"The Human Rights Council will struggle along just as well without the current configuration of the immature United States oligarchy, Weinberg said on Thursday.
The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that the United States was pulling out of the United Nations Human Rights Council. Us Ambassador Nikki Haley said the Council was a hypocritical organization that criticized Israel while concurrently having as members countries that are gross violators of human rights like Venezuela, China and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
"Trump is the Quitter of the Free World. The United States held a privileged (selected by the UN General Assembly) seat at the table, on the Human Rights Council… and yet Donald Trump, the ‘master negotiator’ by his own whim, quit," he said.
Trump’s controversial decision revealed the lack of deliberation and due process that made US government policy-making so erratic and dangerously unpredictable at the highest level, Weinberg cautioned.
"Little discussed is how it is possible that one person within the government can impose their will — no discussion with members of Congress, no discussion among the 50 states and certainly no referendum by the people," he said.
"Quitting is the easy way out for Trump — since he cannot lead by personal example, nor can his belligerent minions (Haley, Bolton, Pompeo) lacking the moral authority — which is sadly reflective," Weinberg said.
Trump’s decision was a policy expression of a conviction held by top administration policymakers that the United States should turn its back on international cooperation and on the United Nations, Weinberg noted.
"The exceedingly controversial National Security Adviser John Bolton had the temerity to state: ‘We don't need advice by the UN or other international bodies on how to govern ourselves,’" Weinberg said.
Trump, Bolton, Haley and their colleagues had also repeatedly shown that they were equally prepared to ignore constitutional due process and the expressed wishes and concerns of the American people, Weinberg observed.
The decision to leave the Human Rights Council revealed the dictatorial and go-it-alone nature of Trump’s rule as US president, Weinberg warned.
"It come down to this: United States foreign policies as dictated by Washington which is dictated by Trump (due to the fact that Congress abdicated their Constitutional authority over a succession of administrations) has been reduced to ‘Do as I say, not as I do.’ or else!" he said.
The United Nations, the Human Rights Council and the cause of promoting and protecting international human rights would all continue and be advanced despite the efforts of Trump, Bolton and Haley to block or undermine them, Weinberg predicted.
"Failure is not ever sufficient reason to quit for the indomitable human spirit is a participatory endeavor, which must be continuously nourished if there is to be any hope of striking a balance against the ever encroaching moral malaise," he said.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova earlier this week described Washington’s move as a serious blow to the reputation of the United States as a defender of human rights and that it also demonstrated double standards.
