 "Shadow Warrior | What Zelensky’s debacle says about US’ newfound clarity")
The tongue-lashing received by Vladimir Zelensky in the Oval Office, in full view of the media, was a point of inflection. It highlighted something that we had suspected: the end of the ‘European Century’ (or two or three), wherein they had risen to be the Masters of the Universe. Trump is emphasising that the Atlantic was a 19th-century story; with the rise of the US, the Pacific was the story of the 20th century; and the 21st finds the Indian Ocean rising.
Zelensky’s debacle was not the only pointer: Keir Starmer of the UK, despite some polite talk about the mythical ‘special relationship’, was told sharply by Vance that there is no more free speech in the UK and that it affects American technology companies and citizens. Let us remember also how Elon Musk lambasted the UK for its Pakistani rape gangs and the limp-wristed reaction of its authorities. Trump also told Starmer, “That’s enough!” while the British PM was responding to a question related to the issue of Canada.
THAT WAS BRUTAL!!! 😂
— George (@BehizyTweets) February 27, 2025
Keir Starmer: "You mentioned Canada. I think you [the press] are trying to find a divide between us that doesn't exist. We're the closest of nations, and we had very good discussions today, but we..."
President Trump: THAT'S ENOUGH. pic.twitter.com/uHXO3ZRGE5
JD Vance, again, spoke some home truths to the Europeans at the Munich Security Conference, telling them their problems are homegrown: excessive migration, lack of democratic values, and censorship.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsAll this is shocking to the supercilious elites of Europe, who are now seeing their cosy world collapse in front of their eyes: no more free-loading, no more Uncle Sam to the rescue. Suddenly, NATO is meaningless, and decades of Greta Thunberg and V-Dem-style lecturing and pontification are coming back to bite them on the backside.
They must be recalling William Blake’s apocalyptic vision in The Second Coming. Their world is indeed falling apart.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
It’s hard to blame the Europeans. They have forgotten how it was only yesterday, as it were, that they were being hounded by the Barbary pirates, enslaved and turned into janissaries by the Turks. I read how the author of Don Quixote had been himself captured, enslaved for five years, and ransomed in 1580 for 300 gold coins, worth some $40,000 today.
The European Century has made Europeans, and us, Fourth Worlders, or those formerly colonised by them (as VS Naipaul put it), forget that Europe is just a backwater, a mere peninsula, an appendage, to Asia. It is now reverting to just “Northwest Asia”. For most of recorded history, Europe was an uncivilised land of savages; it was only the lucky accident of the Industrial Revolution that gave it the wherewithal to dominate the world.
But that is in the past: the economic centre of gravity of the world has indeed moved from the Atlantic to Asia.
The illusion that America is obligated to support Europe, and also to fight Russia to the bitter end as part of the Cold War, was nurtured by Atlanticist Eastern Europeans exercised by an age-old blood feud: that between the Russian Orthodox Church on the one hand and Catholics and other Protestant churches on the other hand.
Those certainties are now falling by the wayside, as Trump pivots to the Pacific and Indian Oceans, as well as back to isolationist Fortress America. As Zelensky did mention in his tirade, America has the good fortune to have two oceans around it, a serious moat.
The US has been gaslighted for a long time by supercilious Europeans, most especially the mischief-makers at the UK’s Whitehall (who are the real Deep State). But that’s wearing off, and the blinkers are falling from their eyes. Sadly for Zelensky, he will be the first one affected by this newfound clarity.
Zelensky also made several rookie mistakes. First, you don’t go to your benefactor’s lair (i.e. the US Oval Office) dressed in a sweatshirt. Second, you don’t talk over Trump. Third, when English is your second language, you might miss the nuances of “you don’t hold any cards”, for instance. Fourth, and most importantly, you don’t trust Starmer, Macron, etc, and take up cudgels with Trump.
The near-simultaneous “toolkit” tweets from a lot of EU grandees suggest they gaslighted Zelensky into his suicidal bit of bravado against Trump in the Oval Office. They used the exact same words! And Trump doesn’t take slights lightly.
"Be strong, be brave, be fearless" simul-tweets from European Union affliated institutions.
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) February 28, 2025
👉Ursula von der Leyen, President of EU Commission.
👉Roberta Metsola, President of EU Parliament.
👉Antonio Costa, President of European Council.
👉Valdis Dombrovskis, EU Commission,… pic.twitter.com/gbCYOCD6BI
The implications are dire. The Ukraine War is as good as over because the Europeans alone cannot (or will not) supply Zelensky with enough weaponry to hold off Russia indefinitely. The most likely outcome is a ceasefire followed by a standstill agreement: what Ukrainian territory Russia currently holds it will continue to hold; Ukraine will be de jure partitioned. The rest is negotiable.
If the Europeans had any sense, they would patch up with Russia. NATO as we know it will come to an end, and EU+Russia is a pretty powerful force, and neither will have to kowtow to China. With the US out of the picture, the divided EU and Russia will both fall into the dhritarashtra alinganam of sweet-talking China. To their ultimate detriment, of course.
It is good to contrast Trump’s treatment of all these Europeans with his much gentler treatment of both the Japanese PM Shigeru Ishiba and the Indian PM Narendra Modi, both Quad partners. He was polite and businesslike with them. Also, when a reporter asked about AUKUS, the brain-dead partnership with the UK that Biden dragged another Quad partner, Australia, into, his response was: “What’s that?”
There were early glimpses of a Trump foreign policy taking shape, as I mentioned in two prior columns: Chronicles of a Foreign Policy Foretold and Trump’s America and Modi’s India. Now things are clearer: there’s a new Sheriff in town, and things are going to be different. But, William Blake notwithstanding, it’s not the end of the world. We will all carry on.
The writer has been a conservative columnist for over 25 years. His academic interest is innovation. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
