Letter to the editor: Tyranny should always be opposed
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If Donald Trump sends forces to seize Greenland, Denmark is politically and morally justified in stopping them.
If American troops threaten Danish forces, the Danes should defend themselves. If Americans fire at them, the Danes should shoot back — however many young American soldiers, sailors and pilots might die or be maimed as a result.
Why? Because international law and the UN Charter forbid the American polity from any such actions, in the same way they forbid Russia or China.
Because a Trump takeover would be more like Saddam Hussein or Vladimir Putin than an America promoting international peace, economic development and human rights.
Granted, some American presidents once did what Trump seems to be considering. But those presidents weren’t behaving much differently from Putin attacking Ukraine, or the Chinese leadership threatening sea traffic in the South China Sea.
Even generations ago, there were also American leaders who condemned such invasions and coups, often publicly.
Those leaders maintained, against the presidents of their day, that the threat or use of violence to impose America’s will on other parts of the world was illegitimate, because it was tyrannical. And tyranny should and indeed must be opposed, always and everywhere it appears.
Eugene V. Torisky Jr.
Latrobe