First, we have the manner in which the Americans have been preparing the G20 summit. As we all know, in diplomacy actions count as much, or even more, than words.
Here are just a few of the actions recently taken by the Americans in preparation for the G20 summit and Trump’s first meeting with Putin (in no particular order):
- The US rejected the joint Russian-Chinese plan to defuse the crisis over the Korean Peninsula even though that plan was simple, straightforward common sense and, frankly, the only game in town to avoid war.
- The US accused the Syrian government of preparing a chemical attack and warned of a “heavy price to pay”.
- The US sent its bomber of overfly the Chinese islands in the South China Sea.
- The US accused Russia of destabilizing Eastern Europe.
- The US threatened “severe consequences” against North Korea.
- The US declared that it would deploy Patriot missiles in Poland to protect the Poles from the Russian Iskander missiles (LOL! Good luck with that, my Polish friends)
- The US also promised the Poles US LNG to “secure Poland’s energy independence from Russia” (and good luck with that too, my Polish friends)
- The US sent a Polish F-16 to intercept Russian Defense Minister’s civilian (and long announced) aircraft in international airspace over the Baltic Sea.
- The US sent a guided-missile destroyer near Triton Island in the South China Sea
- The US withdrew from the Paris climate agreement.
- The US criticized German trade practices.
- The US criticized China for its trade with the DPRK.
- The US accused China of “trade rape”.
Going down this list, you got to admire the American sense of timing and diplomacy…
But, seriously now,
It does not really matter of these actions are just the result from imperial hubris and delusion, a complete lack of diplomatic education, the consequences of simple and straightforward human stupidity or all part of some diabolical plan to set the US on a collision course with the entire planet. What matters is the mind-blowing arrogance of it all, as if the USA was a white knight in shining armor worthy only of praise and adulation and as if the rest of the planet was composed or rowdy schoolchildren who needed to heed the words of their principal and better start behaving or else get a good spanking from Uncle Sam.
If that is how Trump hopes to make “America Great Again” he might want to consider other options as that kind of attitude makes “America” (he means the USA, of course) look not “great” but arrogant, out of touch and supremely irritating. Let’s talk on the world, everybody at the same time seems to be the grand plan of this administration.
The result of all these “diplomatic” efforts were predicable: nothing.
Well, almost nothing. Here is what “nothing” looks in diplomatic language:
According to Foreign Minister Lavrov Presidents Trump and Putin,
were “motivated by their national interests” (who would have thought?!) and they agree on a number of concrete measures:
- an acceleration of the procedure to appoint new ambassadors – RU-US and US-RU
- they discussed the Russian diplomatic facilities seized by Obama
- they create a work group to discuss a number of issues including terrorism, organized crime, hacking and cybersecurity.
- they discussed Syria and the Ukraine and talked for 2 hours and 15 minutes.
According to RT, Russia and the US agreed on a ceasefire in the Daraa, Quneitra and As-Suwayda provinces of Syria. That is very good, of course, but this is in the one corner of Syria (southwest) were very little action is taking place (right now all the important stuff is taking place between Raqqa and Deir-Az-Sor). Oh, and there are de-escalation zones already in place in the southwest:
So unless Trump and Putin are keeping something really important secret, it seems that this summit has yielded exactly what I feared it would: nothing, or something very very close to nothing. If we find out later that in spite of everything, the two sides did discuss something of importance and agreed on something important, I will post and update here. And, believe me, nobody will be happier than me if that happens.
But, alas, it appears that many months of a sustained Neocon campaign to make darn sure that Russia and the US could never seriously collaborate have been very successful.
So where does this all leave us, the million of people who had at least *some* hopes about Trump being an outsider who could try to make some real changes happen and maybe liberate the United States from the Neocon regime in power here since at least Bill Clinton (if not earlier)?
On February 14th of this year, following the anti-Flynn coup and Trump’s betrayal of his friend, I wrote that “it’s over folks” and “Trump betrayed us all”. I took a lot of flak for writing this, especially since I had come strongly on Trump’s side against Hillary during the campaign. Sadly, I believe that my conclusions in February are now proven correct.
I understand while some will want to present this meeting as, if not a success, then at least “good start” or a “semi-success”. For one thing, being the bearer of bad news never made anybody popular. Second, those who support Trump or Putin (or both) will want to show that the leader they support achieved something. Finally, if both sides report that the meeting has been a success, who are we to say otherwise?
I don’t know about anybody else, but I always have and always will call it as I see it. And what I see is simply nothing or something very close to nothing. Sorry folks, I wish I could say something else.
As for apportioning blame for this non-event, I place 100% of the guilt on the US side which did everything wrong with an almost manic determination and which will now find itself in the rather unenviable position of fighting pretty much the entire planet all on its own. Oh, sorry, I forgot. Poland unconditionally supports the USA and Trump!
Well, good for them. They richly deserve each other.
Featured image from AP
