By Alexander Maistrovoy
It is difficult to say who will be elected by American people, but the world (except sterile Western Europe) has made its choice. And this choice, in spite of formal logic, is the “racist,” “sexist,” “imperialist”, “islamophobe” Donald Trump
In New York, the President of Egypt el-Sisi has met with Trump and characterized him as a “strong leader.” The presidents of the Czech Republic and Hungary, Milos Zeman and Viktor Orban, urged Americans to elect Trump. According to Orban, Trump would be a better leader than Obama, and Zeman compared him with Reagan. Russia, Israel and the Arab monarchies would also like to see Tramp in the White house. In India nationalists sing mantras devoted to Trump, in Serbia they called “Vote for Trump!”.
It’s not surprising. During the eight years of Obama, Clinton and Kerry’s ruling America has become a pariah. It is in isolation, and this is not the “brilliant isolation” of Victorian England. It is a miserable and shameful isolation. You can hardly find a regime now that wouldn’t have humiliated the leaders of the once great country and all people of America altogether.
In July, 2012 protesters in Egypt, with the connivance of the authorities, threw tomatoes and shoes at Hillary Clinton’s motorcade accompanying this action with the shouts “Monica, Monica”. The paradox arises from the fact that Clinton was going to meet with Mursi, who was supported by her. Kerry allowed the Egyptians to search him twice before the meetings with al-Sisi, as if he was a second-rate journalist – first time in Cairo in July 2014 and second time in China in September 2016. This humiliation seemed fun to Kerry.
Erdogan blackmails the White House defiantly, threatening to break the strategic relationship with the US if they don’t extradite Fethullah Gülen. In response, Kerry and Biden bowed to Erdogan.
Putin regularly humiliated his “American partners” making them wait for him. At the G20 summit in Mexico in 2012, he was 40 minutes late for the meeting with Obama. Obama and Clinton were given a slap in the face.
“Putin has made it clear that he was bored in these negotiations. He never apologized for being late”, – Clinton acknowledged. However, it was a sheer trifle as compared to May 2013, when Kerry, who arrived to Moscow to discuss the conflict in Syria with Putin, had to wait for him … for three hours. Kerry did not take offense.
In June, 2014 the Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said that “the Polish-US alliance isn’t worth anything”. “It is downright harmful, because it creates a false sense of security” – he said. It was the lowest rating of trust to US.
In Saudi Arabia, Obama was met by the governor of Riyadh – it was a public slap to the president. The meeting wasn’t even broadcasted on Saudi TV, as if he was an ambassador of Liechtenstein. The same happened in Cuba. Obama, who was so proud of his “historic breakthrough” in relations with Havana, was met not by Raul Castro, but by the Minister for Foreign Affairs. However Obama only smiled and spoke about “new horizons”.
Iranians “thanked” Obama for the lifting of sanctions by mocking at the US: they arrange provocations in the Gulf regularly, demonstrate footages with kneeling American marines and make the US pay for the release of hostages.
In China, Obama was the only world leader at G20 summit who got off the plane through the emergency exit and without the red carpet, as if he was the head of Somaliland. Obama appealed to make no reckoning of the incident.
The President of Philippines Rodrigo Duterte called the US president a “son of a whore” and promised “to curse him” – Obama described him as a “bright guy” and discussed bilateral relations between the two countries afterwards.
This is the resume of the modern history’s epic drama: the West in general, and its flagship – the US, have turned into a whipping boy, a punching bag, an object of ridicule, vilification and abuse. And they seem to be quite happy with this situation.
Over the four thousand years the mankind has not changed a lot and, same as far back in the past, politics of leading countries in Eurasia – from the Eastern Europe to China and from Russia to the Arab world – is based on the time-honored tradition: historical memory, the feeling of uniqueness, ancient culture and of course national dignity – the sacred category, the absence of which makes geopolitics impossible.
A rejection of national dignity, from their point of view, defeats the purpose of the very existence of the nation, turns it into a mob, a herd, some amorphous mass. A state that abandons its national dignity is doomed.
For America and Western Europe – it is a mere rhetoric. For people of Eurasia and their leaders – it is a root of life giving the vitality that fills them with faith and hope.
They consider the Western leaders, with their naivety, mantras about peace, tolerance and “human rights”, political correctness and self-flagellation, as a miserable parody of state leaders: Pickwick Club, aliens, creatures from incubator – pathetic, cowardly, mercantile and pathologically ignorant. This encourages them to seek new allies at best or provokes aggression against the West at worst. For heirs of ancient civilizations America of “Obama followers”, Hilary and Kerry is not even a “paper tiger.” It is a daffy tiger imagining itself a kitten that drinks milk, chases its tail and falls on the back at the sight of the Iranian hyenas.
This odd “creature” causes mixed feelings. Gloat – because no one here has ever felt sympathy to the “Yankees” with their wealth and prosperity, and those who did – they were disillusioned. Increased salivation – because a dying hippopotamus is always an excellent dish for predators, and the ocean is no longer a strong defense against missiles, terrorism and cyber-attacks. A sense of permissiveness – the “world policeman” has turned into a senile bumpkin with his super-modern weapons chasing Pokemons. And … confusion – because the sheriff’s resignation means chaos, anarchy, a war of all against all.
All restrictions have been removed and the law defended by guns and batons doesn’t exist anymore. On The Island of Doctor Moreau all are free and therefore doomed, since no one possesses a total supremacy, as the US does, but they possess a deadly weapon.
That is why the world would like to see, as ironically as it sounds, a strong America again. Some of them – such as the Eastern Europe, Egypt, Israel, Saud Arabia and Persian Gulf monarchies – would like to return the generous patronage of the US. Others – like the Turks and the Greeks, Indians and Pakistanis – need a strong referee to avoid slipping into the abyss of all-out war. More powerful countries – like Russia and China – want to divide their spheres of influence and deal with a reliable partner.
In any case, this ally – a partner or a referee – shall be sane, strong and predictable.
The leader of the great power that wasn’t able to send helicopters to save their ambassador from the barbarian’s gang in a foreign country, is miserable. The leader, who promises “reset” today, but intrudes your vital space tomorrow and moralizes about human rights, is unpredictable. Leaders releasing the maniac from prison can hardly be called sane. The leader, who sends secret diplomatic correspondence from their mailbox, raises concerns with regards to their mental abilities. Leaders who draw “red lines” and forget about them the next day; who refuse to deliver weapons to the friends fighting against terrorists in Sinai, Gaza and Yemen; leaders that cannot call “Islamic terror” the Islamic terror – they cause nothing but rage and contempt.
The world feels nostalgia for “sheriff” and therefore prefers Trump, although they hardly like him. In any case he is more reliable than Bronies.
Alexander Maistrovoy is the author “Agony of Hercules or a Farewell to Democracy (Notes of a Stranger”), published recently by Xlibris, Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble).
yep, that’s it, in a nutshell.