Weighing In: Trump’s Wince-Causing Language Aside, the President Had a Reason for Calling Them What He Did (If He Did at All)

I’ve been watching the ongoing debate over President Trump’s un-diplomatic language that he is famous for.  Is there a reason that he might think that the nations involved aren’t so good?

Oh, yes.

Africa has many military and paramilitary situations going on.  The Armed Conflict Location and Data Event Project (ACLED) is an excellent source on the various kinds of violence that have taken place in Africa since 1997.  It isn’t pretty.

How many Africans have been displaced by violence in their countries?   At least 2.4 million by violence or by internal strife, making it second only to the Middle East, with a million more displaced by natural disasters in 2015 alone.  The total is somewhere in the neighborhood of 12.4 million people for the years studied in the above link.

How many failed or near-failing states in Africa?  Quite a few.

The above links are data-heavy, but they all paint a not-so-nice picture of some of President Trump’s targets.

So does President Trump have a point, referring to Haiti and African countries as s-hole nations (if he did at all)?   Yes, he definitely does, given the information contained in the links above.  

Should he have used better language?  Yes, he definitely should have.  Is he a racist?  I don’t know; that remains to be seen.  The term “racist” is so politicized that I’m not sure what it means anymore.

Should some of the African nations he referred to be quite as indignant as they have been in the last 24 hours?  Given their (proven) ATROCIOUS track record on human rights, military conflicts within their own borders and failed political and economic systems, they should be criticizing their OWN leaders for screwing up their countries beyond belief instead of calling the ONLY Western leader who calls a spade a spade a “racist.”. 

Their countries suck, plain and simple!    So President Trump definitely has a point.

Human rights are not optional, as some of these failed states have treated them. 

The exact moment that someone in these African countries can say “screw the security forces and the ruling idiot in the palace” or “screw the government” without fear of being disappeared, tortured, having their families threatened or murdered, the sooner they can be considered a successful nation, and not failed ones as they currently are.

Until that time, they have no leg to stand on when someone criticizes their nations, no matter how plain-spoken or offensive it is.  

12.4 million refugees?  If that was a nation’s population, it would be larger than 158 countries with lesser populations.  That is DISGRACEFUL!