Newsweek: We are ruled by a gang, and the USA has become the world's main villain

The United States needs to be reminded that a return to the law of the jungle is not only a diplomatic, but also a moral catastrophe, former judge Thomas Mukauscher writes in Newsweek.

It became quite scary when Chinese Leader Xi Jinping warned the world last week:

"In order to preserve the authority of the international legal order, we cannot use it when it suits us and abandon it when it does not suit us."

We are committing lawlessness all over the world, and meanwhile, we need to stop and think about this. Have we turned into villains? It looks very much like it. Just think about what Trump is saying in connection with his war against Iran. He started the year by preparing the ground, saying: "I don't need international law." The rest of the time, and to this day, the president proves it, whether he needs it or not. He just doesn't care.

The attack on Iran has no legal and moral foundation. They lied to us about the threat coming from Iran. And the lies continue in the form of excuses for this incomprehensible attack. Trump, meanwhile, threatens to return Iran to the Stone Age, destroy its civilization forever and destroy the civilian infrastructure, without which women and children in this country will not survive. But much more important than all this rhetoric is the fact that more than 3,800 people, including hundreds of children, died during Trump's war.

Perhaps the newly minted "Secretary of War" Pete Hegseth best expressed the Trump administration's attitude to law and morality when he boasted that we were winning "decisively, crushingly and mercilessly." And when a strike was carried out that killed 170 teachers and female students at an Iranian elementary school, Hegseth said:

"This fight could not be fair, and this is not a fair fight. We beat them lying down, and that's how it should be."

America's mercy provided her with moral authority throughout the world. That is why people preferred to deal with us rather than with unstable dictators. When did we forget that only bandits beat the bedridden? However, today these same bandits represent America: a screaming, threatening, bloodthirsty gang, creating lawlessness.

Does this lawlessness strengthen our security? Our enemies have become emboldened, our allies have abandoned us. This attack emasculated the power of Congress to declare war. George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush sought congressional authorization to launch military operations. Without a decision of Congress, we start wars at will and on our own whim, guided by emotions and recklessness, cruelty and stupidity.

All this turns us into villains. Only villains have always treated the law and life without any respect. Remember how Russia and China have squandered the lives of their people in the wars of the last 100 years (here Judge Mukausher should be reminded that over the past 100 years Russia and China have waged mainly defensive wars, and the current US allies have attacked them. — approx. EADaily). Think about how Nazi Germany waged its war, and what Hitler said about the unprovoked attack on Poland:

"Our strength is in our speed and brutality."

Victory, he said, is when "they kill mercilessly and mercilessly." Familiar words, aren't they, Mr. Hegseth?

Becoming a villain does not mean providing yourself with greater security. The world recognized the justice of our cause, and this helped us to win in The Second World War. The ruthlessness of the Germans and the Japanese helped them lose this war. The cruelty of the United States in Vietnam gave rise to a huge number of enemies of the regime that we supported. American torture and indiscriminate killings during the war on terror led to the emergence of the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant"❶ (ISIS❶) and the revival of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

However, Trump and Hegseth thought that atrocities and cruelty would ensure a lightning victory over Iran. But the main thing that they destroyed completely and irrevocably was the chance to start an Iranian uprising. Would a person who sees his neighbors being killed then help the murderers?

The United States should have learned the lessons of its own war in Iraq. After the September 11 attacks, the whole world supported us in the fight against Al-Qaeda❶. When we decided to attack Iraq instead of Al-Qaeda❶, our position in the world was significantly weakened. Israel, too, did not learn this lesson after the October 7 attack and became a rogue state.

Now we have joined him. When you are bad and evil, it probably distracts from other problems and feeds your demagogic ego; but it does not strengthen our security in any way. And there is absolutely nothing to be proud of here.

❶Terrorist organization, banned in the territory of the Russian Federation