Dear Editor:

Candidate Donald Trump promised to end the USA’s ‘forever wars’, especially in the Middle East.  

He has been in office less than 14 months. He has ordered the military into action, entirely without Congressional approval, in the Caribbean, the Pacific, Venezuela, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, and Nigeria. In the middle of negotiations, with no immediate threat to the USA and no support from allies,he launched a full-scale war of choice in Iran. 

The rationale for taking us to war keeps changing. There is no clear exit plan. We now have 5,000 Marines on their way to the battle zone.  

On Day One we bombed a girl’s primary school. Thousands of other civilians are dying as the war expands.  

We are spending one to two billion dollars a day. At home, tens of billions are earmarkedfor ICE to terrorize local communitieswithout oversight or accountability, and to build giant warehouse jails for those ICE seizes.  

Our national debt is ballooning despite the savage cuts to SNAP benefits and the forthcoming cuts to Medicaid(MaineCare) that Trump forced through Congress in his ‘One, Big, Beautiful’ budget.  

The Trump administrationhas no trouble findingthe resourcesto bomb foreign countries and to cause chaos in the streets of American cities, but not to end hunger at home and provide healthcare for U.S. citizens. 

On Saturday, March 28, from ‘sea to shining sea’ we will likely see the largest protest in the history of the USA. If you too are outraged by President Trump’susurpation of power, and his unilateral use offorce around the world andin the streets of our cities, bring your family, friends and neighbors to join hundreds in a peaceful ‘No Kings’ protest on the Wiscasset bridge from 10 to 11 a.m., or the Newcastle/Damariscotta bridge from noon to 1 p.m. 

Nigel Calder 

Co-chair, Lincoln County Indivisible 

Newcastle