The leading aspect of all the liberal democracies of the world, including U.S. democracy, is their accountability. Accordingly, the elected officials give account of their actions to the electorate.
The unfair war the U.S. had declared against Vietnam in 1955 firstly troubled then-President Lyndon B. Johnson. The American democracy purged the cadres meddling in this war, in which defeat was not accepted until the last moment, with the Watergate incident. In the end, then-President Richard Nixon was also forced to resign in a disgraceful position.
So, what will happen to current President Donald Trump, who declares modern-time wars on U.S. allies nowadays? He just recently announced sanctions on the Turkish interior and justice ministers. His Turkey move is just one of them, there are a few others.
While looking over recent history and recalling that no one in American democracy has yet evaded the accountability test, I cannot help but ask when will President Trump be called to account for his actions?
I wonder about the political future of this statesman, who has damaged the relations between the U.S. and its allies, drifted the global economy to a crisis with his protectionist decisions and discredited the government with his tweets.
In totalitarian or authoritarian regimes, the leaders face a tragic end as they do not act accountable for their actions. In the war declared by Saddam Hussein against Iran, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi youth were killed or wounded, and not a single Iraqi citizen could dare call Saddam to account. Eventually, Saddam had a tragic end with the intervention of the U.S. military. Likewise, no German could ever dare to call Adolf Hitler to account for World War II. But in the end, Germany was occupied while Hitler committed suicide.
In Britain, then-Prime Minister Anthony Eden's political career ended when the Suez operation resulted in a fiasco. The French Fourth Republic went bankrupt as a result of the fiascoes in Indochina and Algeria. And with this, Charles de Gaulle took over the government as prime minister and the Fifth Republic was established.
If we still have major shortcomings in terms of accountability after repelling many threats and ending the tutelage regime, we can allow new sources to stimulate and establish this culture by activating the mechanisms of self-criticism.
