There is no chance whatever that this second Trump presidency will be an unmitigated blessing. However, amidst what will certainly be the same old insistence on making the USA dominant globally, there is one very hopeful sign that marks an enormous divergence from the Biden presidency. Trump clearly intends (as he did last time also) to open dialogue with others that were completely shunned over the last four years.
Trump will certainly engage Vladimir Putin in talks before too much longer. A report by the Washington Post today, 11th November 2024 that a phone call between the two men has already occurred has been criticised as never having happened by the Russian presidents press secretary, Dmitry Peskov. But sometime between now and Trump reentering the White House such a conversation is bound to take place.
As Winston Churchill famously said, “Better to jaw-jaw than war-war.” The last few years under Biden were arguably the most dangerous for humanity since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 and in several significant ways worse than that extremely tense crisis. It was resolved through a channel of communication being opened between John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev. A deal was made that dissolved the tension that had reached fever pitch with the U.S. Chief’s of Staff urging Kennedy to target Cuba with missiles. In the end Khrushchev agreed to remove the Soviet Union’s missiles from Cuba if the USA removed its missiles situated in Turkey aimed at them. Kennedy agreed though the deal was that he would not announce this at the time but wait many months before doing so, to mitigate criticism of himself for agreeing to this.
We must be very glad and relieved that Trump is not a neocon. Even his fiercest critics will admit that though he did occasionally green light violent attacks (missiles fired into Syria and the killing of Soleimani of Iran) he did not start any new wars. His record on Ukraine cannot be said to be clean however. His predecessor, Barack Obama had refused the request of the Kiev regime that he send them lethal weaponry. When Trump entered the White House he quickly authorised these weapons to be provided. He is therefore quite obviously responsible for the deaths of many Russian troops who might otherwise have survived.
Still and all, we have entered a new and far safer phase of world history with Trump. Every last one of us ought to feel a sense of relief. The landslide victory Trump achieved over Kamala Harris shows the vast majority of Americans will certainly now be relieved also. The threat of a nuclear war between the United States and Russia is no more and there is now every prospect of an end to the Ukraine war, even if it is not achieved over a 24 hour period as Trump has bragged. The world is a far safer place now and will stay that way just as long as Trump does not make the same mistake as last time of tapping neoconservative war hawks for top positions in his coming administration.
How different from the Biden administration where from the top down there was a neocon dominance that threatened each and every one of us and demanded the juggernaut of war only speed on forever with zero dialogue between the warring sides.
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Published 29th July 2020:
FROM DETENTE TO PERMANENT DIVISION
Who gains from a world divided into warring camps? Who would want such a thing with all its attendant dangers? Surely no one truly sane.
What happened to our world?
Only a few decades ago it seemed that significant differences had been reconciled and that we had learned to work together for the common good. Where did that vision, that hope, that fervent desire for the good of all go?
Why, after such a watershed moment, are we where we are now?
It cannot be any one factor as geopolitical changes of these magnitudes are inherently complex. But it cannot be denied that we are in a far more fear-ridden, accusatory and aggression-laden place than we were in recent memory. Why?
The Factors Denying Tolerance and any Hope for Future Peace:
That Fateful Day - 9/11
It is too simplistic to say 9/11 made all the difference but the events of that day certainly created waves of change that we still feel today and which show no sign of breaking to leave a new space for something more healing and unifying.
The Theater of Economic Warfare
Every nation is doing what it can to increase its economic growth. Many nations have little to play with, are poor and will doubtless remain poor. But others are making steady progress and whereas before they were extremely reliant upon western goods and services this is changing. The main change however has been the economic rise and rise of China with its command form of governance whereby many areas of potential red tape and planning restrictions simply do not exist. It can move quickly and, using huge cash resources it can plan for and initiate huge projects in prime industries and infrastructure to guarantee future success. This has come to a point where in the near future China will overtake the western world and the USA as the world’s primary economic driving force.
The Administrative Pushback Against Peace
An extremely large proportion of monetary and material resources are claimed by the intelligence, security and military echelons. Vast numbers of extremely well paid individuals depend upon continuing high levels of threat to maintain their jobs, status and career structures going forward. A coming together of nations to face the monumental challenges of humankind in years to come in an atmosphere of cooperation, compromise and peaceful coexistence endangers every aspect of their livelihoods. In addition it endangers the future income of those who own corporations within each nation’s military industrial complex. It cannot be a coincidence that the generation of fear has become an industry in and of itself... though those within that industry will claim they have no thought of self-interest.
Political Expediency, Elite Protection and Self-Interest
Politicians in the USA require funding. This funding comes mostly from U.S. corporations, many of them high fliers on Wall Street within the Banking, Pharmaceutical and Defense industries. There is an incestuous relationship within Washington between these corporations, their lobbyists and both the permanent and transient elites within the U.S. governance establishment. The people of North America are largely left out of the equation due to having undefinable wishes in anything like certain terms. Both major parties pay lip service to what they think the U.S. population wants by majority but they know with a great deal of certainty what corporations and their lobbyists want. And, due to their financial symbiosis with those corporations it is in their self-interest to provide it while putting on a certain show for the general public based on their guess about the majority view.
Mass Media and its Self-Inflicted Limitations
The bought media, i.e. that which is owned by corporations and billionaires has a vested interest in keeping its owners happy. The censorship applied is self-censorship and will hardly ever be vocalized, it needn’t be... it is in the air, it is taken for granted. Certain myths, attitudes, beliefs and narratives are subsumed within its central ethos and the milieu within which the staffs of its organizations reside. True journalism is almost never seen due to the restrictions of the subconscious and barely conscious group thought agreement that exists within these entities. Almost no attention of any geopolitical nature is directed inward, only outward. Therefore, the controversies must be found overseas where geopolitics is concerned and so the inclination builds inexorably to find objections to other nations generating fears to fever pitch while the home team stays pure as driven snow in relation to its geopolitical intent.
The Self-Serving Inclinations of Intelligence Agencies
Due to the secrecy at the very heart and nature of their industry entities such as the CIA and MI6 have enormous power. To manipulate information that only increases their value, status and continuing expansion is child’s play for them. They can hardly be gainsaid as only they have the access required and all others have extremely limited oversight into any aspect of their structure, methods and data-gathering function or the analysis which filters it. What is known and known without any doubt is that the creation of lies (misinformation, propaganda, psychological operation narratives) are a primary part of any intelligence agency’s day to day work. All empires seek to maintain themselves. The empire of each intelligence agency is no different.
The Might of the Military Industrial Complex
Eisenhower was brave enough to speak his mind about the M.I.C. as he left office. No doubt while in office he found it impossible to do so and it is interesting to speculate on why not. The M.I.C. is hugely powerful. It employs hundreds of thousands and generates vast wealth for what must be a sizeable number of others. It’s highest ranking individuals are often given equally high positions within consecutive U.S. administrations. Its donations to politicians are the most reliable along with the banks and pharmaceutical companies of the USA. The M.I.C. is an integral part of the deepest structure of the U.S. state and what it wants would be extremely hard to resist if any politician wished to maintain his or her position, career path and hopes of still higher office. The M.I.C. needs war and the threat of war like any company selling a product. Both desire an ever-greater number of customers imbued with the unassailable conviction that the products on offer are a must-have accessory to life without which they would be subject to a mournful longing tinged with an abiding fear. The M.I.C. knows exactly how to ensure their products are always in demand. Along with all others above it generates the ever abiding fear of enemies and there must always be enemies. If not real, then imagined.
All of the factors above combine and conjoin to create the self-serving fear matrix that keeps all of its diverse individuals and entities cruising along in their upwardly mobile status, all working toward the same end of goal of self-interest above all else. It is exceedingly effective in this. From the Oval Office to the office of the lowliest clerical officer in Raytheon the self-serving, thoroughly cynical fear industry continues to thrive 24/7, all the while smoothed over with a facade of rectitude and patriotic myth duly channeled subliminally by its political and mass media mouthpieces.
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