Donald Trump has been hit with yet another indictment, sharply dividing Americans as to whether he is being held accountable for criminal behavior or whether he is the victim of a political witch hunt. Many are clamoring for Trump’s imprisonment, while an equal many clamor for all charges to be dropped immediately. 

I tell you, dear reader, that whether Trump is innocent or guilty of the charges against him is irrelevant; Trump belongs in prison. Why? Simple: he’s a war criminal.

While it is true that Trump was the first president in a long time to not start any new wars, it is also true that under Trump more civilians were killed by the American-led military coalition in Afghanistan than by the Taliban. On top of that, he sold billions of dollars worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia, which used them to continue inflicting horror and destruction on Yemen. Trump continued fueling an unprecedented humanitarian crisis by giving the Saudis what they needed to rain death upon innocent people through famine, disease outbreaks, bombing civilian targets and blocking foreign aid. Trump aided and abetted war crimes committed by the Saudis, thus even discounting civilian deaths at the hands of the American military, Trump is a war criminal. 

As bad as that is, he’s not the only recent president to commit war crimes. Joe Biden also sold arms to Saudi Arabia, aiding and abetting that country’s crimes in Yemen. Barack Obama, too, sold weapons to Saudi Arabia, plus he dropped over 26,000 bombs on Middle Eastern countries in 2016 alone, and he authorized 542 drone strikes during his term, which killed over 300 civilians, including members of a wedding procession. George W. Bush invaded Iraq under false pretenses, claiming that the country had weapons of mass destruction and bore responsibility for the 9/11 terrorist attacks, leading to around 300,000 civilian deaths. Bill Clinton bombed civilians in Serbia, killing 1500 civilians.

All these presidents are Democrats or Republicans. Maybe the time has come to stop electing candidates from those corrupt parties, and start electing candidates from parties which don’t field war criminals. The Libertarian Party, which  unequivocally opposes war, has some fantastic candidates vying for that party’s nomination, including Chase Oliver, whose campaign forced the Georgia Senate runoff last year, Mike ter Maat, and Lars Mapstead - none of these people would commit war crimes. Instead they would commit to peace and bring our soldiers home.

Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden are all war criminals who should rot in prison. This, unfortunately, will never happen, but YOU can help prevent more war and more war crimes by spurning the major parties and getting involved with the Libertarian Party. Like the Orange and Ulster County Libertarian Party Facebook pages, email us at email@ocnylp.com and LPUCexeccommittee@gmail.com to join our contact lists, and stop by the Orange County LP table at the New Windsor Community Day on August 19.