It is not merely Michael Wolff’s book ‘Fire and Fury’ that has put a serious question mark on Donald Trump’s mental stability, the questions otherwise abound. It has come to a state where the man holding the most powerful position on planet earth—the American presidency tweets a foreign policy statement on Pakistan at 4 A.M on new year’s day-first January 2018. Thus 2018 started, as 2017 ended, with worldwide concerns multiplying on US president. Trump’s tweeter statement carried Pakistan giving Washington,” nothing but lies and deceit” while taking 33 billion dollars in US funds to combat terrorism. Further the tweet implied Pakistan taking US leaders to be fools, and threatened that US will, ”no more” be taken in. In effect, it meant cutting off the US funds for the present, and making funding conditional on Pakistan’s willingness to, ”do more.” ‘Do more’ has become the catchphrase in Pak-US diplomatic lexicon. And, of late, ‘no more’ is being added to it. Days before Trump’s ‘no more’ Major General Asif Ghafoor, spokesman of Inter-services public relations (ISPR) of Pakistan had stated, ‘no more’ effectively meaning that Pakistan will do, ‘no more’. The statement implied that Pakistan has done enough.
Tweeter diplomacy has come to replace the communication via traditional diplomatic channels. And, in effect it does not leave room for backtracking or manoeuvring within the given diplomatic space. And, it is increasingly threatening global peace. It is not only Pakistan which is coming on Trump’s twitter radar, but North Korea and Iran as well. North Korean leader–Kim Jhong Yun is named names, ‘little rocket man’. The little rocket man is calling spade a spade. He is quite a match for Trump’s fire and fury. The net effect of word for word, name for name is making planet earth a dangerous place to live in. Given North Korea’s increasing nuclear arsenal, and, the ability to deliver nuclear warheads by ICBM’s to American mainland, the stakes are heightening. North Korea leaving a window of opportunity open by offering talks to South Korea across 24th parallel-the border line across two Koreas is poor consolation. Trump’s fire and fury though might have been tampered lately by some sane advice to keep diplomatic options open. It is always wise to retrace from the brink.
Trump’s twitter diplomacy extends to openly encouraging dissidents in Iran. Iran constitutes another blind spot. And that is true from day one of Trump presidency, in fact it dates back to Trump’s presidential campaign days. In his noted fire and fury, he called into question the agreement reached between P+1 implying global powers–five permanent UN security council members—US, UK, France, Russia, China plus Germany and Iran after painstaking negotiations. Trump wants a reversal of the agreement. The agreement implies nuclear rollback by Iran in return for softening sanctions. Iran yielded as its economy was badly hit. Economic slump has resulted in hitting vulnerable sections of Iranian society, hence the protest that erupted during last week with 20 plus deaths. Trump intervening with open support has in effect resulted in dissidence being seen as western inspired instead of having a genuine domestic factor. It has given the Iranian regime the room to forcefully enforce the writ of the state by alleging foreign hand. The net result is thus the reverse of what Trump wants to achieve by open hostility to Iranian regime. The outfall gets beyond Iranian borders, as Iranian and Pakistani defence ministers exchange notes on cooperation in a relationship which has been far from cordial on many counts. Effect multiplies as regional countries—Pakistan, Iran, Turkey with Russia and China are seen closing ranks against fire and fury of Donald Trump.
Donald Trump’s impulsive nature is being increasingly questioned. And, it is no surprise that it is figuring in the political literature of US within just a year of Trump’s presidential term. It would be quite interesting to get your hands on Michael Wolff’s book, aptly captioned ‘Fire and Fury’ on the basis of an opinion formed on getting excerpts of the book on international media. It is indeed frightening to note that many in US administration are serving the president to save America and in fact the globe from his fire and fury. The excerpts reveal severe idiosyncrasies in matters personal relating to Trump household and more important the matters of state. The book, it is noted makes out that the firing of James Comey, former director of the F.B.I. resulted from Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner being “increasingly panicked” and “frenzied” about what Comey would find if he looked into the family finances, which is incriminating but unsurprising. It is noted that Trump took the decision to fire James Comey on his own by deciding to take matters into his own hands. It reflects that the tendency to act on his own could have serious consequences, if Trump were to take the same approach toward ordering the bombing of North Korea?
From Treasury Secretary–Steven Mnuchin, Reince Priebus– the former chief of staff, media mogul–Rupert Murdoch calling Trump an “idiot” to Trump’s chief economic adviser, Gary Cohn, comparing his boss’s intelligence to excrement and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson calling him a “moron,” the derogatory labelling multiplies by the day. And, it reflects poorly on the man occupying the White House and ruling from the oval office.
Yaar Zinda, Sohbat Baqi [Reunion is subordinate to survival]
Iqbal.javid46@gmail.com