Alaska meeting brings back imperial specters
With the Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska, we’re entering a dangerous era where the world gets divided into empires and puppet states. That division was always there, albeit unofficially, but now we’re seeing the official emergence of the imperial trend – backed by military power, even genocide. The Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska to negotiate (whatever that actually means) some kind of deal between Russia and the US with little to no Ukraine involvement is a recent example of that trend. I’m not surprised by these developments in the least. I mean, it’s hard to be surprised by anything at all these days, that’s another matter. Russians divide the world into what they perceive as sovereign nations and the puppet states that must accept whatever the sovereign nations decide. Who’s in the sovereign nation club? Any nuclear nation, plus Switzerland, the Vatican and any nation that was a world-changing empire spanning vast distances, such as Turkey, Spain and Italy. Israel is definitely in the sovereign nation club as well, regardless of what Russian officials say about the whole geopolitical mess in the Middle East.
Russian modus operandi is, of course, chaos. Apparently, Russians attack police stations first to cause a surge in crime. A sick strategy, but an effective one. Same with the so-called ”double tap” strikes. Russians negotiate and escalate because their intent is to confuse and wage this war until Ukraine is destroyed. A ballistic missile here, a drone there. Death of Ukraine by a thousand cuts. Putin’s obsession with Ukraine goes beyond geopolitical calculations and borders on the irrational. Or maybe Putin is simply doing what the tsars did before him and it’s all perfectly rational for Russia. Yeah. It is.
US President Donald Trump likes saying Ukraine has never had the cards. Alright, so who has all the cards, then? Russia, of course. Trump is denying Ukraine agency and ascribing all the agency to Russia. Well, there are glimmers of hope that’s changing, but time will tell. This, of course, is in line with the imperial divide trend. Just imagine Trump standing over a mass grave in Bucha, shaking his head, and saying: “Well, they never had the cards.” That’s the level of disrespect and dehumanization we’re talking about, whether Trump knows it or not.
The question arises, then. Are we doing Ukraine a terrible disservice by constantly calling it a victim? The US president likes winners, and strong players. By constantly painting Ukraine as the victim, as right as we are, we might be filling Trump’s mind with contempt. He doesn’t associate with victims. He hates victims. He wants winners. The ones who shape the world we live in. And in his mind, Russia seems to be one of these global winners. Ukraine is also a formidable enemy that causes Russia serious problems, no doubt about it, and Trump knows it. But with Putin free to poison Trump’s mind with Russian propaganda, who knows what the US President is going to believe when he walks out of the meeting between him and the new tsar.
We’re talking about sanctions, about our powerful armies, about Russia collapsing, yet the bear is still stalking us and roaring in the distance. It seems that the eternal war scenario is indeed where we’re headed. The Russian army is likely going to keep gaining ground and Putin’s imperial misadventures are going to expand, regardless of all the guarantees on paper and nice words. Is the world going to avoid the global conflagration reshaping the world order into something we can’t fully fathom at the moment? Good question. That’s why, be it the Z-Cult, or some religious cult, whatever it is, there was a time when I’d look the other way and play things diplomatically. But not anymore. Not in these twisted times when genocide is unfolding in front of our eyes. If I know someone belongs to a destructive cult, I want nothing to do with them. Too much death and destruction in this world caused by fanatics, whatever their ideology, a fanatic will almost always be a fanatic for life.
In light of all the above, Poland can learn a lot from Israel, particularly when it comes to defense against drones and missiles. To call Poland unprepared for Russian drone and missile barrages is likely an understatement. I seriously doubt NATO is going to take meaningful action to defend Poland against such attacks. There’s a Polish Military Parade in Warsaw on August 15. But I wonder if this isn’t 1939 yet again, to an extent, anyway – when Polish propaganda also boasted about the greatness of the Polish Army. The bombardment of Warsaw in the first hours of Nazi-German invasion quickly shattered the propagandistic illusion. Today, wars are more subtle, more insidious, including the gray zone warfare, also known as hybrid warfare, though I agree the term hybrid warfare sounds a bit like a car or something.
