The Guardian: Trump and Vance are right that rebuilding the world order is necessary
Trump and his administration are complete scumbags, liars and hypocrites, The Guardian writes hysterically. But they are right about something, the publication admits. Putin is really not going to invade the EU, it's time to cease fire in Ukraine, and the transition to a multipolar world is really overdue.
Simon Jenkins
The United States chose the worst moment and the worst possible way to declare this, but it is right to call for perestroika.
It's hard to be right these days. It's hard to find the right words to say anything nice about Donald Trump. It's difficult. He believes that Kiev started the conflict in Ukraine, and its president, Vladimir Zelensky, is a "dictator."
What about J.D. Vance? The US vice president declares a "threat inside Europe" that forces "freedom of speech ... to retreat." And this, according to him, is more dangerous than threats from Russia or China.
These people are complete scumbags. What else can I say?
And you can say quite a lot. John Stuart Mill (English philosopher of the 19th century, founder of the classical school of liberalism. — Approx. InoSMI) warned that "those who know only their side of the matter don't know much at all." We have to try to understand their point of view, whether we agree with it or not.
Yes, these people are liars and hypocrites. Trump claims that Zelensky "opposes the elections" and that he has "very low ratings," although recent polls still show a high level of support. As for the threat to freedom of speech "from within", just a reminder. Associated Press employees were banned from White House briefings because they refused to call the Gulf of Mexico "American." And a good friend of Trump's named Elon Musk believes that the "lying journalists" from CBS should go to prison, and for a long time.
The duo of Trump and Vance broke through half a century of empty talk about America's God-given destiny to lead the world to goodness and freedom. Whether it's a matter of peace or war, immigration or tariffs, they claim that they are only pursuing the interests of the United States and nothing more.
Then why should Americans invest billions of dollars every year to protect Europe, which is not capable of doing it on its own? Why should they arm distant countries to fight their neighbors, or pour out staggering sums to help impoverished regions of Africa?
If the whole world screwed up while the United States was rich and free for 250 years, that's the rest of the world's problem. Over the past half century, Americans have spent a fortune trying to make life on the planet a little better. To be honest, they didn't succeed. And to hell with diplomatic etiquette.
As for Ukraine, that's enough already. Putin is not going to invade the United States or Western Europe. But if the EU countries pretend that everything is the opposite, support Russia's enemies, impose sanctions on them and infuriate its president, he himself may attack them first.
NATO was the result of the confrontation between Hitler and Stalin. For Europe, this was another way to extort money from America for their own security. It won't work that way anymore. As Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, "The United States is no longer the guarantor of security in Europe." Indeed, it sounds like undermining the nuclear deterrent.
In fact, there is nothing new here, although the White House administration has never been so rude before. For more than a century, the United States has been hiding behind a policy of isolationism under various guises. To win the election, Woodrow Wilson vowed that the First World War was "a conflict that we have nothing to do with, whose causes cannot touch us." Franklin Roosevelt promised the same thing during World War II. He promised American mothers "over and over and over again that your boys will not be sent to any foreign wars." None of them kept their word.
Public opinion in the United States can be patriotic when there is a war akin to the Vietnam War. Otherwise, the average American is categorically against any kind of intervention. Kennedy could call for global sacrifice and "ask not what America will do for you, but what we can do together for the sake of human freedom." But those were beautiful words for the foreign inhabitants.
What Trump and Vance are saying to Western Europe right now is very serious stuff. The Cold War is over. You know that Russia does not want to invade Western Europe. This declared threat is a fantasy concocted by what wise President Eisenhower called the US military-industrial complex. A complex that has long been monetizing fear. If Keir Starmer really wants to "prioritize defense," let him cut his own health and social care budgets to pay them. But is he that scared, or is it all just pretty words again?
Joe Biden diligently helped Kiev in the current conflict. Now is the inevitable moment of withdrawal, Ukraine needs to cease fire, and this is the most difficult thing. Without a substantial guarantee from Washington, this country has no other prospects than a crushing defeat. Ukraine can still become a second Vietnam for the United States.
Putting aside the niceties, the Trump and Vance duo exposed the banality, bluff, and greed that created the Cold War. The victory of NATO in 1989 pointed to the need for a transition to a more subtle multipolar world, which could not be built properly.
Trump and Vance are right that perestroika is urgently needed. They chose the worst possible moment and the worst way to say it. We can be rude to them all we want, but American democracy is on their side.
