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DenverWe are only in the second month of Donald Trumps presidency, but many Americans have tired of the drama and are wondering what the next 46 months have in store.

Beyond producing constant anxiety, Trumps bizarre presidency poses a more fundamental question: Having already come under siege in many of its outposts worldwide, is liberal democracy now at risk of losing its citadel, too? If so, the implications for US foreign policy, and the world, could be far-reaching.

The United States has elected a president whose understanding of American democracy is apparently limited to the fact that he won the Electoral College. To be sure, this requires some passing acquaintance with the US Constitution, where the Electoral College is defined. But beyond that, Trump seems to have little respect for the Constitutions system of checks and balances, and the separation of powers among the branches of government. Nor does he respect Americas fourth estate, the press, which he has begun describing as the enemy of the American people.

Elections, while necessary, are hardly sufficient for upholding liberal democracys central tenets. After all, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and many other despots have come to power by winning a popular vote.

As any schoolchild should know, elections require all citizens to tolerate views that differ from their own. Elections are not meant to transcend or overturn democratic institutions or the separation of powers. Regardless of how the Trump administration ultimately performs, its first month of presidential decreesor, in American political parlance, executive orderscan hardly be viewed as a triumph for liberal democracy.

Trump would do well to study the Constitution; and while he is at it, he should find time to read some of the republics other founding documents. He could start with the 1620 Mayflower Compact, which implicitly recognized the rights of political and social minorities in one of Americas earliest religious colonies.

But Trump is not the only American who should use this moment to reflect on his countrys history and its role in the world. Although the administrations America first sloganeering may sound frightening to some foreign ears, it might come as a relief to others.

Since the end of the Cold War more than 25 years ago, the primary goal of US foreign policy has been to spread democracy in the world. But in pursuit of this lofty ambition, America has sometimes overreached. Although its support for democracy would seem to put it on the side of the angels, its policies have often been implemented with a measure of arrogance, even anger.

America has sometimes force-fed democracy to countries, or even delivered it at the tip of a bayonet. There are many reasons liberal democracy seems to be in retreat worldwide. But among them is surely the growing resentment of other countries and their leaders, who have tired of listening to American accusations, lectures, and admonitions.

Consider Iraq. Many Western observers were inspired by the sight of Iraqis ink-stained fingers after they cast their ballots in that countrys first election. But while free elections are often a first step on the road to democracy, the aftermath was not so smooth in Iraq. Political identities became increasingly defined by sectarianism, rather than substantive issues; and it soon became clear that democratic institutions and the culture of tolerance on which they rely are not so easily introduced to societies that have not known them before.

Some years ago, I spoke to a Balkan leader who had just spent the day listening to an American philanthropist lecture him on his troubled young countrys democratic shortcomings. As he contemplated the political pain of following the philanthropists free advice, he asked me, What am I supposed to do with that? He had identified a fundamental shortfall in the movement to promote democracy: Telling someone how to implement democratic reforms is not the same as taking on the risks and responsibilities of actually doing it.

Notwithstanding its currently toxic political scene, America still has one of the most successful democracies in history. It provides a great model for others to emulate, but its example cannot be forced on the world. Telling people that their countries have to be like America is not a sound strategy.

Liberal democracy was off-balance even before Trumps victory; now it has lost its center of gravity. The next four years could be remembered as a dark period for this precious form of government. But liberal democracy has outlasted its rivals in the past, and it will likely do so again. Those who have fought so hard and sacrificed so much for it will be ready to ensure that it does. Project Syndicate

* * *

Christopher R. Hill, former US assistant secretary of state for East Asia, is dean of the Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver, and the author of Outpost.

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Liberal democracy at risk - Inquirer.net

DAVAO CITY , Philippines The communists are still the countrys top security threat, according to National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr.

It is communism that is the number one threat. Because the communists here want to change the way of life of the Filipinos. They want to force their way even if they are outdated already, Esperon said yesterday.

The communists have been waging an insurgency since 1968 which the military said has claimed 30,000 lives to overthrow the government.

Aside from the communists, Esperon added the problem of illegal drugs, extremism, terrorism, corruption, secessionism and even the alleged destabilization plots, as among the other threats the country currently faces.

Illegal drugs because it is destroying the very fiber of our society, the very core, our families. Illegal drugs wastes so much of our resources, our Filipino values, our youth, he said.

Esperon stressed the brand of communism the leftist groups are pushing is an old issue.

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The problem with these communists is that they are still talking about imperialism when we are no longer a colony. They are talking about feudalism and fascism, when we are not fascists. I think the communists should also update themselves on what they really want, he said.

He said even China, which is the leading communist country in the world, has opened up to foreign markets and to the idea of capitalism.

Esperon however said that even if communists pose the biggest national security threat, there are political solutions to the problem.

He cited President Dutertes efforts to achieve lasting peace and unite the country under one flag.

Esperon mentioned in particular the resumption of peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines-New Peoples Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF).

Duterte restarted peace talks with the communist rebels that had been on and off for 30 years.

The two sides separately declared ceasefires in August, and the informal arrangement largely held as they continued discussions in Rome last month.

The communists terminated their self-declared truce after accusing the government of failing to release all political prisoners and encroaching on rebel-held areas.

Duterte replied by scuttling the peace talks and declaring an all out war against the communist rebels.

During his visit to Camp Teodulfo Bautista in Jolo, Sulu last Friday, Duterte reminded the troops to expect an ambush anytime from the rebels.

Do not just leave your camps to stroll around, Duterte told the troops.

We have a resurgence of assassinations, Sparrows many soldiers have died. Expect an ambush anytime, Duterte said, referring to the notorious special partisan unit of NPA hit men.

The President advised soldiers to go out in groups and avoid being complacent about their safety. With Alexis Romero

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Communists still top security threat Esperon - Philippine Star

Western Nevada County residents shocked and distressed over the election of Donald Trump have been frustrated by an inability to show their anger, mainly because Rep. Doug LaMalfa hasn't held any town meetings that would give them an excuse to let loose.

But LaMalfa gave local lefties a chance to join in the national protests by scheduling an appearance Feb. 24 at a meeting of an outfit hardly anybody outside the industry knows about, the Mountain Counties Water Resources Association.

LaMalfa was joined by Rep. Tom McClintock, a survivor of two recent raucous town hall meetings, and some elected Republicans farther down the food chain to discuss the "The New Trump Administration A view from the Top." Even state Senator Ted Gaines, who rarely makes an appearance in this neck of the woods, attended the Auburn event.

The demand for tickets exceeded anything association executive director John Kingsbury had ever experienced before. "Normally, we don't have anybody register," he told The Union. Apparently suspicious that the newcomers were more interested in making a political statement than delving into the intricacies of water policy, Kingsbury refunded the $40 price of admission to non-members of the organization.

That prompted protests from the likes of Nevada City Council member Reinette Senum, Caleb Dardick, executive director of SYRCL, the Nevada City Rancheria Tribal Council, and various outfits that apparently don't understand the meaning of the word "indivisible."

That didn't stop them and several hundred others from showing up at the semi-posh Ridge Golf Course and Events Center to voice their concern over water policy, the fate of Obamacare, and various other issues that are vexing people who didn't vote for Trump.

Many Republicans including Trump dismiss the demonstrations as the work of professional organizers and paid activists, partly because MoveOn, Organizing for Action, Planned Parenthood, and other liberal groups have offered help.

Several state and national groups are working to connect these activists online. They publicize meetings and events, and host online seminars on ways to influence members of congress. Many are first-timers who echo in passion, though not politics, the people who emerged early in the Tea Party movement in 2009. Some wags have referred to the protests as the Herbal Tea Party movement.

Conservatives who dismiss the movement as a nefarious plot bankrolled by George Soros conveniently forget how well organized the "spontaneous" Tea Party demonstrations were. They were guided in part by a Tea Party Patriots memo encouraging people attending town meetings to scream loudly, be disruptive and make clear that a significant portion of the audience did not support the congressman's agenda.

"Every few minutes, people at the end of every few rows of seats would spring to their feet, then turn to rows immediately behind them and urge others to stand like orchestrating a wave at a baseball game," recalled Steve Israel, then a Democratic congressman from Long Island, N.Y. "It was the first time I witnessed syncopated booing."

While lefties are by definition disorganized (see Will Rogers), the Nevada County Democratic Party Central Committee offered some suggestions on how to organize and carry out the Auburn demonstration. Among the nuggets of advice offered:

Protest signs: "ResistanceUS has called the event 'Stand Up to Climate Deniers LaMalfa and McClintock'," so it was recommended that water-themed signs be created;

Fashion statement: Wear blue so the group is easy to recognize and can project solidarity. "We are discouraging the color pink. If we look like a whole new group of people, the press can't dismiss us as 'those crazy women.' Don't be afraid to add red and white accents;"

"Be orderly, be polite Folks should arrive with empty bladders in the morning."

Participants estimated 500 demonstrators showed up, but it didn't seem to sway the opinions of Republican officials who addressed water agency officials. Generally they called for more dams and less environmental regulation, which upset Nevada County Supervisor Heidi Hall.

"Very disappointed to hear a highly partisan, extremist speech filled with alternative facts about a dark dystopian future created by evil environmentalist lefties at what was billed as a non-political northern region water symposium," Hall wrote on her Facebook page.

Maybe that's why she wasn't invited to a little get together with LaMalfa arranged by Barbara Jones of Indivisible Women of Nevada County. Senum and Dardick were among those who attended the affair. Everybody got a chance to articulate their pet gripe, but it's unlikely any minds were changed. Senum gave LaMalfa credit for being respectful and listening to his constituents.

The demonstration broke up with no arrests and nobody being hurt. The Sacramento Bee ignored the event, but The Union and some other media covered it so the protesters got some leverage out of their effort. The next opportunity locals have to join the national protest will come in April, when LaMalfa said he'll hold a town meeting. For those so inclined, it will be another opportunity to participate in the great American tradition of political theater.

But there's evidence to suggest that opposition to Trump is more substantial than just people venting their frustration at public demonstrations. A woman I know who attended the Indivisible Women of Nevada County meeting at Miners Foundry two days after the Auburn demonstration reports that the venue was jammed, the women focused on bringing about meaningful change rather than theatrics.

Trump and his acolytes have an interesting four years ahead of them.

George Boardman lives at Lake of the Pines. His column is published Mondays by The Union.

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George Boardman: 'Herbal Tea Party' movement more than traditional political theater - The Union of Grass Valley

THE HAGUE Tensions between Ukraine and Russia will play out at the U.N.'s highest court on Monday when judges begin hearing Kiev's request to order Moscow to halt support for pro-Russian separatists.

Ukraine launched the case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which handles disputes between states, in January.

It accuses Moscow of violating United Nations anti-terrorism and anti-discrimination conventions by supporting pro-Russian groups in Crimea and in eastern Ukraine, where fighting has claimed roughly 10,000 lives in the past three years.

Russia has repeatedly denied sending troops or military equipment to eastern Ukraine and is expected to challenge the jurisdiction of the court.

Tensions have escalated since a group of Ukrainian politicians and military veterans last month launched a rail blockade of shipments, including coal, from separatist-controlled areas, causing economic pain on both sides.

Ukraine says in its filing that separatist forces, backed by Moscow, have carried out terrorist acts. It cites the bombardment of residential areas and the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in July 2014, which killed 298 passengers and crew.

In September 2016, a six-country investigative team led by the Netherlands said the plane had been shot down with a Russian-manufactured Buk surface-to-air missile from an area controlled by pro-Russian forces. The team had not yet identified suspects.

Russia has dismissed the findings of the Dutch-led international prosecutors as biased and politically motivated.

The U.N. court takes years to hear cases. Although its rulings are final and binding, it has no means of enforcement.

Monday's largely procedural hearings will focus on so-called provisional measures, which the parties may request to ensure that there is no aggravation or extension of the conflict.

In a similar case brought by Georgia against Russia, also based on the anti-discrimination treaty, the court found in 2011 that it had no jurisdiction.

(Editing by Anthony Deutsch and Mark Trevelyan)

BAGHDAD More than 40,000 people have been displaced in the last week from the Iraqi city of Mosul, where U.S.-backed forces launched a fresh push towards the Islamic State-held old city center on Sunday and closed in on the main government complex.

PARIS France's conservatives appeared to be at war with themselves less than 50 days from the presidential election as Francois Fillon clung on to his struggling, scandal-tainted campaign and senior party members fought to oust him as their candidate.

JERUSALEM Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday to voice opposition to what the Israeli leader charged were Iran's attempts to establish a permanent military foothold in Syria.

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Ukraine and Russia face off in UN court over separatist conflict - Reuters

Kyiv, Ukraine, Mar 5, 2017 / 04:02 pm (Aid to the Church in Need).- Parents forced to choose which of their children will eat dinner that day. Children watching as their parents succumb to the gruesome effects of starvation. Farmers having their crops snatched up and taken away while neighbors lie emaciated on the roads, too exhausted to move.

Thousands of documented instances of cannibalism.

This is the story of the Holodomor, the death by hunger that gripped Ukraine between 1932 and 1933 leaving between 2.5 and 7 million people dead in its wake.

The story is really horrific: the amount of people who went through life and were forced to eat horrible things just to stay alive, Ukranian Greek Catholic priest Fr. Mark Morozowich told CNA.

People talk about (how) there would just be some water with a little bit of fat in it that they were able to eat, said Fr. Morozowich, who also serves as dean of the School of Theology and Religious Studies at the Catholic University of America.

And then the stories of people dying: the young people, the old people, in some cases, if there were protests, people were shot and killed, he recalled. It was really a demonic reality in some ways.

An overlooked history

The Holodomor, or death by hunger in Ukrainian, was a man-made famine that terrorized the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic a Soviet state under the USSR between the spring of 1932 until the summer of 1933. Through a combination of decreased crop requisition and a series of policies that restricted rations and seized food throughout the country, between an estimated 2.5 to 7.5 million Ukrainians starved to death in one of the most agriculturally productive areas of the USSR.

Contributing factors to the famine across the Soviet Union were the Soviet collectivization movements, which consolidated land and labor onto collective state farms as well as changes in crop production from grain to non-native species like sugar beets. Meanwhile, much of the grain that was grown was either not harvested, or mismanaged during production or shipping.

However, while food shortfalls were experienced in pockets across the Soviet Union, policies enacted in Ukraine in November 1932 specifically contributed to widespread death and starvation. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's policies required that Ukraine produce a third of the Soviet Union's grain stocks, even though it consisted of just a fraction of the union's arable land.

In addition, peasants and collective farms who did not meet their grain quotas were severely punished, forced to turn over livestock or surrender up to 15 times the food they originally owed the Soviet government. Those who could not turn over the required amount of goods found their farms raided by party officials.

After these policies were put into place, Ukrainian borders were closed, prohibiting starving citizens from leaving. These policies remained in effect, with food continuing to be seized, even after the Soviet government met its food requisition goals in early 1933. As a result of these factors, tens of thousands of Ukrainians died every day during the winter of 1932-1933. Citizens turned to drastic measures just to survive including thousands of documented cases of cannibalism.

The classification of the Holodomor as a genocide is contentious today, due to questions over the extent of Stalin's intention to specifically target and extinguish the Ukrainian people, as well as differing definitions of what constitutes genocide. Currently, the Holodomor is recognized as a genocide by 24 countries including the Vatican.

Despite these questions, Stalin's complicity in causing and then perpetuating the starvation in Ukraine has been well-documented.

I don't think that the way to think about the Holodomor is as something that there was a clear blueprint for and that the blueprint was just put into action, said Prof. Michael Kimmage, a history professor at the Catholic University of America.

It was a number of competing agendas and, of course, the willingness of Stalin and those in his inner circle to inflict tremendous suffering on the population of the Soviet Union.

While there was an anarchic element of administrative errors and unorganized policies, Kimmage said, there was also certainly a form of political coercion to minimize access to food. In addition, many within the Soviet government experienced and perpetuated fears and paranoias of secret enemies within the state particularly within Ukraine, he said.

You have a moment of genuine political terror, of state-sponsored, state-driven violence across the Soviet Union, but it has this particular chapter, particular element within Ukraine which is dictated and guided by Stalins paranoia about, perhaps Ukrainian loyalties being outside of the Soviet Union.

In addition to the scope of the famine, what also sets the Holodomor apart is the degree of state complicity not only in the creation of the famine, but in its refusal of any aid once news of the famine started to spread, Kimmage noted.

The state was aware of the problem, it could have allocated resources differently, he told CNA.

The fiendish reality of the Holodomor is that it wouldnt have happened if the Soviet state had not made it happen. There was no way that once it was underway that the state was going to come to the rescue of its starving subjects and citizens, and that's perhaps the core tragedy of this event.

The Soviet's denial of wrongdoing lasted beyond the famine itself, Kimmage pointed out. Ukrainian people were prohibited from speaking or writing about the famine and its unique impact on their people until the Soviet Union broke apart in the 1990s.

The thing that the Soviet Union wanted to prevent after the Holodomor was the usage of this event for any nationalist purposes so to classify the Holodomor as a specifically Ukrainian tragedy, that was impermissible in Soviet times.

Echoes of the Famine

While the Holodomor was a verboten topic of conversation in Ukraine, it is now an important touchstone both for the Ukrainian American community and for post-soviet Ukraine, who can now speak freely and remember publicly what happened.

What has been forbidden to be spoken about until 1991 is very much spoken about after 1991, Kimmage said.

For Ukrainians, said Fr. Morozowich, talking about the famine is also a means of commemorating the deep dehumanization experienced by the Ukrainian people during that period.

When we look at what a famine does, it strips a person, it destroys networks, it brings them down, it pits neighbor against neighbor, Fr. Morozowich said.

The perversion of these relationships and the choices people were faced with to survive destroyed not only society, but persons as well. It was a whole dehumanization of the person. All that was good was stripped away and a stripping away the identity of the Ukrainian people.

'Who is going to remember Ukraine?'

The footprint of the Holodomor today is not only in the people's reclamation of their identity, but in the people's response to the situation and conflicts facing Ukraine today.

It's difficult for people who don't live here or don't know the history of these areas to understand, Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, apostolic nuncio to Ukraine, told CNA/EWTN News.

He spoke of Ukrainian's fears that the conflicts facing the country today will be overlooked again not only by those imposing the violence, but also the world.

The fact that they are afraid of being alone, of being forgotten: this is a fact that we cannot not take into consideration.

Since 2014, conflict has raged between pro-Russian forces and the Ukrainian government in Eastern Ukraine. Nearly 10,000 people have been killed by the violence, and over 1.5 million people have registered as displaced, according to the United Nations. Nearly two million people face shortages of water and restrictively high food and medicine prices in the areas of the most fighting, according to UN reports.

Our present situation is not the Holodomor, but it is extremely difficult, and there are areas where, I wouldn't say they starve, but they are at the minimum level of surviving,Archbishop Gugerotti said.

He described that in many places, citizens hide and store basic food items like bread for fear of scarcity or theft. Social cohesion has eroded in the eastern part of the country, particularly between ethnic and language groups as well as between the different Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Churches. This has limited the churches' ability to respond to the needs of the people, and heightened citizens' feelings of hopelessness and paralysis.

These kind of tensions are overwhelming, so the possibility of proper reaction is limited to the minimum.

The challenges facing both Russia and the West has left many people in Ukraine feeling that their needs are being overlooked.

When one is afraid, certainly one doesn't want to meet with people who are more afraid than he or she is, Archbishop Gugerotti said. We have a disastrous situation in the whole world and who is going to remember Ukraine?

Fr. Morozowich reflected that the lesson of the Holodomor still echoes in the challenges the Ukrainian people are facing today.

When we look at history and we look at things that have happened, unfortunately in many cases, political power sometimes speaks louder than historical realities. We need to continually bring the stories forward, he said, pointing to recent attention to the Holodomor in film and in research, as a hopeful sign.

Fr. Morzowich also spoke about the renewed attention to the atrocities of the Armenian genocide as another example of stories now receiving the attention they need.

Ultimately, however, both the Holodomor and the current Ukrainian conflict ask the same question, he said: Are we really ready to listen to the plight of our brothers and sisters?

In the Holodomor, the Soviets imposed a new reality for the Ukrainian people through the starvation and suffering of the famine.

One that was devoid of God, stripping of their dignity, stripping of their culture, stripping of their culture, stripping of their intellectual past, stripping of their wonderful melodies, Fr. Morozowich said. They were deprived and then they were rebuilt into agents of the system.

Similarly, the violence, hunger and displacement of todays Ukrainian conflict makes people fear the same kind of deprivation, he added. Its a its a large part of the struggle of yesterday, its a large part of the struggle thats going on today.

We have to ask if we're ready to stand with our brothers and sisters to help them be free, to be able to live a decent life without the fear of a bomb falling, without the fear of hunger, and how do we as a people, a society for the voices of the innocent to rise above the military machinery that is just subjecting these people.

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The horror of Ukraine's forgotten famine still casts a shadow - Catholic News Agency