A bitterly skeptical yet cautiously hopeful take on Trump’s rumored peace plan, the hidden mineral deals, Slavic fatalism, and why a sudden “diabolus ex machina” stop to the war may be Europe’s last chance before a new continental catastrophe
As soon as the information appeared that yet another comprehensive attempt to end the war in Ukraine is in preparation, the first reaction imposes itself on its own, based on the chronology so far – profound skepticism. Still, we will leave room for the opposite outcome: hopes collapse, and when hope falters, a solution arrives almost out of nowhere, a deus ex machina. To say that this “deus” might actually be Donald Trump now sounds bitterly ironic, since the same man has already washed away all the false shine of his proclaimed anti-militarism. As for the wars he supposedly “stopped” (Kosovo–Serbia?), we won’t even mention them; one would need an entire set of new quasi-values to boastfully claim credit for ending the war in Gaza. The result is visible to the whole world, while the dozens that Israel continues to kill every day have become somewhat less visible.
Trump, who drops bombs on Iran because Netanyahu once drew a cartoon bomb at the UN, who threatens to decapitate Venezuela’s socialist leadership just to remind the world that imperialism never dies – how could he be anything other than an escalation? Yet… here we are. Instead of a deus ex machina, we are patiently waiting for at least a diabolus ex machina, provided the outcome is the same – peace in Europe. From a realpolitik perspective, that is perfectly acceptable and even desirable. On another level, however, it is utterly crushing. Because this “new America” that has, despite a few obstacles, finally come of age, will stop individual tragedies only to prepare a catastrophe on a far greater scale.
Only now, after truly many years (we’re talking decades), when we have finally received an alternative, do we know that the alternative is worthless. To claim that a “third way” is possible in America is as naïve as expecting the return of control over those vast territories to the indigenous population. Trumpism – or rather what will continue to steer America once Donald slips to the cognitive level of the Biden he so enthusiastically mocked – will lead the world toward maximum confrontation because it does not recognize the concept of coexistence even at the most elementary level, and therefore clearly cannot acknowledge it in foreign policy, social, cultural, and above all economic matters.
Destroying competitors at any cost is a “virtue” revered exclusively by capitalist economics, which has obviously expanded far beyond mere economics. Its modern helpers are once again nationalism and the return of organized religion, but alongside all that rumbles a divergence in the interpretation of human evolution itself – “only the strongest survive,” a motto dear to prominent militarists and corporatists. Yet that motto is not even accurate; it is merely a distorted interpretation that has nothing to do with science or practical reality. In capitalism, those who survive are the ones “too big to fail” (which sounds more like something from the era of bureaucratic socialism), and everything else is a manifestation of false “strength.” It’s as if we were to say that Trump, Epstein, and their ilk were great seducers, when in fact it was solely a matter of exploitation.
But why, then, even a fragment of hope? Are we waiting for Trump’s “goodness” to manifest somewhere? Of course not. Stopping the war in Ukraine was never an act of kindness, only of interest. Trump, as we know, has already secured enormous mineral resources in Ukraine and couldn’t care less whether they end up in territory claimed by Kyiv or Moscow – he’ll get them either way. Only Kyiv and Moscow together could rid themselves of the plunder that will ultimately come for them all, but a lack of foresight seems to be some kind of curse over the entire Slavic “tribe.”
About its “southern branch” we’d better say nothing, except in the context already mentioned. Perhaps someone hasn’t noticed, but the war in Ukraine is the perfect catalyst for the degradation of existence in general. We have a French general calling on his countrymen and all of Europe to be “ready to sacrifice their children” in a future (for him certain) war against Russia. At the same time, those same sinister forces are actively changing the status quo in the Balkans. Militarism has a special smell – you don’t necessarily smell it with your nose, but it is even worse. You feel it with your entire being. These days, roads, schools, gatherings, “talking heads,” and especially the representatives of politics all reek of it.
If the Slavs in the east lack foresight regarding foreign influence, we can comfortably say that we are completely blind to it. An entire “block” of countries in a geostrategically vital position is being prepared for the anti-human desires expressed by the likes of General Fabien Mandon, mostly without even being aware of it. Little can still surprise us, yet the fact that processes are once again being set in motion through “old animosities” was considered impossible even by the strongest pessimists – and yet here we are.
That smell, which you don’t detect with your nose, spreads quickly and easily, poisoning entire current generations, and it wafts in from Ukraine’s terrible fields of death. We can only expect things to get lower, cruder, and more open if this war continues. All energy must therefore be directed toward the only absolute solution. Putting out local fires is now already pointless; there are so many it’s impossible even to see them all. The return of conscription, the inflationary sacrifice of ordinary citizens, the daily feeding of hatred (toward the big, medium, and small enemy) – these are all obligatory processes in pre-war Europe. A criminal like General Mandon cannot expect people to actually send their children to die today, but tomorrow is a new day, processed in the same way as today, and we will reach that abyss – of course by force, not willingly.
Mr. President, tear down this wall – we all still remember that speech. No wonder Donald loves Ronald so much. At that moment he too seemed like a “deus” who would bring unity out of a seemingly impossible division. And indeed, the wall fell. Gorbachev didn’t exactly tear it down, but he didn’t particularly defend it either. In retrospect we know the plan was never “peace on earth” but world domination through the destruction of the main enemy (the USSR), and today the plan is the same, only the enemy is a little further east.
By ending the war in Ukraine, Trump has an opportunity – in fact his only one – to settle accounts with China. Any Russia, even a significantly weakened one, as long as it remains in a bloc embrace with Beijing, will be an obstacle to that plan. A recovering Russia that owes Washington for giving it a way out of a dead-end situation will be a far smaller hindrance. Moreover, the Russia whose influence once reached far beyond its borders (Syria being the best and most recent example) has already disappeared.
We must call things by their real names and never tire of repeating it: the war in Ukraine will swallow us all. Every one of our countries has its own General Mandon, probably in an even worse version. Pure ideology will never get traction on its own because there is nothing for it to latch onto. This is not a war of ideals. This is not a fight one would join from Argentina to Cuba, or a defense of the future like in Spain. This is a war between two low-foresight Slavic countries that (for better and for worse) have so much in common. In recent days reality has shown its head even more strongly. Millions are being turned while hundreds of thousands perish (perhaps already a million). No “glory” will remain, neither for Ukraine nor for Russia. In these parts there still exists strong resistance to the theory that such murderous wars are very carefully instigated “from outside.” That belief in one’s own ecosystem of catastrophe is another element that prevents the past from receding; one can only imagine how much the Ukrainian and Russian peoples will suffer from it. Even if it ended today, it would be terrible; if the war does not stop, it will be indescribably tragic for all of us.
Even a sudden end to the war may no longer be enough to pull us off the path that has been imposed on us. Europe has changed beyond recognition. We can only guess that this is the atmosphere that smoldered before the First and Second World Wars. Yet ending the war is the only chance; otherwise there is none. Generals and corporatists sit at the same table, writing the same business-military plans for the continent’s future. War with Russia is a preoccupation they will not abandon. Only a great shock can blow them away (at least temporarily) – something like that wall in Berlin after which so much no longer made sense. It has to come from nowhere, break all assumptions, and divert history and the future somewhere else, where hope still exists. Behind the scenes, our last movements of what is now quite hidden optimism are taking place. Offers that cannot be refused are being crossed. Vladimir, Volodymyr, and Donald – gentlemen presidents, stop this war. We will say it, yes, selfishly: it doesn’t matter who ends up with the better outcome (though it’s clear no one on this side of the Atlantic will!), just stop it now, preferably abruptly, ex machina, so that Europe doesn’t even have time to recover from the shock that it has been saved.
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