January 21, 2017
Just
hours ago Donald Trump was finally sworn in as the President of the United
States. Considering all the threats hanging over this event, this is good news
because at least for the time being, the Neocons have lost their control over
the Executive Branch and Trump is now finally in a position to take action. The
other good news is Trump’s inauguration speechwhich
included this historical promise “We do not seek to impose our way of life
on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example for everyone to follow”.
Could that really mean that the USA has given up its role of World Hegemon? The
mere fact of asking the question is already an immensely positive development
as nobody would have asked it had Hillary Clinton been elected.
The
other interesting feature of Trump’s speech is that it centered heavily on
people power and on social justice. Again, the contrast with the ideological
garbage from Clinton could not be greater. Still, this begs a much more
puzzling question: how much can a multi-millionaire capitalist be trusted when
he speaks of people power and social justice – not exactly what capitalists are
known for, at least not amongst educated people. Furthermore, a Marxist reader
would also remind us that “imperialism is the highest stage of
capitalism” and that it makes no sense to expect a capitalist to
suddenly renounce imperialism.
But
what was generally true in 1916 is not necessarily true in 2017.
For one
thing, let’s begin by stressing that the Trump Presidency was only made
possible by the immense financial, economic, political, military and social
crisis facing the USA today. Eight years of Clinton, followed by eight years of
Bush Jr and eight years of Obama have seen a massive and full-spectrum decline in
the strength of the United States which were sacrificed for the sake of the
AngloZionist Empire. This crisis is as much internal as it is external and the
election of Trump is a direct consequence of this crisis. In fact, Trump is the
first one to admit that it is the terrible situation in which the USA find
themselves today which brought him to power with a mandate of the regular
American people (Hillary’s “deplorables”) to “drain the DC swamp” and “make
America”, as opposed to the American plutocracy, “great again”. This might be
somethhing crucial: I cannot imagine Trump trying to simply do “more of the
same” like his predecessors did or trying to blindly double-down like the
Neocons always try to.
I am
willing to bet that Trump really and sincerely believes that the USA is in a
deep crisis and that a new, different, sets of policies must be urgently
implemented. If that assumption of mine proves to be correct, then this is by
definition very good news for the entire planet because whatever Trump ends up
doing (or not doing), he will at least not push his country into a nuclear
confrontation with Russia. And yes, I think that it is possible that Trump has
come to the conclusion that imperialism has stopped working for the USA, that
far from being the solution to the contradictions of capitalism, imperialism
might well have become its most self-defeating feature.
Is it
possible for an ideological system to dump one of its core component after
learning from past mistakes? I think it is, and a good example of that is 21st Century Socialism, which
has completely dumped the kind of militant atheism which was so central to the
20th century Socialist movement. In fact, modern 21st Century Socialism is very
pro-Christian. Could 21st century capitalism dump imperialism? Maybe.
Furthermore,
Trump inaugurational speech did, according to RT commentators, sound in many
aspects like the kind of speech Bernie Sanders could have made. And I think that
they are right. Trump did sound like a paleo-liberal, something which we did
not hear from him during the campaign. You could also say that Trump sounded
very much like Putin. The question is will he now also act like Putin too?
There
will be a great deal of expectations in Russia about how Trump will go about
fulfilling his campaign promises to deal with other countries. Today, when
Trump pronounced the followings words “We will seek friendship and goodwill
with the nations of the world – but we do so with the understanding that it is
the right of all nations to put their own interests first” he told the
Russians exactly what they wanted to hear: Trump does not pretend to be a
“friend” of Russia and Trump openly and unapologetically promises to care about
his own people first, and that is exactly what Putin has been saying and doing
since he came to power in Russia: caring for the Russian people first. After
all, caring for your own first hardly implies being hostile or even indifferent
to others. All it means is that your loyalty and your service is first and
foremost to those who elected you to office. This refreshing patriotic honesty,
combined with the prospect of friendship and goodwill will sound like music to
the Russian ears.
Then
there are Trump’s words about “forming new alliances” and uniting “the
civilized world against Radical Islamic Terrorism, which we will eradicate
completely from the face of the Earth”. They will also be received with a
great deal of hope by the Russian people. If the USA is finally serious about
fighting terrorism and if they really wants to eradicate the likes of Daesh,
then Russia will offer her full support to this effort, including her military,
intelligence, police and diplomatic resources. After all, Russia has been
advocating for “completely eradicating Radical Islamic Terrorism from the
face of the Earth” for decades.
There
is no doubt in my mind at all that an alliance between Russia and the USA, even
if limited only to specific areas of converging or mutual interests, would be
immensely beneficial for the entire planet, and not for just these two
countries: right now all the worst international crises are a direct result
from the “tepid war” the USA and Russia have been waging against each other.
And just like any other war, this war has been a fantastic waste of resources.
Of course, this war was started by the USA and it was maintained and fed by the
Neocon’s messianic ideology. Now that a realist like Trump has come to power,
we can finally hope for this dangerous and wasteful dynamic to be stopped.
The
good news is that neither Trump nor Putin can afford to fail. Trump, because he
has made an alliance with Russia the cornerstone of his foreign policy during
his campaign, and Putin because he realizes that it is in the objective
interests of Russia for Trump to succeed, lest the Neocon crazies crawl back
out from their basement. So both sides will enter into negotiations with a
strong desire to get things done and a willingness to make compromises as long
as they do not affect crucial national security objectives. I think that the
number of issues on which the USA and Russia can agree upon is much, much
longer than the number of issues where irreconcilable differences remain.
So yes,
today I am hopeful. More than anything else, I want to hope that Trump is “for
real”, and that he will have the wisdom and courage to take strong action
against his internal enemies. Because from now on, this is one other thing
which Putin and Trump will have in common: their internal enemies are far more
dangerous than any external foe. When I see rabid maniacs like David Horowitz declaring
himself a supporter of Donald Trump, I get very, very
concerned and I ask myself “what does Horowitz know which I am missing?”. What
is certain is that in the near future one of us will soon become very
disappointed. I just hope that this shall not be me.
The
Saker
The
Essential Saker: from the trenches of the emerging multipolar world
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