JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: WHAT CANADA'S TRUDEAU IS SUPPOSED TO LEARN FROM MACRON'S G-7 INITIATIVE CONCERNING IRAN - THE REALITIES OF MACRON'S LIMITS AS A STATESMAN - IRAN AND TRUMP AND WHY THERE IS HATRED THAT WILL NOT GO AWAY - THE HYPE VERSUS THE UGLY REALITIES OF JUSTIN TRUDEAU'S FOREIGN POLICY - CHRYSTIA FREELAND, CANADA's TRULY UNPLEASANT FACE ON THE WORLD

John Chuckman

EXPANSION OF COMMENTS POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY MURRAY BREWSTER IN CBC NEWS



“How Macron gave Trump — and Trudeau — a lesson in the uses of power

Macron's intervention between the U.S. and Iran was an example of practical diplomacy in action”



https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/g7-macron-trump-trudeau-iran-1.5263474



While I applaud Macron's effort, I think it pretty much was dead on arrival.

That should not surprise because Macron, on a whole range of matters, has failed as an effective statesman, despite the manicured looks and high-blown way of speaking with echoes of prestigious French post-secondary education.

Trump's reasons for being so intensely hostile to Iran have nothing to do with anything Iran has done, and they certainly have nothing to do with France. Trump cannot relent because he is paying a "quid pro quo" for support to keep him in office, support received in the United States from powerful oligarchs.

As far as Iran's position, it is straightforward and realistic. Remove the sanctions, and we can talk, talk as equal states, not as master and servant.

In recent days, Iran’s admirably eloquent Foreign Minister, Mohammad Zarif, has been referring to America’s illegal sanctions as “economic terrorism.” You would be hard put to come up with a more apt description of them.

Iran has always been willing to talk to the United States. However, they are not willing to talk with guns pointed at them. And how can you open a negotiation about anything when the other party has just broken its solemn word on the last important agreement you negotiated? It isn’t even reasonable to expect anyone to do that, but who ever accused Donald Trump of being reasonable?

Or, in an even more extreme case, the man who actually sets the pace for Trump’s chaotic behavior towards Iran, Israel’s Netanyahu.

It is almost inconceivable that Trump will remove sanctions. They result from his personal need conceived of as national policy, a policy completely at odds with the genuine long-term interests of the United States, interests which absolutely include good relations with a very large and important country.

But an extremely narcissistic man like Trump magnifies personal need into something unrecognizably greater than what it is, like a bizarre parody of the Roman Catholic doctrine of Transubstantiation which says the wafer and wine during Mass become Christ’s actual flesh and blood. He does truly see himself as indispensable, although we have yet to see a single instance of that except in the generation of confusion.

The American sanctions are illegal and completely unwarranted - Iran always met its obligations under the nuclear treaty Trump impulsively tore up with no regard for the concerns of the treaty’s many other important signatories.

Also, the talks Trump wants, appear to have an agenda way beyond the 4-year old nuclear treaty. That agenda appears to be about Iran giving up its important missile-development program, and nothing on earth could make Iran do that.

Iran has now shown dramatically, in at least two incidents during America's campaign of intimidation and threats, just how important its missile development is. One of these was the downing of America's largest and most advanced drone as it entered Iranian air space at night with its transponders illegally turned off.

America's threat with a naval armada has also been affected by Iran's missiles. The aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln is staying about 600 miles away from the Strait of Hormuz. Why? Iran’s anti-ship missiles line its coast.

Iran also has plans for space, and why shouldn't it have? That’s every country’s prerogative and represents important future ways for doing a great many things we now do on earth.

They'd be insane to concede to Trump’s arbitrary demands in this area.

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Now, as far as Trudeau, the hoped-for beneficiary of presumed wisdom from Macron, goes…

"Many of you have worried that Canada has lost its compassionate and constructive voice in the world over the past 10 years.

"Well, I have a simple message for you. On behalf of 35 million Canadians, we're back."   Justin Trudeau after his election.

That quote actually made me a little queasy.

Constructive voice back? Just where do we see that?

Supporting Saudi Arabia and selling them weapons to use in Yemen and to put down domestic dissent?

Supporting America's ugly campaign against a twice-elected President in Venezuela?

Adding to America’s new pressures against Cuba, a country with which Trudeau’s father, Pierre, had formed a special relationship decades ago?

Sending tanks to the Baltic states to butt up against Russia’s border for no conceivable reason beyond America’s efforts at intimidation?

Sending a warship into Russia’s “backyard,” the Black Sea, for no good reason?

Sending a warship through the Taiwan Strait, an act guaranteed to offend China?

Arresting a high-level Chinese executive on American say-so, the same America pursuing a massive, multi-front trade war against China, one having no purpose beyond trying to extract unearned special trade benefits for itself?

Supporting the horribly incompetent and corrupt Poroshenko government in the Ukraine? A government which, among its list of sins, supported outfits like the genuinely neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, effectively incorporating it into the national armed forces? And a government which made no effort at all to make peace in Eastern Ukraine and embrace the solution to that conflict set out clearly in the Minsk Accords?

Oh, I could list more, but you can see what an impressive record it has been.

Even appointing someone with the views and attitudes of Chrystia Freeland to be our Foreign Minister and represent us in the world? She is, quite literally, Stephen Harper redux.

See:

https://chuckmanwordsincomments.wordpress.com/2019/07/14/john-chuckman-comment-what-every-canadian-should-know-about-canada-foreign-minister-chrystia-freeland-and-what-justin-trudeaus-sad-legacy-as-prime-minister-will-be/

Oh, and there’s that stunning instance of Trudeau’s suddenly flying down to Washington to plead with Trump for help with China. Yes, that’s right, Donald Trump, undoubtedly the single most hated man in all of China, someone literally enjoying a status about the equivalent of a housebreaker with a loud foul mouth? And our leader judged that as something worth doing? What can you say about such astounding naiveté and just plain ignorance?

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Response to a comment which insisted Trudeau’s government had spoken out about Saudi Arabia:

Just silly.

There was the tiff over a Freeland remark about women. And Trudeau and Freeland scurried quickly away even from that.

Nothing of substance. Substance, as in Saudi Arabia’s many war crimes, its mass killing, and its use of capital punishment on teenagers? Nothing at all.

Indeed, that tiff was actually a bit of gong show so people back home who do not follow events more closely could say things like you've just said.

And I've seen photos on the Internet that sure look like the light tank/armored cars we keep selling the Crown Prince, photos of them serving in Yemen.