“From Caracas to Tehran” or “What Do the Greenland Ice Sheets Have to Do with It?”
The events of the past few weeks in Iran have completely overshadowed recent events in Caracas, where during an “extraordinary, outstanding military operation” (in Donald Trump’s words), the Americans, plainly speaking, kidnapped the president of a sovereign nation.
In reality, this “outstanding operation” is essentially an act of banditry and opens a direct path to lawlessness. And lawlessness, in turn, completely breaks down the existing world order, leaving the rule of force as the main argument in international politics. At the same time, Europe’s pointless and fruitless concern, which Trump simply disregards, only worsens the situation.
Imagine that Russia takes Zelensky out of Kyiv and announces that it is preparing a trial against him. “In the meantime,” the government-controlled media, for example, the odious Margarita Simonyan, would comment on the kidnapping, “Russia will govern Ukraine. Until a government that Moscow finds capable of negotiating and governing is formed in Kyiv.” Can you imagine the reaction this would provoke in the free and democratic West?
But the Americans, disregarding everything, kidnap Maduro. And for what purpose? Why does a nuclear superpower, supposedly frightened by the machine guns of drug traffickers aimed at it, violate every conceivable legal norm? Perhaps the current White House administration wants to show its strength, but the result is exactly the opposite – it looks foolish. And after the claims of “victory over Iran,” accompanied by footage of exploding radars and oil tankers in the United Arab Emirates, it’s simply laughable.
Even the blind, the deaf, and those who cannot read can now clearly see that all of Trump’s recent escapades are not about democracy, freedom, or even MAGA – they are about good old colonial expansion and attempts to make money through stock market speculation.
The situation with Greenland falls into the same basket: “We absolutely need Greenland. The island is surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships.” Seriously? The entire world is surrounded by American ships. Why shouldn’t the Philippines, for example, use that as a reason to lay claim to Arkansas or Montana?
It cannot be said that this Venezuelan or any other expansive outburst by the American president came as a surprise to the world. It’s quite difficult to resist the progression of a sense of self-importance that turns into tyranny when half of “enlightened Europe” looks at you with dog-like devotion, and the NATO Secretary-General even calls you “daddy.”
Of course, Trump loves it – he literally lives for it and allows those who hover around him, singing praises to “mighty Donnie,” to live as well.
Nicolás Maduro is, of course, a highly questionable figure, but be that as it may – he is the head of a sovereign nation that lives according to its own way of life and historical traditions, the president of a country that has its own constitution, its own army, its own courts, a certain number of drug-dependent citizens, and its own first lady. But who is going to think about that now when this country has enormous resources? For that, one could even sacrifice a potential Nobel Peace Prize.
