Trump's speech at UN sends out troubling signals to the world

US President Donald Trump's maiden speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday contained, to say the least, disturbing messages. Trump talked about the importance of respecting the sovereignty and rights of every country, saying "we must reject threats to sovereignty, from the Ukraine to the South China Sea", a clear jab at Russia and China.

Yet it was Trump who ordered the 59 Tomahawk cruise missile attacks on Syria on April 7 in clear violation of that country's sovereignty. Worse, he didn't even bother getting UN endorsement for the attacks, unlike what former US secretary of state Colin Powell did, albeit with false evidence, in February 2003 before the US invasion of Iraq.

The arming of the Syrian rebels by former US president Barack Obama's administration was another blatant violation of Syria's sovereign rights. US leaders did not care about such violations when Obama and his predecessor George W. Bush ordered military drone strikes on countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, Somalia and Syria, causing many "collateral" civilian deaths.