National security

Former President Donald Trump’s racist words are undercutting our national security. For 20 years I trained intelligence and police officers worldwide. Most of my students had brown skin and adhered to non-Christian religions. They admired the U.S. They believed Ronald Reagan when he said the U.S. is a “shining city on a hill.” Not anymore.

Since the end of World War II, the

U.S. built a vast, cooperative security system through NATO and other agreements. When the Soviet Union collapsed, Moscow’s puppet states modeled their security and intelligence organizations on the U.S., not the U.K. or China. I know, I was part of that training. Remember when the plot to blow up U.S. airliners in the Far East was thwarted? Hundreds of American lives were saved because of America’s worldwide system of security cooperation — built by federal agencies.

The trust took decades to build. Trump nearly destroyed that trust with a few ill-conceived words and sentences.

In 2017, I trained a Far East police force. They wanted answers and explanations about Trump’s words. The same happened a few months later when I trained a NATO ally. A student asked, “When are you going to address the orange elephant in the room?”

With the Israel-Hamas war raging, more than ever, we need allies around the world to help prevent attacks on American citizens, installations and businesses.

For those of you listening to Trump’s racism, antisemitism and his plan to dismantle the federal government, who are you going to get to negotiate and maintain international security cooperation?

— David Cariens, a former CIA analyst, Irvington