The World on The Brink

To the titanomachy between the east and the west,
to the brinkmanship between global hegemons,
to the resolve to portray oneself as a strong leader,
to the flirtation with apocalypse,
For the sake of humanity and the larger ecosystem of nature,
from the voices of reason:
BASTAS

Since 2016 the world entered a tempestuous terrain. Beginning with the election of Donald Trump, the world has seen cascade of incessant calamitous scenarios capable of putting humanity into the constellation of oblivion and extinction to be read about, like the dinosaurs, by succeeding civilizations.

One of such calamity was the coronavirus which spread rapidly across the globe due to the intransigence of the leader of the free world, Donald Trump, who sought to downplay the danger of the pathogen in order to save his political ambitions. His decision trickled into what became the most deleterious pandemic of the 21 century.

As the most powerful person on earth, He refused to take leadership to confront the pandemic. He threw humanity under the bus as a trade-off for his strong man image and his political future. Hiss cynicism costs the world a huge economic fallout and lingering health problems that have continued to evolve and pose daunting challenges to the future of humanity.

In November 2020, When Trump was defeated, the world breathed a sigh of relief as it looks toward the horizon that scintillate rays of sunshine and glimmer of hope with Joe Biden stepping into the vanguard of leadership.

To the consternation of many, Joe Biden botched handling of global affairs, especially the Ukraine war, has trounced the enthusiasm, sapped the glimmers of hope and eclipsed the rays of sunshine that many people savored and bashed in on January 20, 2021

Joe Biden has failed the global expectations. One that is shrouded in decent diplomacy and a hope of sanguine leadership that can adroitly tame the most hostile of leaders to maintain global peace and precious lives without spooking them

In my article “ The Yin and Yang of 2020”, I rightly berated Trump for his caprice and impulse as well as his demagoguery and polarizing political style that paved the way for nationalism and ditch globalization which has markedly improved lives across the world. But with joe Biden maladroit leadership, I have come to recant some of my negative impression of trump and acknowledge the few silver linings that festoon and titivate the darkest clouds of Trumpism

The contronym of Trumpism
Donald Trump was certainly a polarizing leader. His leadership witnessed some of the most disturbing recidivism to white supremacist ideologies since the abolition of slavery. He eroded the seemingly insurmountable achievements of globalization that is nonpareil to none in the history of humanity. His disdain for people of colors, including Mexican and African American, represents the biggest threat to the multicultural and multiracial civilization that has created a beautiful iridescent society that has seen humanity thrived beyond nuances that pale against its commonality. His demagoguery tendency and his misogynistic demeanor as well as his resentment to less fortunate people are few of the threats, he evinces that could perniciously plunge the world into an inferno of chaos and shamble.

Yet on the flip side, he has unique silver linings. He is the antidote to dictators' caprices. He tamed dictators in an uncanny manner that, in my view, stems from his own admiration for dictators and desire to be one. His dictatorial instinct might have given him an unfiltered access to the minds of dictators and the tricks to leash them.

where he succeeded is where Biden tragically failed. He succeeded in maintaining global peace and security. He is on record that if he were president the war in Ukraine wouldn't have happened

You cannot chronicle the silver linings of Trumpism without giving a nosegay of appreciation for His most piece de resistance moment of outreach. The moment he stepped across the isles to meet his adversaries. One of such isles was North Korea. He personally went across the demilitarized zone and met dictator Kim jon-on in North Korea without appeasing him. This brings to mind the fact that negotiation is not an appeasement

The Perfidy and failure of Biden Leadership
Putin must never be appeased but he should never equally be isolated, cornered or “humiliated“ because he sits on top of some of the world's most dangerous and most potent weapons of mass destruction. And Biden is privy to this intelligence so well.

When you listen to his “lesson" about his interaction with a cornered rat, you will instantly agree that the world is in an unpredictable moment of precarity as Putin gets more and more fidgety. Putin recalled that as a child he chased a rat up to a corner where the rat couldn't escape. Out of options, the rat opted for a kamikaze move and pounced at him in a desperate attempt to save itself. He said that he took a lesson from that encounter and that lesson has shaped his paradigm. This is a reminder of what fidgety Putin with weapons of mass destruction can do. This information must calibrate global approach to him

Putin has cited few precedence's to justify his actions on global stage: He intervened in Syria to prop up the Assad regime because he believes the west dethroned Gadafi and Saddam in Iraq without justifications. He supported cessation of esteem Ukraine and subsequently organized a referendum and annexed it because he believes the west supported similar move by Kosovo.

The most worrisome precedence that keeps me jittery, and I hope Putin will not follow, is the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. According to Secretary of State James Brynes Truman America bombed these places in order to end a grinding war. Putin referenced those bombing in a phone call to Macron.

With Biden at the apex of global leadership, global leaders were expected to use diplomacy and finesse their way out of this ever dangerous situation by negotiating, talking, listening, addressing one another's concerns and fears, and promoting trust; otherwise, the world is edging ever closer to the brink of Armageddon.

The Voices of Reason are Louder but Seems to Fall on Death Ears
In an interview with NBC, General Mark Milley, former chair of the joint chief of staff, expressed concern for Biden language and urge “getting at the table and step back”

Accord to Medea Benjamin, co- founder of codepink, the US has always torpedo negotiation starting from the proposal given by Russia before the invasion. She also mentioned the Turkish peace initiative which proposed neutrality for Ukraine and the withdrawal of Russian troops from Donbas. She said the Ukrainians were happy with the proposal until Boris Johnson showed up in Kiev and told Zelensky that the “collective west was not about to make an agreement with the Russian and was there to support Ukraine in its fight “Johnson is on record for calling Putin a “crocodile”, suggesting you cannot negotiate with him. She also cited Secretary Austin remark that the “goal was to weaken Russia “

Prior to all of this, Zelensky told his people in a nightly address that “the goal is peace and the restoration of normal life as soon as possible in our native state “. Today that same Zelensky has dramatically changed after being commandeered by the west

The Risk of a Nuclear War
Mathew Burn, a nuclear weapon expert at Harvard university estimated a 20% chance of a nuclear war before the bombing of Russia bridge. Imagine what will his estimate be after a humiliating defeat of Russia

There is every reason to believe that the west wants to rid itself of Russia and Putin but certainly not through the blood of their citizens, and at a high risk of an Armageddon.