The Magical Mystery Tour That Wasn’t
It has been an interesting few days with the United States renaming the Gulf of Mexico and Persian Gulf while also doubling down on spying directed against Greenland in expectations that it will be acquired as a US territory sometime soon. Meanwhile, some of us who have been watching developments in what has been described as Donald Trump’s “peace initiative” trip to the Middle East, which might also have included a stop in Istanbul to sit in with Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, are now examining the pluses and minuses as the travel has ended. In my mind, high grades should be awarded for two aspects of the trip. The first one is what he did do, and that was speak sensibly and decently in his address to the Saudi, Emirates and Qatari leadership when he specifically rejected a hegemonistic “neocon” inspired approach to US foreign policy, saying that independent countries in the Middle East and elsewhere are perfectly capable of acting to develop their economies and societies in such a fashion as to prosper and provide fundamental liberties for their citizens.
Trump put it this way in a speech that was widely publicized and well received by his audience: “But in the end, the so-called nation builders wrecked far more than they built, and the interventionists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves. No, the gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so-called ‘nation builders’, Neocons or liberal non-profits, like those who spent trillions and trillions of dollars failing to develop Baghdad and so many other cities. The birth of a modern Middle East has been brought by the people of the region themselves—the people that are right here, the people who have lived here all their lives, developing your own sovereign countries, pursuing your own unique visions and charting your destinies in your own way.” Trump also cited how what he called the “great transformation” of Saudi Arabia and the Middle East “has not come from western interventionists…giving you lectures on how to live and how to govern your own affairs.”
The second ray of sunshine was something that Trump did not do. He did not stop in Israel to kiss Benjamin Netanyahu’s ring even though he was in the neighborhood and it is widely being reported that he is not even any longer on direct speaking terms with the Israeli leader. Trump allegedly attributed the distancing of Netanyahu to what he referred to as “manipulation” but it is becoming clearer that the process he was describing was good old-fashioned espionage, with members of the Trump cabinet, possibly to include Tom Waltz the National Security Adviser, being tapped clandestinely to provide information on security developments and plans and/or options relating to the Middle East and possibly also to Ukraine. The Atlantic’s chief Editor Jeffrey Goldberg might have been involved in the process during a notorious top secret national security group phone call using the Signal system back in mid-March. Waltz was subsequently demoted and given the post of United Nations Ambassador, where he will be carefully scripted in terms of what he says and controlled in terms of whom he meets. Reports have also come in about other dismissals apart from Waltz for what is being described as “leaks” and “politicization.” Tulsi Gabbard, Director of the Office of National Intelligence, fired two top officials on Tuesday, a top analyst and the head of her National Intelligence Council, possibly connected to the allegations about spying or simply because they disagreed with some Trump policies, including his stance on China.
So those were the good parts. Somewhere in the middle are the transactional aspects of the trip. Saudi Arabia was closely tied to Washington due to a $142 billion arms package and other energy related deals. Qatar, in a move that has become notorious, gifted Trump with a Boeing 747 aircraft that will replace the current ageing presidential p
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LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.
