Opinion: Trump Peacemaker Or Man Beyond Time

The pace of change has accelerated rapidly within weeks

• The new world changes maps; industrial revolution likewise

• Profitable wars seek new locations, old allies unemployed

• Shifting balance of money drives the balance of power

• Syria sanctions lifted, Iran war fades, Israel sidelined

• Gulf nations aspire to new financial force

• Signs of obstinate stasis as Europe resists Ukraine peace

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(2,400 words - first 600 or so as usual for free.)

The Omega Man (1971) - Ordo ab Chao

May 15, 2025

The alternative media is abuzz whether Zelenskiy put his pants on backwards.

Macron's behaviour on the Kyiv railway recalls the images of Ardern, Andrews and others coping with their orders during Covid with that reflexive wiping of the snout that suggests shame at the least. One way or another they cope and crack down, while feeding their own delusions of grandeur. [1]

The crackdown is accelerating. It is bad enough that British police now arrest, search and detain journalists under laws that were meant to combat terrorism. Now the government wants to ban the press from reporting such heavy-handed arrests.

The British government has a "voluntary" system that asks editors (those who don't want their careers interrupted) to censor state secrets; it's called the D-Notice system. In November 2024 they added counter-terrorism policing, which means they cannot report on journalists who face secret arrest.

In the U.S. the Trump administration has floated the idea of suspending the writ of habeas corpus, as was done by three past presidents. The government is allowed to do so in cases of rebellion or invasion, or for public safety.

Strange to see such efforts to prevent us watching what is happening in real time. Just as time seems to speed up.

In just a few weeks, president Donald Trump has launched direct negotiations with Yemen and Iran, halting air strikes and finessing the latter's nuclear programme, to the dismay of Israel.

"We're in very serious negotiations with Iran for long-term peace," Trump told reporters.

He embraced Ahmed Al Sharaa, the al Qaeda hired hand of Mosul and Ramadi during the Iraq war, then head of al Nusra in Idlib, since become president of Syria.

Trump ignored Israel's objection to lifting sanctions on Syria — aligning with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar — and declared that Al Sharaa would recognise Israel.

Diplomats in the Gulf are atwitter whether Trump will announce US recognition of a Palestinian state. Egypt and Jordan have refused to take 2 million Palestinians from Gaza, while the restraint of Iran provides the mood music composed by China which brokered Iran's normalisation with Saudi Arabia.

Trump visited south west Asia (aka Mid East) without dropping by at the door of Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel. The sleight is reported in the Hebrew media but met largely with silence outside.

For the first time since October 7, 2023, several establishment newspapers in unison criticised Israel's policy in Gaza. By this I mean the editorial boards, not individual journalists — Financial Times, May 6, 2025: The west’s shameful silence on Gaza

Words may not translate into a shift in policy but at the very least you can see the shift of tone is coordinated.

"Sound and fury, signifying nothing," as Shakespeare wrote? Perhaps.

There are signs of obstinate stasis. Russia's leader is not attending the peace talks called Istanbul-plus, but the Russian delegation was in place awaiting the arrival of the Ukrainians.

The Europeans have excluded themselves from the peace talks, the five leaders of the "coalition of the willing" refusing to acknowledge Russia's points of contention and insisting on an unconditional ceasefire without a political settlement.

You may disagree with this brief sketch so far, but there's more.

"Russian team a ‘theatre prop’ says Zelenskiy as Putin fails to attend Turkish talks" — says The Guardian.

You can almost hear European leaders wail, "what are we going to do if we can't have our war?"

I'm not being snarky. Wars give politicians something in common, a unity or sense of purpose that they otherwise lack — especially in the European Union.

The wail raises another concern: Could the U.S. withdraw from Syria and Iraq, if not Ukraine, delivering on Trump's long-espoused desire to "bring the boys home."

This won't be discussed in public because it is a discussion too nuanced for a media trained since Vietnam in reflexive "Ra-ra" support for any action overseas.

But it also won't be discussed in public because it is a third (electric) rail that the military-industrial complex will not tolerate.

Any journalist looking out for his or her career will stick to the safe assumption that Trump may end some wars but will place the blood funnel or sprinkler elsewhere in God's garden.