If there is anyone who is the undisputed heavyweight champion of maverick international politics and global player right now, it is Vladimir Putin, the Russian strongman. My utmost respect to him.
He has achieved what the Soviet Union with all its power, influence and resources could only dream of achieving, and that is the goal of causing division and disharmony between the United States and Europe, and in the process turning the US to see Europe as its number one foe and Russia a mere competitor, while causing a deep crack in the cohesion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).
Even the best of Russian analysts are deeply stunned. This is over and above what Russia could ever hope for. These are strange times, as former President Barack Obama coined it in his recent speech in Johannesburg, South Africa.
It is even the more strange that Putin succeeded in not only cracking a deep hole in the alliance between the US and its European allies-turned-foes, but also slicing through the heart of the American democratic enterprise with the final blow of turning the American President against his very own people.
You would understand then why speechlessness would best describe the emotion I felt as President Trump made stupefying statements that reflected a high level of perplexing stupidity beside Mr. Putin at the globally heralded Helsinki summit.
These statements in my opinion openly supported and comforted Russian sophisticated cyber aggression while traducing and treating as worthless the expert opinion of the entire cross section of American intelligence community (headed by people Trump himself appointed) as well as the conclusion of the Republican controlled Senate. The mortification of American intelligence (that capacity of mind that America is known for), and the ignominy lashed out at American global image will take several years, at least three more presidencies, to get rebuilt and restored.
But it would take an even longer time if Trump wins a second term of presidency. As unlikely as it may seem, if the drums of impeachment do not coast to victory with the Mueller thing, he might still snatch a second term. That is dreadful for the Democrats, same Democrats who underestimated his ability to bring out to the fore the worst of American vileness and blemishes for the world to see.
The world knows now that America is bountifully filled with hate even for its own citizens; that the rule of law is only on paper in America; that the colour of American democracy has more than fifty shades of grey; that America cannot be trusted for more than a second; that America has turned spewing out unintelligent lies serially (we hear they call that alternative facts these days) into an art form; that the art of the deal of governance is shaped in the furnace of bullies; that the free press is the ultimate enemy of the people, and oh, that should include Fox News now because of the news outlet’s immediate criticism of Mr. Trump’s unacceptable performance at the summit.
I find it inconceivable that this scenario is playing out in my lifetime as a student of American presidential history. I have voraciously read volumes upon volumes on American presidential history over the years as a matter of interest, but never has an American President sold out his nation publicly like this to the nation’s adversary. Never.
If I were to be an American, I’ll probably register as a Republican because I tend to be more Republican than Democrat. But there is nothing Republican about the current renegade Republican Party, I presume.
My salute, nonetheless, goes to that astute and unvanquishable soul, Senator John McCain for having the guts to voice out vigorously again when he said, “Today, Trump made a conscious choice to defend a tyrant against the fair questions of a free press, and to grant Putin an uncontested platform to spew propaganda and lies to the world. Today’s press conference in Helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by a U.S. president in memory.”
Even Paul Ryan, Speaker of the Republican controlled House of Representatives and a Trump servile follower, pointedly contradicted the President this time around. Governor John Kasich of Ohio, a reputable Republican, didn’t hold back his disdain and rebuke of the American President too, for missing a lifetime opportunity to sharply reprimand Putin for attacking the democratic infrastructure of American society. Trump decided to believe the testimony of his nation’s attacker and not that of his own team.
In my university days, I did a term paper on the effects of the re-unification of West Germany and East Germany on the Third World in one of our elective courses, and the idea reverberated through our class that what happens in one part of the world invariably affects (often with long lasting impact) what happens in another part of the world.
Certainly this Helsinki summit will yet manifest its effects, the first of which is not only giving a pass to the Russian President but helping him to consolidate his global presence beyond merely hosting the just concluded World Cup. Either we like it or not, the Helsinki summit has been the main event of the year for Russia and the world. The World Cup was just a prelude.
Second, it is helping to powerfully lay and reinforce the precedence that the end justifies the means in international politics.
For those in Europe threatened by Russian aggression and politics of division, now is the time to never break ranks because if Putin’s plot to weaken and dismantle NATO works out, that will result in the dismantling of Europe itself. Mark my words. Finland was a bit tensed before allowing the summit itself to hold in Helsinki, not because the Finns share a border with Russia that covers about 1, 300 kilometers of distance, but because of the fear of history repeating itself.
Sometime in July 1807, at a time when the French Emperor Napoleon and the Russian Czar Alexander I, were then the world’s presumably strongest leaders, the duo had an auspicious meeting in Finland on a raft in the middle of a river that flowed between their territories. Deals were sealed over dinner as they drew up sketches of a secret plot to carve up various regions and countries in Europe and share those regions and countries between them. Finland, which was previously part of Sweden, ended up as a territory owned by the Alexander I.
So you see, the Finnish fears are fairly valid enough, especially with Trump’s and Putin’s bilateral-instead-of-multilateral favoured approach of conducting foreign policy. Look at for instance Trump’s secret appeal to Theresa May to sue the EU instead of negotiating Brexit, and his audacious move to pressure the bubbling Emmanuel Macron of France to leave the EU too, the goal of which is to finally tear apart the current international rules-based order that has kept Europe, and by default most of the world, at relative peace since the end of the World War Two.
And to the Americans who are still left with a sense of decency and love and compassion and respect for fellow human beings, especially women, children and the physically challenged, and those who are burning with a desire to see American moral global leadership restored, please and please do not go to sleep. Because if you do, you may as well get induced into a coma, and then wake up one day only to find yourself deported to Antarctica.
Yes, indeed these are strange times.
