I have been struck recently by the reports coming out of China, Russia and Europe that have addressed, directly or indirectly, the obvious desire of Donald Trump to try and cut the United States off from the rest of the world unless he thinks it might serve his own, personal, power mongering.
Perhaps it was the leaked excerpts from John Bolton’s that directed my thoughts or, maybe it was an accumulations of events supporting my paranoia, fully justified of course, about the goals of China and Russia but it also reflected the reactions coming out of Europe.
Western Europe seems to be reacting in a somewhat benign, parental, way to the idiocies coming out of the White House; worried, very concerned, planning contingencies certainly but still the reaction of parent over the actions of an errant child. An errant child who, one day, might grow up or, in this specific time given the fact that growing up is a pipe dream, that elections will eliminate the problem.
Russia and China, however, have quickly embraced the opportunities created by the power vacuum left by the U.S. withdrawing from the world. They quickly took, and continue to take, full advantage of that vacuum to further their global power hunger. They have also gleefully realized that, if they flatter and support Donald Trump on a personal level their goals will be even easier to achieve. Trump’s comment to the Chinese President about a movement in the U.S. to allow him to change the Constitution to allow him to ignore the two-term presidential limit, reported by Bolton, is indicative of their intents. They need an egotistical, totally self-centered, manipulable maniac in the White House to continue their world domination goals. Paranoia, sure! But as someone once said, “Just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean that they aren’t out to get you”.
I remember my son telling me that, after a high level visit to Shanghai as part of his special executive MBA program, that the overwhelming impression he came away with was that the Chinese high officials, deputy ministers included, who addressed his group were, to a person, totally convinced that China’s destiny, indeed right, was to dominate/rule the world. It was just a matter of time.
We seem to have conveniently forgotten that Vladimir Putin has been KGB his entire life. The fact that he buys his suits from Saville Row in London does not make him civilized. He knows that, if he can distract the U.S. and Europe enough, it will only take him an afternoon to swallow, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. Once that happens, no-one would consider going to war with Russia over a fait accompli. His restoration of the Soviet Union would have begun. Fortunately, Europe is a great deal more suspicious of Putin’s goals and they have heavily reinforced troop concentrations in Poland and the Baltic States.
Wake up America! The world needs a powerful policeman that, at least, represents a semblance of democracy. The results of the current, growing, power vacuum do not bear thinking about.
