The Peace Train Derails (update)

I wrote a number of columns on The Peace Train, the attempt by everyone and everybody to make peace between Russia and Ukraine. The last column had the theme: “If you want to sup with the devil, you need a long spoon.”

You can find these peace train initiatives by searching on The Peace Train. I even rated these various peace initiatives, and my rating at the time gave Russia an 8 out of 10 possibility of making eventual peace. (Peace train rail cars, Ukraine, Africa, Brazil, China, Saudi Arabia, and now Rail Car US). I said in the final piece that Russia will make the peace: “Russia will listen to any substantive peace plan and participate in any substantive peace negotiations. This has to include demilitarization and denazification. Unstated, NATO must move back. Russia needs to be secure, and security must be indivisible, i.e., security for one cannot impinge on the security of another. In the meantime, you can set your watch by the daily military updates.  The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation as usual today.

The last US and the following supposedly EU peace initiative are no different. Up to today, we have the daily Russian MoD Military update, and you can set your watch to it. Russia does not need the US to make peace, but it does require the US to become a normal country. Will that give the US a seat at the table? By ‘the table,’ I mean the Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin table.

It is not easy to make peace if you have your arms up to your elbows when making the war. Thus far, we can write the Trump administration’s peace train effort off to a comical and clearly failed peace initiative. Aside from preparing Ukraine for guerrilla warfare and conducting anti-Russia propaganda operations, the US and the CIA built 20 bases throughout the country and supplied weapons and instructors.

Trump is retrenching on the peace train issue, and we will have to see if this is permanent or gassy talk.

UPDATE: Trump is already notifying us of the next ‘revelation’.

“Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump 43m

TOMORROW NIGHT WILL BE BIG. I WILL TELL IT LIKE IT IS!

Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump 46m

The only President who gave none of Ukraine’s land to Putin’s Russia is President Donald J. Trump. Remember that when the weak and ineffective Democrat’s criticize, and the Fake News gladly puts out anything they say!”

Trump may be reading the writing on the wall for now, or he may feel good having the EU taking up the cudgel as planned. His supping spoon and that of his cadre was not long enough. The EU’s effort yesterday to rebuild the Zelenki puppet was also comical. Many old slogans were seen, like Peace through Strength. What does that even mean? Zelenski, the cocaine-addled puppet, played his role to standing applause and a meeting with the King. This is sticking a pin into Trump, as in the preceding week, Starmer invited him to visit the King before the US peace initiative blew up spectacularly in front of the whole world see. As a small backdrop, we learn that the Epstein files are possibly very deliberately being withheld, despite the current administration’s spectacular announcements that ‘all’ will be released and the epoch of ‘Revelation’ has dawned.

The US knows that it has shown a stunning inability to implement ‘The Art of the Deal’ if even a fleabag like Zelenski says NO to it, in full view of the world. Yesterday’s full-court press in the US media to build up a tarnished reputation was quite a spectacle to behold. The other spectacle, in London, was also a continuance of the circus but with B-roll actors.

This brings a longer-running GlobalSouth.co theme to the forefront.  The flavor of the day is NYET!

What is going to happen with the Trump administration and Trump as the gilded leader if he continually receives a NO in trying to build out the old empire? This week, we will see if he continues with his tariffs against Mexico and Canada, the steel and aluminum tariffs, possibly copper as well, against everybody and their cousins, and the additional tariffs on China. China said they would reciprocate with a combination of tariffs and non-tariff measures. All threatened countries promised retaliation. (The blood in the water is visible).

This is my prediction. The world will stop trading with the US. If there is a hope that this will spur the US to jumpstart a new local content manufacturing surge, it is necessary to consider again what Richard Wolff says: Trump’s victory & theatrics are just symptoms of US decline. The US internal faction fight will deteriorate rapidly as the recent spectacle literally supplied the gas.  If it is too difficult to trade with a trading partner, other trading partners will be found, and the US will not be the flavor of the day to deal with. The BRICS group is bypassing US trade effectively already. The new and improved empire is still falling.

My own two civilizational questions remain:

1. How will the Trump administration react to a series of NO answers from the world? Trump may think he jump-started history on his inauguration, but the world does not think so. They remember Kissinger:  “To be an enemy of the US is dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal.”  The decision is not to be either the friend or the enemy, so the world is retrenching from the US.

and

2. How robust is your ability to psychologically deal with the massive changes that will unfold in our world this year? Countries will fall. (BRICS countries too!)  We will reconstitute in a different, polycentric format of multipolarity.  This is now a historical inevitability.  Even Brazil is showing some BRICS teeth.  Soon, we will see what SCO has accomplished.

To conclude, there is a personal story to tell.  Mr Putin, in one of his speeches, mentioned in passing that the US could buy aluminum from Russia, and that would be good for the price worldwide.  It is known in the circles that during the Rape of Russia, the aluminum industry was literally the most raped and the most extractive from the US side.  The man who was in charge related this to me as follows:  “It was like shooting fish in a barrel.”  Mr. Putin knows this history, and that is why he mentioned aluminum specifically – his sarcasm and schadenfreude momentarily knew no bounds, yet few people know this.