The pearl-clutching normiecons have been pulling the fainting-aunt move with increasing frequency as Donald Trump proceeds to do exactly what he was elected to do. From controlling the border to ending involvement in foreign wars, Americans are mostly happy with what they’re seeing.
Not so much tut-tutting establishment ‘conservatives’. One issue especially has sent them reaching for the vapours: foreign policy. Especially Ukraine. In tandem with the warmonger Democrats, the normiecons are clearly desperate to sacrifice as many Ukrainian lives and US taxpayer dollars as they can, just to give Vladimir Putin a bloody nose.
One surprisingly notable exception is former Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. Perhaps Billy Bunter is just trying to repair bridges with the Donald, having inadvertently fed the lying ‘Russian collusion’ narrative in 2016. Or maybe Downer is one of the few establishment conservatives to recognise that there is indeed a worthy method to Trump’s madness.
Trump, he writes, is rightly shifting America’s focus from a pointless and monstrously wasteful proxy war in Europe, to what it should have been all along: containing Iran and China.
The arrogant Chinese live-firing naval exercises in our immediate neighbourhood should remind us how critically important a strong, purposeful and energetic United States is to our own security.
Yet over the past decade or so, America and its allies have been perceived as weak. As a result, China, Russia and Iran have shown no fear of the West, exploited its hesitancy and its weakness, and created havoc in Ukraine, the Middle East and the South China Sea. Turning around that failure of Western policy is going to be a huge challenge.
On Ukraine, Downer points out that the war began not in 2022, but 2014, and the West effectively ceded Crimea to Russia. By 2022, Russia already controlled 10 per cent of Ukraine. Yet, despite some nominal sanctions, and the dire warnings of first-term President Trump, America’s European allies continued to tacitly reward Russia by importing vast quantities of gas via Nord Stream 1 and continued building Nord Stream 2. Three years later, Russia controls one-fifth of Ukraine, with no sign of giving up a single inch, and half a million people are dead.
That’s where we were when President Donald Trump arrived. He wanted to end the slaughter. He had two choices. Either launch a huge attack on Russian troops in Ukraine, driving them out of the country altogether, or negotiate a ceasefire with the Russians and leave the Ukrainians and the Europeans to negotiate a peace treaty.
Clearly, directly attacking a nuclear power is a ludicrous option. So, to the fury of the Masters of War and the supposedly pro-peace left, Trump is doing what should have been done two years ago. Negotiating a peace. Not to mention calling feckless, grifting European nations to account for themselves.
Trump was apparently shown a map of Europe recently that identified which countries made the most energetic contribution to the defence of the continent.
Poland and the Baltic republics were identified, and no one else. Trump then asked how big was the GDP of Germany, Britain and France. When told these countries were, in order, the fourth-, fifth- and sixth-biggest economies in the world, Trump understandably wondered why the Europeans were so incapable of defending their own continent and why they were so dependent on America. After all, Germany’s GDP alone is more than double Russia’s.
A peace which will free up depleted US resources to contain Iran and China.
In the ceasefire talks in Saudi Arabia, I’ve heard but cannot verify, the Americans have linked the ceasefire to Russian agreement not to supply Iran with S400 anti-aircraft missile systems.
But the really big game is China. Establishment squealing that Russia is some kind of ‘existential threat’ are just so much malarkey. Should they actually pull their weight for once, Europe is perfectly capable of containing Russia. Even Iran has been thoroughly taken aback by the fury of Israel’s response to its terror meddling. The real existential threat to America and by extension the West is China.
Europe is gutlessly pandering to China, as well as enriching it. In response to successive governments’ lunatic energy policies, Germany’s biggest industries are moving en masse to China. Strategically, Britain is kowtowing. In dire contrast to Margaret Thatcher’s determination on the Falklands, the Starmer government are all but handing China a key strategic asset in the Indian Ocean: huge British-owned but American-run base in the middle of the Indian Ocean called Diego Garcia, part of the Chagos Islands chain.
The Chagos Islands are part of the British Indian Ocean Territories. Their British sovereignty makes the base secure for the Americans. However, China-loving Mauritius – which is 2400km from the Chagos – has been running a long campaign to try to claim sovereignty over the islands for itself […]
the new Labour government in Britain […] has decided it wants to surrender sovereignty over the islands to Mauritius and lease back Diego Garcia.
The new British government is giving priority to appeasing Mauritius over the critically important geostrategic priority of balancing and deterring Chinese power.
The British claim that under the terms of the lease back from Mauritius they will be able to keep the base for 99 years.
Just ask Hong Kong how that’s likely to go. Mauritius has a special relationship with China, meaning they’re a Chinese lackey.
Imagine if a war broke out between the US and China over, say, Taiwan. Under intense pressure from China, Mauritius would try to stop the Americans using Diego Garcia in a conflict of that kind.
So it’s little wonder Trump has started lashing out against the Europeans. They’re happy for American taxpayers and servicemen and women to underwrite European security but for all their wealth they are quick to condemn the Americans for Trump’s rather outlandish language, but their contribution to security is minimal.
Trump is giving priority to deterring China and will want to strengthen America’s alliances with Japan, South Korea and The Philippines. He will also want to make sure ANZUS is in good shape.
So, ignore the screeching of the feckless Euro-elite. Pay no attention to the fainting fits of the normiecons.
Trump is re-ordering the strategic environment of the West in all the right directions.
