Trumpian Diplomacy

The failure of this past weekend's "peace talks" between the United States and Iran in Islamabad, Pakistan came as no surprise. Peace doesn't serve the US nor Israel at this time. Both their presidents are embroiled in scandal and only avoid going to jail by staying in power.

The U.S. sent a hillbilly, a real estate developer and a son-in-law to negotiate peace. Iran sent a delegation of 70 people including four persons with PhDs. After a "marathon" 16 hour negotiation, J.D. Vance (the hillbilly) declared that Iran wouldn't agree to the U.S. terms of peace. In other words, "do it our way, or not at all".

In the early 1970s, Henry Kissinger (love him or hate him, he was their "guy"), spent 33 consecutive days working on peace between Israel and Egypt after their war in 1973. He spent months afterwards, coining the term "shuttle diplomacy" by travelling between the two countries, and eventually getting them to sign successive agreements which culminated in the Camp David Accords which were signed in 1978.

But that's the present U.S. administration. They think this is a contract that they can bully someone into signing in 16 hours rather than doing the necessary, hard work to come to an agreement. Kissinger spent years working towards peace. Vance and his team couldn't spend more than a day working on it.

The only conclusion can be that the U.S. doesn't really want peace. $100/barrel oil serves the people who funded Trump's campaign. For the U.S., it's always about money or oil. And in this case, it's about both. Unfortunately, the world gets to pay the price again for U.S. hegemony.