Now that Donald Trump is President of the United States of America and is strenuously attempting to confirm his right to do “whatever I want to do” over the entire world, it is easy to forget that minus his inability to articulate a coherent sentence his predecessors suffered from much of the same delusion. George W Bush called for a global war on terror and declared himself to be the “new sheriff in town,” a conceit that led to killing millions in Afghanistan and Iraq, while Barack Obama invaded Libya and met on Thursday mornings with his “security advisers to draw up lists of American citizens overseas who would be killed.”
Even the mentally challenged Genocide Joe Biden praised his steering of the Ship of State in a speech at the State Department a week before he passed the imperial baton on to Trump at the January 20th presidential inauguration. In his speech, he argued that he was handing off to President Trump a strong position on the world stage, making the case for continuity in US efforts to counter “threats” posed by China’s global ambitions and Russia’s aggression.
In his remarks at State, Biden sought to make the case for his “exemplary” foreign policy legacy, as Trump, at that time and not yet in office, was already promising something different while threatening allies and calling for America’s territorial expansion, not to mention how he would be renaming international bodies of water and national monuments and sites, in many cases seeking to name them after himself.
Biden engaged in a prolonged boast about his achievements which was inevitably devoid of any real substance, saying “My administration is leaving the next administration with a very strong hand to play. The United States is winning the worldwide competition compared to four years ago. America is stronger. Our alliances are stronger, our adversaries and competitors are weaker. We have not gone to war to make these things happen.”
Biden conveniently forgot to mention how the US under his control was heavily involved in two major wars, in Ukraine and in Gaza. And then there was the disastrous retreat from Afghanistan after twenty years of wasted effort, countless dead bodies, and trillions of dollars thrown down a bottomless pit. He also did not mention the genocide being carried out by his good friends the Israelis which was and is enabled by uncritical support from Washington. Recent reports suggest that White House staff involved in Middle Eastern Policy under Biden sometimes suggested that the US try to rein-in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s slaughter of the Palestinians as it was attracting increasing international criticism over Washington’s enabling role, but Biden refused to discuss the matter, responding only that “I am a Zionist!”
Perhaps someone should have suggested that Biden’s inclinations to go where the Jewish billionaire money leads him, one assumes, ought to be secondary to his oath of office and his doing what is best for the American people rather than for the fellow ardent Zionists like Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and others that he surrounded himself with. Blinken notably raced off to Israel immediately after the October 7th Hamas attack and announced upon arrival at the airport “I am here as Jew!” If Biden had had even an ounce of integrity and gumption he should have fired Blinken immediately, but of course he did not and it set an example for what had followed under Trump where two New York Jews named Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have de facto been negotiating with Israel and the Arabs even though they were knowledgeable only of their career specialties, i.e. real estate. The result of that, a green light for Israel to keep doing the killing to clear Gaza for redevelopment as the Trump Riviera, should have been obvious when the two men announced that they did not see any genocide taking place in Gaza, something that has been clearly visible to 90% of the world’s population.
Trump, now that he has been in place for nine months, is rather like a throwback to a twelve year old boy whose self esteem derives from having become a bully who terrorizes younger and smaller children in the schoolyard. In the current environment, Trump is killing fishermen in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean under the undemonstrated pretense that they are “narcoterrorists,” whatever that is supposed to mean. One might suspect that Trump’s willingness to kill repeatedly without providing any evidence that the victim deserved such a fate might come from over-exposure to his good friends in Israel where shooting children by the Israeli Army (IDF) is considered de rigueur.
Trump also does not hesitate to verbally terrorize foreign heads of state, ambassadors, journalists and anyone else he perceives as having slighted him in the least. They are all set up for punishment to demonstrate what a real he-man he is. Unfortunately for the United States, all that he most often succeeds in doing is to create contempt for the US and for the system that produces presidents like Clinton, Bush, Obama, Biden and, the ultimate product, Donald J Trump himself, whose most enduring saying is “You’re fired!” delivered with a malignant sneer and a pointed finger.
Indeed, there is always something new and exciting to report when Trump, who just might be experiencing a major health crisis, is around asserting himself. The latest news is that he has ordered the Pentagon (i.e. now known as the War Department) to begin upgrading America’s nuclear arsenal by increasing “testing” of the hardware. Trump appeared to be suggesting the US will resume testing nuclear weapons for the first time in three decades, saying only that it would be on an “equal basis” with presumed competitors like Russia and China. He might also be looking at Iran and oddly left Israel with its secret arsenal that is reportedly under the “Samson Option” targeting European cities including Rome out of the reckoning.
Significantly, the news of the changed policy broke while Trump was meeting with President Xi Jinping in China, presumably as a form of warning. An announcement about the testing subsequently appeared on Trump’s Truth Social in which the president wrote “Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately.” There was no indication whether the Pentagon would start detonating actual warheads, meaning that Trump was offering few details about what seemed to be a significant shift in US defense policy. The US already regularly tests missiles that are capable of delivering a nuclear warhead, but it has not actually detonated the weapons since 1992 because of a test ban.
When he spoke to reporters later in China, Trump was somewhat evasive or even confused, saying in regard to other nuclear armed countries that they “seem to all be nuclear testing” but in the United States, “We have more nuclear weapons than anybody. We don’t do testing. I see them testing and I say, well, if they’re going to test, I guess we have to test.” When asked where the tests would take place he said, “It’ll be announced. We have test sites.”
The presumption is that The Donald will use the “enhanced” weapons to threaten other nations to obey the pronouncements coming out of the White House. Trump, being somewhat simple minded beyond the use of threats, clearly does not perceive that he is inviting other governments to do likewise, creating an arms race that could easily lead to the end of the world in a nuclear holocaust if someone twitches. That someone could easily be Trump himself as he is clearly incapable of foreseeing consequences for any of the impulsive actions that he is prone to.
Meanwhile the situation relating to the Gaza-Israel “Trump Peace Plan” continues to unravel. The ceasefire came into effect on October 11th, but Israel continued to commit dozens of ceasefire violations by shelling and shooting Palestinians including on the day before, when it struck targets in the southern Gaza Strip after it said its troops came under fire from Hamas militants. Five Palestinians were also reported killed on Thursday and a family of eleven trying to return to their former home on the following Friday were also killed by the Israeli Army. In the wake of the massacre of the family, which included seven children and three women, accomplished by firing a tank shell at their vehicle, Israeli sources claimed that they had crossed what Israel has referred to as a self-proclaimed “Yellow Line.” Israel again violated the agreement on Wednesday when Netanyahu ordered a heavy shelling and bombing that killed over 100 Gazans, including 46 children, over an alleged shooting incident. The Israeli response was reportedly greenlighted by Trump and his negotiations team, who were advised of the plan in advance.
The “Yellow Line”, beyond which Israeli forces have withdrawn, is unmarked or sign posted and is basically a killing field for any Palestine who approaches it. It separates areas under continuing Israeli military control – which is described as a security zone that includes more than 50 percent of Gaza – as permitted in Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan. Israeli “Defense” Minister Israel Katz, in the wake of the killing of the large family, has ordered Israeli forces to physically place warning signs to the approaches to the “Yellow Line” but he has also authorized Israeli soldiers to target and to kill anyone who crosses it.
This is ominous. It suggests that, even if the “ceasefire” holds, the Israeli government plans to maintain indefinitely its current military occupation of more than 50% of the territory of the Gaza Strip, territory which includes the great majority of Gaza’s agricultural land and which has already been effectively ethnically cleansed of Palestinians due to the bombing that has destroyed infrastructure in 90% of Gaza. Israel understands that even if the Palestinians wish to return home they will have no shelter, no jobs, no schools, hospitals or religious buildings, and no sources of income apart from charity. They will also be completely dependent on Israel allowing entry of food and medicine, which, as noted above, is now continuing to be restricted in spite of the ceasefire agreement.
There are reports that some Israeli Ministers have said: “As Soon as we get the hostages back, we will resume the slaughter.” Nearly all observers note that Israel does not have a good record on fulfilling ceasefire or other agreements and its withdrawal from occupied territory is often delayed through various contrivances. It has been well demonstrated that Israel is continuing its occupational presence in Areas “B” and “C” of the West Bank, from which, in accordance with the “Oslo” accords, it should have started its gradual withdrawal a quarter-century ago. Roving bands of armed Jewish settlers continue to kill Palestinian farmers, destroying their olive trees and livestock, and burning down their homes without any intercession from IDF soldiers who stand by to watch and applaud the carnage and destruction. For Israel “indefinite” tends to mean “permanent” whenever and wherever Israeli land-grabs are concerned assisted by American leaders like Donald Trump who have approved annexation of the Syrian Golan Heights and East Jerusalem and the ongoing bombing of Lebanon while also giving Israel a free hand on the West Bank.
In fact, formal annexations by Israel are neither necessary nor desirable, since they could provoke Western states which have used the “temporary” excuse to justify their de facto support for Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine rather than to finally take constructive actions to end it. Israel understands that the optimal situation is effectively permanent occupation and control of all the territory of the former State of Palestine without a formal declaration of annexation, and that is undoubtedly what will continue as the Peace Process slowly proceeds, if it does at all. The “Trump peace plan” would, unsurprisingly, permit this status quo to continue.
So the beat goes on. The Trumpean universe continues to expand through threats and the murder of “enemies” even though the real enemy of the American people and their true national interests continues to be “friends” like Israel. And now the US nuclear arsenal is apparently being “tested” to make sure it is ready for use on competitors. Can all of this get any worse? Tune in next week!
Reprinted with permission from Unz Review.
