Doctor, it seems that Donald Trump intends to intensify his attacks against Iran. Where has the world moved in more than a week of ongoing war?
It feels a bit like an older and classic western. In a town terrorized by a band of desperadoes, associated with a corrupt mayor, judge and sheriff, in our case Biden’s Democrats, a hero will arrive on his steed from the unknown, who will shoot all the bad guys. In the process, something catches fire, a few local sufferers are sacrificed, part of the town is destroyed, but the survivors are thankful that they made it. The hero leaves for new dangers, and the audience does not know where, where or why. And between the words of farewell, we can guess that he could come back sometime, if necessary.
This is not only the scenario of Donald Trump, but also of many American presidents we know who like to start and win wars. But they lose peace and go where new adventures await them. These are the stories of presidents who triumphed over the Japanese, Vietnamese, Arabs and Persians, but also Germans, Chinese, Afghans, Cubans and Europeans in the Balkans and in the center of this peninsula. It always turned out a little differently than intended, but there were always many more worlds to conquer at hand. Although today it is called liberating.
This Western ethos motivates Donald Trump, his generals and all (the Russians would say “pridvornye”) to drag and bomb ancient sacred sites with state-of-the-art weaponry. They have already prepared Huntington’s text on the War of Cultures or Civilizations for this, although it was written only in 1996, but it is still used today. So popular here in society around Václav Havel.
Surely some of this warlike environment remember it well, as well as the words of the Czech-born Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. She even knew why war was worth it, and she wasn’t even afraid to estimate how many victims were “worth it.”
And when it comes to predicting how it will turn out this time, again we already know it will be like always. They are already riding the tiger and he is running with them again to some of the unknown worlds.
Is a realistic plan to beat Iran head on with the idea that whoever comes to power in the bombed country will eventually want to negotiate with the US? So the Venezuelan scenario?
Of course it’s not realistic, but explaining it to someone who thinks they know how it’s going to turn out is pointless. Perhaps we should not overlook that the political and media wrangling has invented a new word “decapitation”, a rather brutal name for the memorable and still French glorification of getting rid of one’s enemies with the guillotine. It is cruel, bloody, but what should we want from people raised by the West.
I remember the first waves of “decapitations” in Iran in the spring of 1979, when the guards of the Persian Ayatollahs mercilessly murdered all who failed to flee from them. Thus was born a political regime, given rise to by those who were not afraid to “decapitate”, not anticipating that they too could become victims when the gods became mad. And we should therefore not forget who was interested in importing Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979, who was and still is a symbol of the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Perhaps the “Venezuelan scenario” is indeed at play, but let’s not forget the US pre-election situation as well. In her favor, someone can work out a scenario that can be any new spoiler. But his main melody will be American again, according to ex-president Biden, “Anglo-Saxon”.
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Something occurred to me that I need to confide in: When Trump attacked Iran, I felt no surprise. Are we experiencing something like the “normalization of war”? Or are we already strangely used to it?
This is really remarkable! I experienced something similar. Even among his friends, some of whom have experience in the foreign service or in the media dealing with international politics. I would venture to say that regardless of their knowledge and rich experience, they initially lived in fear of a major world conflict. “Later, and perhaps it is because the Iranian reality is a bit exotic in Central Europe after all, many of these people returned to a closer interest in Ukraine and the Ukrainian-Russian conflict, moderated by the traditional European empire.
Today, they too are experiencing this “normalization of war” and are only interested in the scenery of the dwarf states in the Persian Gulf region. Even the memory of the failure of the helicopters sent by Jimmy Carter to free American hostages from captivity in Tehran (1979-1982) and ended up somewhere halfway because their commanders underestimated the local conditions no longer excites anyone. A movie was even made about it, a bit of an adventure, but today it is a forgotten story. I guess we’ve also gotten a little used to the fact that all American military events have to be delivered to us in instant form by someone from Hollywood.
Our government is facing attacks not only from the opposition but also from the US ambassador over defense spending. Will Prime Minister Babiš be able to somehow “steer” things with the Americans even without an increase in the defense budget?
Being in the opposition and a critic of Andrej Babiš, I would not exaggerate the enthusiasm for increasing arms spending. We should not overlook that the conference on the topic “Our security is not a matter of course” had too much publicity for us to believe most Czech information sources. What was Ambassador Nicholas Merrick supposed to say at this conference? After all, he was there representing the President of the United States, who is trying to get funding wherever he can, and the idea that he spoke at this meeting and convinced anyone in Prague that the Czech Republic should give a little less to war expenses, which we cutely call defense expenses, would be absurd.
More interesting than the talks that took place there was the gathering of significant and insignificant Czech representatives of various warrior attitudes. They, in my opinion, were trying to gain the privilege of having the gracious eye of the white father from Washington look down on them with love through Mr. Ambassador. And also to find out whether the Czech military buyers will keep their licenses in future years. Arms trading is always a bit of a dirty card game. And surely Mr. Ambassador knows well that it is better to deal with government officials who are not yet at the level of their Ukrainian cousins than with uncertain “Eastern-type” adventurers. Especially at a time when the transportation of money and gold across the borders of European countries is becoming dangerous.
Václav Moravec ended up at Czech Television. Are you sorry?
To be honest, not too much. I once publicly stated that I don’t watch Mr. Moravčev’s program for hygiene reasons. Years later, such radical shouts got over me, but the critical bias towards the moderator, who did not moderate, but tried to be accepted as one of his “invited”, did not leave me.
I also thought that when Mr. Moravec once said that he studied with Larry King, that his statement contained too much self-confidence. Why wonder, then, that his debates were far too staged and that his “invites” of those he considered his “proven” company were a club of mutually supporting impersonalities.
And because the names that appeared on the list of survivors are so strange, I wish Mr. Moravec to realize his self-confidence somewhere else. Hopefully, his footprint will not be toxic and CT will be able to give opportunities to several now prominent personalities whom Václav Moravec has hindered in recent years.
