Donald Trump has exposed the extraordinary weakness of the Europeans. In the current game of global politics they are forced to play a very minor role. How did it come to this and what can the Europeans do about it?
Illustration: Max Ernst, Europe after the rain II
The current American administration appears set on all out conflict with Iran. In this endeavor it has allied itself unconditionally with Saudi Arabia. Is this a clear-sighted policy? In an uncompromising speech at the conservative Heritage Foundation, Mike Pompeo, the new American Foreign Secretary, today, May 21, 2018, threatened that “Iran will continue to feel the ‘sting of sanctions’ if its doesn’t change the ‘unacceptable and unproductive path it has chosen. These will be the strongest sanctions in history by the time we are complete’.” Bloomberg News adds in its report on the speech: “The former CIA director essentially demanded Iran’s total submission without offering anything in return aside from the hazy prospect of sanctions relief at some future date.” There is no doubt that the Iranian authorities will find this offer as unacceptable as it is meant to be. Thus, the stage is set for more confrontation.
Here is an exceptionally insightful critique of this course of policy from May 2017 by an Israeli analyst.
Cappadocia in the southern corner of Turkey is a region of unearthly beauty, far removed, so it seems, from the currents of modern life. But it has a turbulent past and perhaps even a message for our own day. Syria and the Kurdish areas of the Middle East are close by. Cappadocia was once a crossroads for conquerors, Hittites, Persians, and Romans, Seljuks and Turks. Early Christianity took roots here but eventually was forced to hide away in the caves that pockmark the region.
There were two hundred or so of us all united for a moment by our common desire to get to London as quickly and comfortably as possible. But as soon as we landed at Heathrow, we each went our own way, modern individuals propelled by diverging interests and purposes. From…
