The invention was fucked

The two world wars of the last century taught us several things, such as that the world could not be trusted because in its unbridled desire to expand its borders through war, there was always some clever person, a lunatic or even a nostalgic person willing to cause trouble and, for the sake of argument, let me get my straws out, declare war on part of or all of its immediate surroundings or even further afield; that the deterrent effect of the possession or the threat of the use of nuclear weapons was vital for maintaining a, nevertheless, growing balance of power and a peace, which, although forced, served to keep things going; that it was necessary to create supranational organisations, which, endowed with power, money, international prestige or even their own forces or borrowed forces, could - with their presence or with the threat of their use - placate, as a referee of disputes, the unbridled impulses of those who were willing to fight, immersed in or close to it; that the true balance of the world was based on the law of counterweights between two countries that were very powerful economically and militarily, which brought together around them an important series of like-minded countries with which they traded and kept in a certain state of calm and tranquillity and, finally; that, if any of the latter failed, there were always a number of aspirants, of varying degrees of importance or in the process of achieving it, who would soon be willing to fill the vacant position and even wipe out the presence or influence of the fallen colossus. 

Well, based on the aforementioned principles of subsistence or even survival, we set up the snack bar of various courts, for which it was necessary to create the UN, NATO, the Warsaw Pact and the EU; the arsenal of nuclear weapons was born and grew exponentially and we let the US and Russia act as arbiters, shepherds, jailers or fathers - depending on how you look at it - who kept their families or flocks safe and sound, certainly united and in more ways than one. The USA and Russia acted as arbitrators, shepherds, jailers or parents - depending on how you look at it - who kept their families or flocks safe, certainly together and more or less calm. 

Nobody dared to step out of line or raise their voice and, although we were forced to spend enormous amounts of money on armaments, this huge expense was for our security and was always justified because, without us realising it, most of it went back into the coffers of the aforementioned leaders, who reinvested it to produce new models that were more precise, deadly, advanced or sophisticated and, at the same time, more expensive with which to fatten their large arms industries and wipe out their own national spending in this respect. 

This was the ‘land of milk and honey’ and its shady deals, although with slight changes in the environment that, if we had been more attentive, would have revealed certain clues as to what might happen. 

Like the once powerful Russia is apparently weaker, but increasingly engaged in a war of attrition in Ukraine against ‘the rest of the world’ for three years now of fierce fighting typical of an all-out war; that Putin is rummaging through and tampering with quite a few electoral processes and greatly influencing many of them; that the EU has been deteriorating economically and bureaucratically to the point of becoming an ungovernable and useless mass of countries saturated with rules, prohibitions and time-wasting in a clear example of the famous finger that prevents us from seeing the sun; that NATO has become another group of bureaucrats full of limitations of the allies themselves, that it hardly invests in defence and that it bases its capacity for reaction and dissuasion on the will of its American ‘cousin’, whose current president, since the very electoral campaign for his second term in office, has been seriously warning that America comes first and that he wants to recover its splendour, for which, logically, it will have to shed a lot of ballast both internally and externally.

It has taken just a few, very few days for the shouting, the rudeness and the famous histrionic outbursts, with little respect for form or diplomatic courtesy, of a mad goat called Trump to become a reality. Many, almost all, thought that he wouldn't actually do it, they believed that he would be the second US president who threatened and shouted a lot, but never really hit hard. 

We were wrong. It was precisely his bitter previous experience and the fact that he had been able to see for eight years that no one paid any attention to him that led him to stand his ground and stick to his decisions, no matter what. He has the unconditional support of many millions of votes from men and women who were born, grew up, and some have even died, tired of seeing most of their taxes squandered abroad year after year, that no one respects their country despite their efforts and that not only does it put a lot of money on the table, but also the vast majority of its dead to solve all the world's conflicts; while the rest of the countries laugh at the Yanks, they live in another world and it seems that they are not affected by these things. 

Nobody thought, far from it, that it was going to be like it turned out last Friday and caught us all with our pants down. Poor Zelenski, a person accustomed to going around begging for scraps of stale bread on street corners and in most international parliaments, has had to endure great humiliation; a humiliation that Trump was rather sending to all the rest of us. Our indecisive and woefully unprepared leaders have been knocked out; their lukewarm and, as usual, useless reactions this weekend have been useless. Vain promises with no date or substance, lots of hugs - some of them fake - and an uncertain and dark road ahead for everyone, but even more so, if possible, for Ukraine. The defenceless country, which has had the misfortune of having a comedian at the helm, who out of urgency and necessity has become a very serious character, persecuted and with little real future. 

The aforementioned Western world has its days numbered as such. I very much fear that too many things at all levels and entities must change drastically and even disappear or change role partially or totally. 

We have to redefine all kinds of concepts and important strategies; we have to all pull together, seriously and directly, without subterfuge or hesitation; we have to form real internal and external political alliances and generate huge amounts of funds to provide our own security. In this respect, I hope and pray that nobody falls into chauvinism as it can very easily happen, I presume. 

It is highly possible and probable that many European countries will not be able to keep up with the pace we have to set and I must emphasise that, initially, it is somewhat curious that we seem to be holding hands or following in the wake of the United Kingdom which, perhaps, having smelt the toast, once left the EU and began to walk separately only to return as the leader of a flock lacking in leadership. 

Trump will achieve what he has been mulling over and plotting for four years now and will start to focus on what really interests him: Israel and Saudi Arabia in the Middle East, the Arctic, his land borders and the nearby Pacific. He may end his term of office acclaimed or even, following a very American custom, someone may shoot him a couple of times and end his story with such an end. 

Now Putin finds himself somewhat isolated on the international stage; he will have to play his cards right, not overreach in his ambitions in Ukraine and be very attentive to the role of China and India, who are very eager to become more important players in today's world and this character has few cards left to play that we don't already know about.