March 2, 2026: Can you shoot a man because you think he’s strong or will be strong enough to harm you?
It’s different from shooting a man fearing he will imminently rob you. That’s preemption, and what matters is whether he was actually plotting to do so or not.
Shooting a man because he has the capacity to hurt you _ he may have acquired a gun or is planning to definitely buy it, and everybody knows he has been hating you for ages _ is different. Yes, he may have got or will get a gun. Yes, he has been heard cursing you. But no, you are not fearing he “will” hurt you. You are just fearing he “might” hurt you maybe two years from now.
So far, “Iran might …” is the American logic behind the attack that started it all. Several reports quoting US intelligence information itself said no evidence has been found indicating an imminent Iranian aggression toward the United States. What matters in this case, therefore, is the question whether Donald Trump’s White House can strike Iran and wipe out its leaders without consulting Congress.
Trump’s supporters are asking what’s wrong with removing a potential threat. Critics are saying that anyone can have suspicion, and if you can kill someone based on suspicion alone, anybody can kill anybody and what we have is a full-blown anarchy, and by this logic, Russia justifiably invaded Ukraine because of fear that the smaller country would one day become a threat, with NATO obviously supporting it.
The US Constitution and laws are vague about wars and military actions that could protect American interest. A full-scale war absolutely needs congressional approval, whereas the president has powers to go unilateral when it comes to lesser military plots to protect the country. (This is also a big subject for debate, because while it might allow America to attack others without declaring a war, the Cambodian government, for example, cannot send warplanes to Thailand and tell the world it just wanted to bomb a military base that might cause Cambodia problems in the future.)
With the consequences of Trump’s decision now threatening to endanger the world’s stability, he has obviously embarked on something as big as declaring a war (even from Trump’s own words, it’s not an in-and-out secret military operation), many people are saying Congress should have been consulted.
It’s a hair-splitting legal exercise in the United States. Justifiable fear? Unfounded fear? Thinly-veiled claims designed to re-engineer the political structure of a major Muslim country? And so far, previous tweets of Trump have not even come into play yet. Unmistakable records show him predicting online that former presidents would be using military actions against other countries to boost or re-boost their local popularities. What Trump had said earlier, that it would be a crying shame if those presidents did not consult the Congress, will come back to haunt him.
Meanwhile, Thailand’s major opposition party is urging “restoration of world order” and respect for international law.
The People’s Party was apparently the first Thai political camp to indirectly criticise the attacks on Iran by America and Israel and Tehran’s response. The inexplicable strikes on Iran, which led to global criticism against the superpower and its major ally and widespread legal debate in the United States on whether an American political leader has illegally put country and world interest in danger, and the Iranian reaction are fanning fears of a big multi-national war.
The Orange party’s carefully-crafted statement did not openly call out Washington and Israel, but, in it, the party all but pointed out that the world order was being dangerously twisted. The party stated that the UN Charter needs to be respected in a world simmering with high geopolitical tension. This is a subtle criticism of the United States, which should be responsible for keeping that tension at a manageable level, not heightening it.
“Amid extremely-high and uncertain geopolitical tension, to be firm on the world order based on international rules of the UN Charter, and to respect all sovereignties equally will be a great shield,” the People’s Party’s statement said. It added that Thailand would benefit from that kind of respect.
The statement calls for measures to ensure safety of Thai nationals and immediate ceasefire.
When mask comes off, there’s no putting it back
March 1, 2026: Fear and respect can co-exist, but most of the time the former cancels out the latter.
Most of the time you can’t have it both ways. You can’t have the Bible on one hand and gun on the other. You can’t kill and turn a blind eye to the sufferings of countless innocents and then succeed in convincing people that you love peace.
You can’t activate warplanes, deploy aircraft carriers, drop bombs or launch missiles and seek the Nobel Peace Prize. You can’t call others “dictators” when you yourself don’t ask those who matter around you.
You can’t rule by fear and tell everyone you are a nice guy. You can’t call yourself democratic when the most fundamental part of democracy is kept in the dark while you carry out your secret agendas. You can't pretend to care about some but ignore others when they all are basically the same.
You of all the people must know all of the above. You have just made a definite choice to remove all the doubts about your image. What the world is gaping at is you saying “No more respect? Fine, then so be it. How about this?”
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