After Claiming Greenland, Assessing Illegal Tariffs against Our Allies & Unilaterally Starting a War…

After Claiming Greenland, Assessing Illegal Tariffs against Our Allies & Unilaterally Starting a War…

Why are we surprised to see Europe and the rest of the world distancing themselves from all things American?

Donald Trump seeks to punish the UK – by rejecting their claim to the Falkland Islands (which Argentina still claims) – and Spain – by threatening to push them out of NATO – because neither will join the United States in its most illegal war against Iran, even going so far as to deny US attack aircraft flyover rights or use of our own local airbases in that war. Inasmuch as 80% of the oil that passed through the bottleneck Strait of Hormuz was destined for Asia, we have now pushed allies like India, the Philippines and Japan to seek alternative access for desperately needed oil and gas from Russia… which uses those newfound profits to escalate their annexation efforts in Ukraine. Hormuz has never been closed in modern history. That is our (Trump’s?) legacy.

Trump, with the help of Major Pete Hegseth’s Dept of Defense/War, has decimated our military’s senior command by firing almost 30 top-ranked generals and admirals. Inexperienced substitutes, fearing firing themselves, are running the most powerful military on Earth, claiming victory while unable to explain why a bombed out Iran still maintains (according to US military intelligence) most of its sophisticated missiles, its stash of enriched uranium, an extraordinary cache of cheap but very effective inventory of drones, fast-boats with mine-laying capacity and a seeming ability to outlast the United States in blocking off the Strait of Hormuz. And the Houthis remain Iran’s back-up. Sorry, Pete, God does not seem to be on our side.

With the WAR generating the most negative domestic polls of any presidential military action in half a century, a post-Vietnam law also puts a 60-day clock on the use of military force without congressional authorization. Will enough Republicans join Democrats in rejecting that authorization, along with budgetary demands to add half a trillion dollars to supplement our military in this perilous time? Or will Republicans vote to support Trump to maintain the President’s base (and control of primaries?)… perhaps, sealing their fate in the midterms? Which explains why Trump has mounted such a strong campaign to contain possible votes against the GOP candidates by exploring ways to exclude them from the ballot box.

Even leaders of Europe’s conservative or rightwing parties – from Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, Germany’s AfD, France’s Marie Le Pen, etc. – are distancing themselves from Trump. Virtually all of Europe are making long-term plans to live in a world where they no longer depend on the United States, defensively or economically. And since it is the only military and economic power that rivals the United States, China has become the go-to replacement. These European deals with China, clearly workarounds against the US, are long-term… destined to haunt global relations for decades.

With Netanyahu’s goading, an effort that failed to enlist all recent US presidents to join Israel in a direct war against Iran, until Trump succumbed to that plea with disastrous consequences. There is no question that the United States and Israel have very different objectives vis-à-vis Iran, but Trump’s lockstep link to all things Israel – a position that no longer reflects US mainstream thought, particularly among younger voters – has led him and our policymakers to interpret any opposition to Israel as “antisemitism.” That term is used to attack political opponents, universities and their vital medical research programs. However, it is no longer a majority American thought.

Hamed Aleaziz and Nicholas Nehamas, writing for the April 25th NY Times, also note: “In guidance to immigration officers, the administration describes participating in pro-Palestinian protests and criticizing Israel as ‘overwhelmingly negative’ factors, which can result in being denied or losing green card status”… and even disqualifying otherwise unblemished applicants from citizenship. Free speech has been evicted from the United States.

As if all of the above were not horrible enough, contrary to Trump’s erroneous statements, Iran has lurched significantly toward the most recalcitrant hardliners in Tehran. A badly disfigured Mojtaba Khamenei, the replacement for his slain father, is the new Ayatollah… who owes his elevation to this top spot entirely to the super-hardline Islamic Revolutionary Guards. Reports of dissension in Iran’s leadership has yet to lead to any softening of Tehran’s position in on-off negotiations with the US.

With great justification, Iran’s leadership is profoundly distrustful of Trump, and any thoughts that his pledges have meaning are in perilous jeopardy. In 2018, he pulled the US out of an otherwise effective UN- sponsored nuclear enrichment containment accord with Iran (and several major US allies). Trump began his latest WAR in the middle of negotiations with Iran, seemingly as Netanyahu’s puppet. Even if you hate your opponent in peace negotiations, if you do not trust that they will stand by their word, achieving peace is exceptionally difficult.

Trump’s belief that he can use the blockade of Iran’s ports and seizure of rogue ships filled with Iranian oil is based on the rather disproven assumption that our military force can outlast Iran’s resistance to key proposals that Trump demands. Iran’s drones have defined control of the Strait of Hormuz, and clearly Tehran does not see the increased suffering of its people as a sufficiently powerful such that Iran will bend to Trump’s demands.

We at least need to incentivize Iran to return to the negotiating table in earnest, based on reality and not Trump’s flawed assumptions. Perhaps a US offer to entertain ending the blockade of Iranian ports in exchange for Iran’s reopening the Strait of Hormuz might be a start, but Iran’s wariness of a US President, showing obvious signs of diminished capacity, remains a solid barrier to the trust needed to end this war-crime-ridden war.

I’m Peter Dekom, and that Trump and his most senior advisors have so seriously misread the obvious realities in global reactions and Iran’s strength to resist may not resonate with Trump’s MAGA faithful, but they have deeply weakened the United States at every level in the eyes of most of the world.