After years of being constrained by Barack Obama, the US is now planning to reassert itself onto the world stage. Donald Trump’s Warsaw speech this week is a signal that he has recognised the current realignment of global powers and geopolitics. His sudden support for NATO is a reminder to Putin that the West still has significant firepower. Trump is squaring up to Putin. And North Korea and China.
While the British Left is embracing the hideous ideology of socialism and trying to impose it on the rest of us, the Poles know far better than us about living under such a regime. And so with Trump they see a leader who is prepared to tackle Vladimir Putin. And just like Putin has positioned himself as the Big Man of Russia, Trump is attempting to invent himself as the Big Man of America and possibly the West. But will Trump, like all of the Big Men of Africa, end up creating havoc and disaster? Or will he wake up the dying West in time and salvage our civilisation?
Western European governments, including our own, are at odds with Trump’s climate change scepticism and penchant for walls. But there is a significant amount of support for Trump in those Eastern European countries struggling under the dictatorial yoke of the EU and the threat of Putin’s colonialist ambitions.
Trump’s hint that the US will commit to helping Poland break free of the stranglehold Russia has over its energy supply is a warning shot to Putin. Trump’s plan to sell gas to Poland is a bold one. This is a way for Trump to exert US world dominance again.
While he is in Warsaw, Trump will be attending a conference of the Three Seas Initiative – a Polish-Croatian project established to strengthen economic and political ties. Most of the 12 Eastern European countries who are part of this Initiative were invaded by the USSR and are still dependent on Russia for their energy supplies.
So by meeting with those who are the most vulnerable to Putin’s ambitions, Trump is shrewdly counting on them to purchase American gas. This will have the dual purpose of boosting the US economy and weakening Russia’s economy and therefore its interference in Syria and its territorial advances on the Ukraine – all of which have been emboldened and financed by its plethora of gas reserves. If Poland and the rest of Eastern Europe can import gas from the US it lessens their reliance on Russia and they no longer have to obey the bully in the playground anymore. We should not underestimate Putin’s ambitions.
The shale gas revolution in the US means that Trump is in the position to compete with, and possibly overtake, Russia’s energy monopoly over Eastern Europe. For those who supply the energy which makes our world function are the ones truly in charge.
Trump’s reference to energy independence is also a signal that fracking has rejuvenated the US economy and has markedly improved its energy security. The US is ready to replace OPEC and Russia as an energy superpower supplier and has diminished its reliance on OPEC for its energy requirements.
Europe and the UK are withering away. The UK could strengthen its economy by fracking. But this is hampered by senseless opposition to fracking in the UK which only serves to increase our reliance on energy sources from some of the world’s most despotic regimes.
In the twilight dimension inhabited by the Left, Saudi Arabia is righty criticised yet the Left’s opposition to fracking only serves to further cement Saudi Arabia’s power and terrorist activities. Given the Left’s fervent obsession with climate change it is astounding that they ignore the damage that OPEC’s activities do to the environment. The world faces a certain degree of climate change and air pollution so surely it would make sense not to be so reliant on oil for our energy needs. If the UK could depend on its own natural gas reserves for energy security, the amount of government business conducted with Saudi Arabia would decrease.
Trump also reaffirmed his unexpected commitment to NATO. This is an astute move which reassures the dozen Eastern European NATO members who have a bloody history with socialism that Trump has their back. This will probably persuade them to purchase American gas.
It also signals to Russia, China and North Korea that NATO is prepared to stand up to their meddling and sabre rattling. Trump is being reactive here, warning Russia that the US is back in business and is willing to jostle for power via the medium of energy supply and security.
But it is not only the threat of Russia and Islamic terrorism that the West faces but the growing and disturbing sabre rattling of North Korea. The West cannot rely on China to harness the machinations of the madman Kim Jong-un. China is instead increasing economic ties with North Korea and by positioning itself as an ally of this rogue state it obviously aims to strengthen its status as a colonialist superpower.
Trump’s Warsaw speech is mostly significant for shining a light on the evolving power play between Russia, China and the US. By indulging in churlish Trump bashing, and not much else, the UK is in danger of becoming an irrelevance on the world stage.
We are like a timid child, crippled by left wing dogma, divisive identity politics and virtue-signalling and terrified of offending anyone except Trump. With our petty squabbles about Brexit and immigration, and with our two main political parties being led by the feeble and the absurd, we are like a dog that chases its own tail – running around in circles while ignoring the bigger picture around us.
While the West’s useful idiots obsess about past colonialist wrongs and partake in metaphorical self flagellation, Russia and China’s respective colonial advances in the Ukraine, Middle East and Africa show that they are expansionist superpowers who will have no mercy on those they seek to conquer and subjugate. So either our government aligns itself again with the US, despite misgivings about Trump, or it will see the special relationship disintegrate to our detriment. The UK will then only be able to squeak its protestations from a position of vulnerability and weakness.
