There’s no fool like an old fool

There’s no fool like an old fool. There was I saluting Mr Trump for trying to secure peace between Ukraine and Russia. I should have known better. A man who could not see the genocide being perpetrated by his friend Netanyahu in Gaza and who felt the solution to the Gaza debacle was to move the entire population of Gaza out of the area and into... well, wherever! How foolish can one be?

Mr Trump told us he was going to free the world from war. Now, if I was an American citizen I would have voted in favour of that commitment. Just as well I’m Irish and did not have a vote, and we will come to that later. He started well in terms of Ukraine/Russia. He railroaded Volodymyr Zelenskyy into agreeing to talks with Russia in a bid to end the war and then he got on to his good friend Vladimir Putin to coax him to the negotiating table. Mr Putin, who is of course President for Life of Russia, did not really heed his good friend Donald but he did agree to send proxies to talks that might lead to negotiations that could bring about an end to the fighting. It seemed like a start, but Mr Zelenskyy felt slighted and with the support of NATO (and we will come to NATO in a bit) and the UK and the EU he started calling Mr Putin names. Children?

Now, in the middle of all this are the Israelis and they are under attack from all sides, but especially from those miserable Gazans with their bows and arrows and huckster missiles. They are not worthy of any consideration from Mr Trump and have been dismissed. To the West of the Israelis are the Lebanese. They are fairly miserable as well but they are under the protection of the useless UN who have the noble Irish soldiers tasked with the impossible job of keeping the belligerent Israelis at bay.

The Israelis don’t have an army, they have a defence force and defend themselves by attacking the Lebanese people and targeting Hezbollah. Who? Hezbollah. They are a raggle taggle bunch of bustards who have sympathy for the suffering, starving Gazans. So Hezbollah are wiped out. Problem solved. No.

To the west of Lebanon are the Iranians. The Iranians in Western (the US, UK and EU) eyes are a proper dangerous bunch. They don’t have a President. Dear God, they have ayatollahs. These ayatollahs generally have big beards and ears, white eyes and fancy turbans on their heads. Sure you couldn’t deal seriously with them! 

They don’t even have a right government. They have a regime and nations with regimes are not to be trusted. You would not know what they might get up to. 

The Iranians continue to live in the dark ages but somewhere along the line a mutant strain of Iranians discovered brains and became scientists and developed nuclear energy. You would think that would be a good thing. Sure, but… Nuclear power is pretty much a non-polluting energy and is used all over the world. However, there is a danger that the dangerous Iranian ayatollahs could develop nuclear warheads and that might present problems. The West (so-called) could not tolerate such a development. Nuclear warheads, in the right hands, are a good thing. They are a deterrent when used, or more correctly not used, properly. But do the Iranians have the right hands. No, according to Israel and the US, the UK and the EU.

Israel has atomic weapons. The US has atomic weapons. We know that because they are the only country in the world to have fired atomic bombs in anger. The UK has atomic weapons and can launch them from stealth submarines. Why, they could even blow up the subsea infrastructure around Ireland, leaving the Russians with nothing to do. And they are now spending billions on F35 jets so they can bomb from the air. Who are they going to bomb? They are not going to bomb anyone. Nuclear weapons are only deterrents after all. And all this at a time when the UK can’t afford to pay disability payments. Starmer the socialist, my backside. Bring back Corbyn. He could not be any worse than Starmer.

The Russians, the North Koreans, India, Pakistan and China have atomic weapons. Isn’t it time the Israelis took out their nuclear capability. Not so sure about the Germans and the French but if they don’t have them they have the scientists who can make them. So perhaps we should get on to Israel to target the French and German scientists and eliminate them.

There was I thinking that the EU remained a bastion of common sense and would summon up the nerve to challenge Israel to do the decent thing and pull back from the genocide in Gaza. But instead of doing that they can’t even agree to take action on an EU/Israeli trade deal that was founded on humanitarian principles and has been torn up by the Netanyahu government which has quite simply told the EU they could not care less about the observance of principles of humanity and decency and would continue to kill and maim without let up. In the West Bank, Israeli settlers and blackguards set fire to Palestinian homes and cars and then call up the Israeli attack forces to shoot the Palestinians who have the impudence to protest. No doubt, just as they do when they shoot people queueing for food, the Israeli army will “look into” these murders. And there’s an end to it.

And yes, what about NATO? At the behest of Daddy Trump this crazy amalgam of 30 mainly European countries has agreed to rearm at a cost of trillions it can ill afford so as to be in a position to ward off an attack by Russia who has not, that I am aware, threatened to invade the EU. Sure Putin has launched a war in a part of the Ukraine which Russia would claim is more Russian than Ukrainian. And the EU and NATO can take some “pride” in the fact that they goaded Russia into the war and then left the Ukrainians to do the dirty work in the trenches.

I used to think the people of the Netherlands were sensible, down to earth people. Then they elected Mark Rutte as their Prime Minister. In fairness they got rid of him after four years and sent him off to become General Secretary of NATO. This is the man who saluted Mr Trump as “daddy”. How stupid, fawning and smarmy can a man get? Mr Trump may thrive in the adulation he receives in certain quarters but he is not so daft as to be taken in by Rutte’s ridiculous ass-licking. Naturally, Mr Trump is happy. The EU will spend trillions with the US arms industry. And Ireland will pay their share. So much for neutrality!

And there was I thinking that Ireland was a prized member of the EU whose view counted and who had influence with the powers that be in Brussels. We made a feeble effort, along with Spain and Portugal, to apply pressure on Israel to cease the slaughter in Gaza by calling on Israel to live up to the terms of the EU/Israel trade agreement and particularly those elements of the agreement that required Israel to abide by international humanitarian law. We were simply wasting our time.

Ms von der Leyen, our esteemed European Commission President, is hand and glove with the Israelis and has given them carte blanche to continue the genocide. Israel, according to von der Leyen, is entitled to defend itself and attack is the best form of defence. So the Israelis attack Gaza and Lebanon and Iran. They target scientists and academics. Mr Trump supports them with his famous bunker busting bombs and the rest of the world wring their hands.

I thought Micheál had some say. I thought Ireland might get a sympathetic hearing. I thought the suffering in Gaza might strike a chord. But no. As Mr Trump might say “what the f**k". Yes indeed, no fool like an old fool.

Thought for the day 

Teachers open the doors but you must enter yourself 

- Chinese proverb