Vahe H Apelian
Regarding the Zelensky-Trump debacle, a reporter noted that Zelensky has repeatedly pointed out that the U.S., under the Biden administration provided substantial aid to Kyiv. But it is Ukrainian soldiers who did and do the fighting on the front lines to stop Russian aggression that poses a threat to all of Europe, which runs counter to the U.S. interests. Furthermore, he claimed that “Zelenskyy later said that under war, "everybody has problems, even you" and that the U.S. would feel the war "in the future."
But it was not quite like that. Zelensky said the following, “You have nice ocean and don't feel now, but you will feel it in the future". That remark angered Trump who said, "Don't tell us what we're going to feel. We're trying to solve a problem. Don't tell us what we're going to feel."
Geography has favored the United States. It is flanked by two great oceans, on the East by the Atlantic Ocean and on the West by the Pacific Ocean. Even though U.S. has its own immigration issues, but strong man like Erdogan has not thus far threatened it by opening the flood gates of immigrants pouring onto it, as Erdogan did, exacting from West Europe major concessions. On its north and south, its neighbors have not been warring as European states were during the two great wars.
Consequently, isolationism became natural for the U.S. For the longest time FDR could not even interfere on behalf of Winston Churchill caught in frenzy of the “European War”. However, things changed. The spread of Nazism, the Pearl Harbor attack, the growing might of the Soviet Union changed the political equation necessitating U.S. and England work hand in hand with the Stalinist Russia until, in Churchill’s words, a great curtain descended upon Europe.
After the second world war, the “Domino” theory became the foreign policy theory of the U.S., according to which the “fall” of a noncommunist state to communism would precipitate the fall of noncommunist governments in neighboring countries. Eisenhower is credited to have described the theory during a news conference on April 7, 1954, when referring to communism in Indochina. But the U.S. diligently exercised the cautionary policy right after the WWII. Unlike the Paris Peace Conference convened in January 1919 at Versailles just outside Paris, that imposed harsh terms on the defeated Germany, the U.S. took upon itself rebuilding the defeated Germany in the aftermath of WWII, fostering ideological and commercial ties. The U.S. also adopted the same policy dealing with Imperial Japan it defeated.
The results of the wise and benevolent policies of the U.S. resulted in the post WWII Pax Americana, that seems to be experiencing serious stresses that are threatening to tear the alliance apart from its seams. It is not communism any more but a variant of “Lebensraum”, meaning "living space.”
Does Zelensky’s remark have any merit, given the ICBM, the intercontinental ballistic missiles have rendered geography pretty much irrelevant and MAD, the mutually assured destruction, became the deterrent?
The 21th century witnessed the birth of BRICS. According to Wikipedia BRICS is an informal intergovernmental organization consisting of ten countries—Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. The term is made by the initials of the first countries listed. It is the counterpart of G7, which, according to Wikipedia is an informal grouping of seven of the world's advanced economies, including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as the European Union.
G7, unlike NATO, may be informal, whatever the term “informal” implies. But countries engaged in economic cooperation cannot endure if not backed by military might both as a deterrent and for safeguarding markets.
At present, the U.S. of America has a southern neighbor - Brazil - a member of the “informal” BRICS organization that represents over 3.3 billion people, which is more than 40% of the world's population. In my view, that would have been unthinkable a few decades ago.
Yes, the oceans no longer can guarantee a splendid isolation, for the U.S.
It behooves the citizens of the U.S. and hence its government not to dismiss what Zelensky said that "You have nice ocean and don't feel now, but you will feel it in the future”. Let us be mindful that a more congested world is awaiting us and yes, U.S. may experience immigrant surges in ways it has not experienced before, and its southern neighbors may not be any longer open markets for merchandizing and manufacturing U.S. goods.
