In comments recently broadcast on the Voice of America’s International Edition (Feb. 4), and also reported by other news media, President Trump announced that “the U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip” and “we’ll own it.”

The Voice of America reported that “when asked, he [Trump] did not rule out using the U.S. military to secure it.” Two days later Trump claimed in a Truth Social post that the “Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting … No soldiers by the U.S. would be needed.”

The Daily Hampshire Gazette/AP reported on Feb. 5 that Trump “suggested that displaced Palestinians in Gaza be ‘permanently’ resettled outside the war-torn territory.” According to The New York Times on Feb. 1, Trump previously said of Gaza, “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing.”

Any such takeover of Palestinian land from the Palestinian people — either by the U.S. or by Israel with the backing of the U.S. —  should be unequivocally condemned.

Similarly, Trump recently refused to rule out using U.S. military force to seize Greenland and the Panama Canal. All of these proposals by Trump should be denounced and opposed by Congress and the American people, along with Trump’s threatened use of “economic force” to acquire Canada. Annexing territory by force is a violation of international law and of the U.N. Charter, to which the U.S. is a founding signatory.

We can no longer afford to treat these threats as the passing outrages of a careless and irresponsible politician, but instead need to see them as part of a deliberate campaign by the commander in chief to prepare the American people for possible U.S. wars to annex territory, either directly or by proxy. As such, we need to act now to make sure this dangerous and reckless thinking goes no further.

To make this crystal clear to the president, the Massachusetts congressional delegation should help mobilize other members of Congress to pass a congressional resolution of censure of the president, coupled with congressional denial of funds for these dangerous proposals. Perhaps then Trump will understand how widely the American people oppose the use of force or other coercion to take other peoples’ land.

Such congressional action should be able to garner support from across the political spectrum, from MAGA Republicans opposed to getting involved in new “forever wars,” and traditional Republicans concerned about the potential fracturing of U.S. alliances to the advantage of Russia and China, to progressive Democrats and independents who want peaceful international cooperation used to advance legitimate American interests.

Congress and the American people should speak up now to prevent new wars of aggression from being launched in a world that is already too violent, rapacious and unjust.

Rudy Perkins lives in Amherst.