Nostalgia for the Gendarme

Jihad Watch ^ | Thursday, October 13, 2016 | Alexander Maistrovoy

[Jyotishi]

It is difficult to say who will be elected by American people, but the world (except for sterile Western Europe) has made its choice. And this choice, in spite of formal logic, is the "racist," "sexist," "imperialist," "Islamophobe" Donald Trump.

In New York, the President of Egypt, el-Sisi, has met with Trump and characterized him as a "strong leader." The presidents of the Czech Republic and Hungary, Milos Zeman and Viktor Orban, urged Americans to elect Trump. According to Orban, Trump would be a better leader than Obama, and Zeman compared him with Reagan. Russia, Israel and the Arab monarchies would also like to see Tramp in the White House. In India, nationalists sing mantras devoted to Trump; in Serbia, they called out "Vote for Trump!"

It's not surprising. During the eight-year rule of Obama, Clinton and Kerry, America has become a pariah. It is in isolation, and this is not the "brilliant isolation" of Victorian England. It is a miserable and shameful isolation. You can hardly find a regime now that wouldn't have humiliated the leaders of the once great country and all people of America altogether.

In July, 2012 protesters in Egypt, with the connivance of the authorities, threw tomatoes and shoes at Hillary Clinton's motorcade, accompanying this action with the shouts "Monica, Monica." The paradox arises from the fact that Clinton was going to meet with Morsi, who was supported by her. Kerry allowed the Egyptians to search him twice before the meetings with al-Sisi, as if he were a second-rate journalist – the first time in Cairo in July 2014 and the second time in China in September 2016. This humiliation seemed fun to Kerry.

Erdogan blackmails the White House defiantly, threatening to break the strategic relationship with the US if they don't extradite Fethullah Gülen. In response, Kerry and Biden bowed to Erdogan.

Putin regularly humiliated his "American partners," making them wait for him. At the G20 summit in Mexico in 2012, he was 40 minutes late for the meeting with Obama. Obama and Clinton were given a slap in the face.

"Putin has made it clear that he was bored in these negotiations. He never apologized for being late," Clinton acknowledged. However, it was a sheer trifle as compared to May 2013, when Kerry, who arrived to Moscow to discuss the conflict in Syria with Putin, had to wait for him... for three hours. Kerry did not take offense.

In June, 2014 the Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said that "the Polish-US alliance isn't worth anything." "It is downright harmful, because it creates a false sense of security," he said. It was the lowest rating of trust to US.

In Saudi Arabia, Obama was met by the governor of Riyadh –- it was a public slap to the president. The meeting wasn't even broadcast on Saudi TV, as if he were an ambassador of Liechtenstein. The same thing happened in Cuba. Obama, who was so proud of his "historic breakthrough" in relations with Havana, was met not by Raul Castro, but by the Minister for Foreign Affairs. However, Obama only smiled and spoke about "new horizons."

Iranians "thanked" Obama for the lifting of sanctions by mocking the US: they arrange provocations in the Gulf regularly, publish footage featuring kneeling American Marines, and make the US pay for the release of hostages.

In China, Obama was the only world leader at the G20 summit who got off the plane through the emergency exit and without the red carpet, as if he were the head of Somaliland. Obama appealed to make no reckoning of the incident.

The President of Philippines Rodrigo Duterte called the US president a "son of a whore" and promised "to curse him" -- Obama described him as a "bright guy" and discussed bilateral relations between the two countries afterwards.

This is the resume of the modern history's epic drama: the West in general, and its flagship -- the US, has turned into a whipping boy, a punching bag, an object of ridicule, vilification and abuse. And they seem to be quite happy with this situation.

Over four thousand years, mankind has not changed a great deal, and just as as far back in the past, the politics of leading countries in Eurasia -- from the Eastern Europe to China and from Russia to the Arab world -- is based on time-honored tradition: historical memory, the feeling of uniqueness, ancient culture and, of course, national dignity, which is the sacred category, the absence of which makes geopolitics impossible.

A rejection of national dignity, from their point of view, defeats the purpose of the very existence of the nation, and turns it into a mob, a herd, some amorphous mass. A state that abandons its national dignity is doomed.

For America and Western Europe, national dignity is mere rhetoric. For the people of Eurasia and their leaders, it is a root of life, giving the vitality that fills them with faith and hope.

They consider the Western leaders, with their naivete, mantras about peace, tolerance and "human rights," political correctness and self-flagellation, as a miserable parody of state leaders: Pickwick Club, aliens, creatures from the incubator -- pathetic, cowardly, mercantile and pathologically ignorant. This encourages them to seek new allies at best, or provokes aggression against the West at worst. For the heirs of ancient civilizations, the America of the "Obama followers," Hillary and Kerry, is not even a "paper tiger." It is a daffy tiger, imagining itself a kitten that drinks milk, chases its tail and falls on its back at the sight of the Iranian hyenas.

This odd "creature" causes mixed feelings. Gloating, because no one here has ever felt sympathy for the "Yankees" with their wealth and prosperity, and those who did were disillusioned. Increased salivation, because a dying hippopotamus is always an excellent dish for predators, and the ocean is no longer a strong defense against missiles, terrorism and cyber-attacks. A sense of permissiveness, because the "world policeman" has turned into a senile bumpkin with his super-modern weapons chasing Pokemons. And... confusion, because the sheriff's resignation means chaos, anarchy, a war of all against all.

All restrictions have been removed, and the law defended by guns and batons doesn't exist anymore. On The Island of Doctor Moreau, all are free and therefore doomed, since no one possesses a total supremacy, as the US does, but they possess deadly weapons.

That is why the world would like to see, as ironically as it sounds, a strong America again. Some of them -- such as Eastern Europe, Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Persian Gulf monarchies -- would like to return to the generous patronage of the US. Others -- like the Turks and the Greeks, Indians and Pakistanis -- need a strong referee to avoid slipping into the abyss of all-out war. More powerful countries -- like Russia and China -- want to divide their spheres of influence and deal with a reliable partner.

In any case, this ally -- a partner or a referee -- shall be sane, strong and predictable.

The leader of the great power that wasn't able to send helicopters to save its ambassador from the barbarian's gang in a foreign country is miserable. The leader who promises a "reset" today, but intrudes upon your vital space tomorrow and moralizes about human rights, is unpredictable. Leaders releasing the maniac from prison can hardly be called sane. The leader who sends secret diplomatic correspondence from her mailbox raises concerns with regard to her mental abilities. Leaders who draw "red lines" and forget about them the next day; who refuse to deliver weapons to the friends fighting against terrorists in Sinai, Gaza and Yemen; leaders who cannot call Islamic terror "Islamic terror" -- they inspire nothing but rage and contempt.

The world feels nostalgia for the "sheriff" and therefore prefers Trump, although they hardly like him. In any case, he is more reliable than Bronies.

Alexander Maistrovoy is the author "Agony of Hercules or a Farewell to Democracy (Notes of a Stranger"), published recently by Xlibris, Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.