Terrified

There are different levels of terror, for example apprehension is less than fright, which in turn is less than scared. I was thirteen when I recall being between scared and terrified. At my school, boxing was compulsory and for three days before my first fight, I was struck by terror. I won but lost the next one badly. Thank heavens, it was the end of my fight career. Since then, there have been occasions when I have gone through one or more stages of terror but most related to family and health issues.

As I look at the world scene, I am between scared and terrified again. In Germany, Alternative for Germany, an extreme right wing party, achieved 13% of the vote in the recent elections. In Austria, a new Chancellor has been elected on a right wing ticket, targeting immigrants. In UK, the Conservatives hold a fingernail hold on Parliament and could lose a vote of confidence any time. Jeremy Corbyn might sit in No 10 Downing Street before the summer. His extreme left wing ideology is supported by thousands of members of the Labour Momentum grassroots movement who will be at the forefront to put radical Labour into government. Why does this scare me? Labour has a substantial anti-semitic element which the leadership allows to do its ugly work.

In Spain, Catalonia has sought independence, based on an unlawful referendum which attracted a minority population turnout. Catalonian leaders called for talks. The Spanish government in Madrid replied by taking power in Catalonia and a demonstration in Barcelona last weekend showed that many Catalonians do not want independence. However, there are parallels with 1936 and the Spanish Civil War, when Catalonia aligned itself with the legitimate government from whom it expected to achieve independence. But so did the right wing Basques. Spain has a history of putting down rebellions in the harshest way. Imprisoning most of the Catalonian leadership on remand bodes ill.

The Middle East and Asian wars continue to rage in Palestine, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and who knows where else in the near future. Israel is always on a war footing. Surely it is just a matter of time before the Saudi regime collapses. Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union has left all manner of issues and people in limbo. At the moment, the negotiators are conducting economic warfare. The 27 EU countries are demanding billions of Euros from the British as the price of divorce. All parties seem to think an intransigent stance is the right way to go and no need to keep in mind the future of 500 million people. It is not the hugest stretch moving from the current economic war to the real thing.

Recently, Secretary of State Tillerson worked on opening a dialogue with the North Korean regime. The President declared publicly that he should not waste his time. I would not object so much to the crass, undiplomatic war of words between Trump and Kim Jon-Un, otherwise known as Rocket Man, if it were not for the fact that both have nuclear weapons at their disposal. Why is it that the world elects or allows men who lead their countries to behave like nutcases?

The first side effect of the North Korean crisis is Japan, whose recently re-elected Prime Minister wants to change his country’s pacifism policy and increase the armed forces and its weapons. I do not choose to insult Japanese people. Indeed, those I’ve met over the years have been delightful. But I don’t forget how they behaved in Manchuria in the late 1930s and, of course in Burma in World War II.

What of America? I could well be wrong about the difficulties in which the current administration may find itself but I have been writing for many weeks that the President’s future rests with the Mueller investigation into Russian interference with the 2016 election. In the film, Wag the Dog, a beleaguered President starts a foreign war to get the American people united and on his side. The rhetoric between Trump and Rocket Man blows hot and cold but should it resume with raised stakes, it might be because Mueller is getting too close to Mr Trump.

For the last few weeks, Trump has sent an extraordinary fusillade of angry tweets about the investigation into possible ties between his election campaign and Russia, amid reports that the special counsel leading the inquiry was making the first arrests. In a series of tweets, Trump referenced what he called “phony Trump/Russia ‘collusion’ which doesn’t exist”, accusing Democrats of a “witch hunt” and “evil politics”, before adding that Republicans were “fighting back like never before”. He laso asks Mueller, “what about crooked Hillary?”

US intelligence agencies concluded almost a year ago that Russia interfered in the election to try to help Trump defeat Clinton by hacking and releasing embarrassing emails and disseminating propaganda via social media to discredit her. Mueller is also investigating whether Trump campaign officials colluded with those Russian efforts. The investigation has been circling some of Trump’s closest confidants, such as former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Former campaign manager Paul Manafort and his business associate, Rick Gates, have been charged on twelve counts including conspiracy against the United States, money laundering and tax fraud. George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign adviser, has entered a guilty plea for lying about contacts with the Russians.

Mueller is conducting a classic enquiry. Start with people on the outside, charge them and see who or what they will give up for a deal to save themselves. Trump knows this, so little wonder that he and his supporters have disparaged Mueller and tried to portray him as a Clinton sympathiser, as well as a fan of James Comey, the FBI chief fired by Trump. Mueller will run for months, not weeks, and at some stage, I suspect Congress will weigh in with its own enquiry. If there is just a whiff of collusion by the President, the American government may well be brought to a standstill.

In the meantime, the warring ideology of world leaders is frightening me. I am not terrified yet but I know how quickly a political situation can evolve into fighting. I keep saying to myself, “war is diplomacy by other means” and as Churchill said, “jaw, jaw, jaw is better than war, war, war.” I just hope my assessment of the world situation is wrong. However, one phrase that sends a chill up my spine is ‘Make America Great Again.’ I cannot forget that just a few decades ago, Adolph Hitler exhorted his fellow countrymen, ‘Make Germany Great Again.’