Trump makes America weep

RN Bhaskar

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In the last article we talked about why Trump’s blustering remarks on oil may boomerang — Free subscription — https://open.substack.com/pub/bhaskarr/p/will-trump-get-bogged-down?r=ni0hb&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true.  This time, we talk about how Trump is making America weep.

The US is the culprit

Two of the most grievous acts of the US — both under Joe Biden as well as under Trump — are the wars that are being waged in the Middle East and Ukraine.  And contrary to his earlier claims that he wants to be remembered as a man who brought in peace and did not start wars, the truth is quite the opposite.

First, Ukraine was Trump’s creation. Timeline 20:21 — https://youtu.be/zwdTG0xxlf8?si=d-BRdqZbx9ozB7GG .

Further proof of the US complicity is evident from the February 2008 cable that William Burns sent to Washington.  He was then the US ambassador to Russia. He is currently director of CIA). The highly classified document titled “Nyet means Nyet” can be found at https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08MOSCOW265_a.html.  The cable was made public by Wikileaks. It then was later picked up by Robert Wade who wrote in Le Monde on 15 March 2015 (https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/61428/1/Wade_Ukraine_crisis_is_not_what%20it_seems.pdf).

Of course, the narrative spun by western media makes Rusia the culprit.  They refuse to talk about the killings encouraged and abetted by the US in both Ukraine and the Middle East.  All that is now hurting American’s reputation, and even its very future.

The US is bleeding

There is no doubt that the US is haemorrhaging badly. Its debt has crossed $36 trillion (Free subscription — https://open.substack.com/pub/bhaskarr/p/the-us-dollar-under-siege?r=ni0hb&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true).  Its interest payments eat into almost all development funds, which are now sought to be slashed by Elon Musk as the head of DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency). There is all round resentment.

Meanwhile US deficits keep climbing threatening to push up the huge pile of existing debt. According to data available (https://www.cfr.org/article/how-much-us-aid-going-ukraine#),

• The Trade Deficit in December 2024 was up 24.7% to $98.4B —
• Exports were down 2.6% to $266.5B.
• Imports were up 3.5% to $364.9B (seasonally adjusted).

But that is not the end.  Just a day ago, Bloomberg reported (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-07/us-consumer-borrowing-surges-by-40-8-billion-most-on-record) that US consumer debt outstanding it jumped $40.8 billion after a revised $5.4 billion decrease a month earlier, according to Federal Reserve data released Friday. The figure, which isn’t adjusted for inflation, topped all estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

That too will get added to total US debt if it does not get addressed.

Wars produce losers

Look closely, and you begin to see that two of the biggest expenditure items are the wars in the Middle East and Europe.  Both are the creation of US policies, though, till recently, the US has preferred to play a backseat role.

Even so, the military support and aid comes from the US.  The guns may be held by the Israelis and the Ukrainians, but the fingers on the triggers are those of Americans. The USA is thus complicit in both wars.

Worse, it now wants to move into the driver’s seat. It wants to take up direct control of Gaza.  In other words, it is about to become a direct participant in both ethnic cleansing and genocide. Hitherto, as Harold Pinter pointed out in his Nobel Award acceptance speech, the US preferred to paly an indirect role in instigating regime change (https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2005/pinter/lecture/).

Israel

Israel would have been declared bankrupt almost four years ago, had it not been for the US.  It has pumped in money directly, and indirectly through the purchase of Israeli bonds.

It has supplied the weapons of mass destruction, and even financed them. It has been Israel’s partner in genocide against the Palestinians. It has cast its veto against numerous resolutions in the UN which has tried to rein in the murderous moves of Israel. It now wants to take direct charge of Gaza; even resettle all the existing inhabitants of this land elsewhere. All Arab states have risen in unison to protest the move.

Egypt and Jordan, however, are the most vulnerable.  They get substantial aid (both military and civil) from the US and have thus lent themselves to arm twisting. Yet, the rulers of both countries are painfully aware that public sentiment is against the US.  They are quite aware of what happened in Iran when the US tried to force the late Shah into signing the “capitulation” clause (https://asiaconverge.com/2015/11/housing-lessons-from-iran/).  That led to the Shah’s ouster.  They are also aware of what happened to Gamal Abdul Nasser, former president of Egypt. In all such cases the head of the state was swiftly overthrown, merely because he kowtowed to the US. Whether Jordon and Egypt capitulate this time, remains to be seen.
AIPAC

Israel is draining the US of funds, reputation, and even a future.  The US is increasingly being led by the AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) which describes itself as the “The Largest Pro-Israel PAC in America” (https://www.aipac.org/).

AIPAC wields so much of clout over US senators, that it has lost all sense of propriety and humanity.  For the first time in US history, student protests are being broken up, senior faculty is being dismissed, and classes being shut down.

AIPAC could sway the US Congress to extend an invitation to the Israeli premier Binyamin Netanyahu to address it even after there was a warrant out for his arrest on charges of genocide and apartheid. The world watched with dismay the way even Trump ensured that Netanyahu was the first foreign leader to be granted an invitation to the White House under the new presidency.

The exposure to funding could be much more serious.  As The Intercept points out, “in addition to the funds already committed, an additional $500 million a year is slated for Israeli and joint U.S.-Israeli missile defence programs, in which the two countries collaborate on the research, development, and production of these systems used by Israel, including the Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Arrow II. Iron Dome was solely developed by Israel, but the United States has been a production partner since 2014. For instance, the U.S. military contractor Raytheon manufactures Tamir interceptor missiles for Israel’s Iron Dome at its facilities in Arizona” (The Intercept — https://theintercept.com/2021/09/01/war-on-terror-deaths-cost/).

But as with much that happens in the US, the narrative becomes more important than the fact. That could explain why mainstream media has not highlighted the incongruity between Trump’s description of himself as one who promotes peace, and his willingness to go to war with Panama (he wants to use force if Panama does not concede to his terms).  By announcing that he wants the US to take up Gaza, he has also expressed his intention of fighting with Hamas.

Clearly, he has chosen to forget the lessons that Vietnam taught America.  The US may be formidable in arms and destruction.  But it has failed to bend the will of people determined to be in charge of their own affairs. This happened in Afghanistan and Iraq as well.

Death toll

Only this time, the death toll keeps climbing.  It has crossed the 655,000 estimated deaths in Iraq (Lancet study — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_surveys_of_Iraq_War_casualties and https://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2006/10/10/AR2006101001442.html).  Given these numbers, it is indeed both sad and surprising that the US presidents involved – George Bush Junior, Joe Biden and Donald Trump along with their defence advisors — have been categorised as war criminals.

Trump’s recent remarks about taking over Gaza for redevelopment has caused almost the entire world stand united in condemning this move (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ0lQbBewUw).  Even the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has warned Donald Trump “In the search for solutions, we must not make the problem worse. It is vital to stay true to the bedrock of international law. It is essential to avoid any form of ethnic cleansing”  (https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/un-chief-say-its-essential-ethnic-cleansing-be-avoided-gaza-says-spokesperson-2025-02-05/).

Ukraine hypocrisy

Meanwhile, more blood-letting is likely to continue in Ukraine. There was a time, in 2022, when Russia attempted to call a truce and ease tensions. But both USA and the UK prevented Volodymyr Zelenskyy from arriving at a peaceful resolution with Vladmir Putin. War could have been averted. Now, Trump blows hot and cold. He promises to end the war in a few days, then clears additional funding for military expenditure in Ukraine so that war efforts continue. That only means that more Ukrainians will continue to die.

Meanwhile, the US too will continue to bleed. The two wars will take their toll. Today, the US no longer stands for peace and justice, but represents aggression, genocide, and ethnic cleansing.

Shockingly, the US now threatens to impose sanctions and high tariffs against BRICS members if they continue their quest to find an alternative currency outside the SWIFT (Free subscription — https://open.substack.com/pub/bhaskarr/p/the-west-stumbles-brics-in-the-ascendant?r=ni0hb&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true).

But that is something these columns will discuss next week. We see the immigration policies, the tariff threats, and the jaundiced world view of Trump as being detrimental to not just the US, but the entire world. Trump has begun fancying himself as Louis XV of France, who famously declared to his lady love “Après nous, le deluge” (‘After me, the flood’).

The world is more precariously perched than ever before in history. The US will be responsible for tipping it over.

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