world needs. It is not to regret the death of the American Pax; Under which, until very recently, the world has been safer, freer, faster and more richer for more people than ever in history. It is for free countries to do everything possible to stop a total American retreat in isolationism and the withdrawal of hemispheric insularity that would finally be so disastrous for human well -being everywhere.

The resentment or argument does not make much sense, since there are probably a majority of Americans who agree with their president in which the prodigious spending of the blood and the treasure of the United States has never had the gratitude it deserved, especially because it has tended to benefit other countries rather than the United States. The “Global Order based on rules” with its most free movement of goods, people and ideas has improved everyone, but has drastically reduced the relative position of the United States and has more recently empowered a strategic rival who has taken advantage of the freer trade without practicing it.

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The temptation, now that the United States has proceeded with tariffs on Canada, and suspended military aid to Ukraine will be to respond so that it simply maximizes the damage. Tit-for-Tat in all tariffs would act as a new tax on Canadian consumers. On the other hand, why not abandon the recent green rules that have stopped so much in the development of resources, made the Western industry not competitive and converted a China that pays only the lipstick to the climate creed in the world factory? Instead of complaining about the help of the United States. Uu. That will almost surely be presented, what about moving to fill the empties left by the United States to maintain the ability to fight Ukraine?

Especially for Canadians, it will be difficult to forgive the reckless references of the president to Canada as state 51, but why insults insults with injuries through a retaliation that leaves Canada worse than its economic aggressor? Especially because there is an alternative that should reduce the vulnerability of Canada and eventually make more a partner that the United States has to take seriously.

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Apart from Canada, probably due to bad blood with Justin Trudeau, it is the rest of the Anglosfera that the new president seems to resent less. Together, Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have a population that approaches 150 million and a GDP of more than US $ 7 billion (C $ 10 billion). For seven decades, together with the US, there have been intimate security links through the Five Eyes Intelligence Sharing association. There is shared history and common constitutional agreements as democracies under the crown. From the recent adhesion of Great Britain to the Transpacific Association, there is a commercial agreement that involves all Canzuk countries; With the potential to be built, with the free movement of goods of the rate and fees, the mutual recognition of the credentials and the free movement of people for well -paid, not well -being.

In addition to being mutually beneficial for the four Canzuk countries, given its natural congruence of interests and values, a much stronger association, perhaps expressed through annual summits, such as Quad, would mean that, individually and collectively, they would have to be taken more seriously in a Washington that now seems inclined to assign thickness of influence in strong military agreements.

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Of course, in a world where US security guarantees have never been more contingent, each democracy must do much more for their own safety, including the development of the sophisticated industrial base necessary to maintain a credible army. After a generation of military-industrial and cultural lethargy that fed the discontent behind the current American retirement, that is a discouraging challenge. But at least Canzuk countries should be able to cooperate in this monumental task on the basis of total trust and frankness.

Tony Abbott was Australia Prime Minister 2013-15.

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