Author: Cozmin Gușă
Donald Trump sent his warplanes into Iran last night, claiming that they struck three Iranian nuclear facilities — Isfahan, Fordow, and Natanz — and then reported to the world, in a 4-minute speech, that: “Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier.” He was flanked by Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Pentagon Chief Pete Hegseth, all three with cadaverous faces, a sign that even they understood the horror they’re being forced to endorse. And of course, immediately after Trump’s operation and statement, the leader of the Senate Democrats, Chuck Schumer, called for a full parliamentary session to determine that Trump had acted illegally and in an extremely dangerous way for U.S. security. He demanded that the War Powers Act — the 50-year-old resolution which prohibits any American president from engaging the country in war without Congressional approval — be put into debate. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also came out against Trump, stating that “this conflict is now spinning out of control with catastrophic consequences for the region, civilians, and the world.”
On the Iranian side, there have been no official reports yet on the damage caused by the strike, but this morning Israel was hit by a volley of powerful Iranian projectiles, and footage of the resulting destruction is already circulating on social media. A senior advisor to Ayatollah Khamenei has further demanded that the U.S. fleet in the region be urgently targeted, and that the Strait of Hormuz be closed to American, French, British, and German ships. Simultaneously, while Americans sleep, U.S. armed forces and intelligence services in all coastal states have gone to maximum alert, expecting Iranian counterattacks on U.S. soil — in short, they too are now in a full war alert posture.
From Israel, the praise has poured in for Trump’s “bold action,” as Bibi Netanyahu, Trump’s partner in wrongdoing, called it. Netanyahu also claimed that last night’s operation will change history. I agree with his statement, just not with his intended meaning. Russia and China, Iran’s protectors, have explicitly and officially warned Trump not to involve the U.S. military in the war. Putin even revealed that Russia had approved military support for Iran if needed, which Iran has declined for now. Xi Jinping reiterated days ago that China stands against the U.S. and in solidarity with Iran, alongside Russia.
What Putin and Xi have not said publicly is that in recent months, they decided to ease off the gas pedal of global dedollarization — precisely to give Trump a chance to patch up the serious wounds of America’s ailing and chaotic economy. Dedollarization would otherwise bring it crashing down quickly. (To clarify what I mean, I’ll tell you that at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum over the past four days, Putin’s people signed economic contracts worth about 10 trillion rubles — around $1.2 trillion — and future transactions will, of course, not be conducted in dollars, but in rubles, yuan, or other currencies.) It was this temporary leniency on dedollarization, for which Trump seemed grateful, that led to the Putin–Trump understandings on the Ukraine war. These agreements involved a peace deal and ceding control of the Black Sea to Russia. In addition, serious talks had begun between the U.S. and China to de-escalate the economic war between the two superpowers.
But let me briefly explain the economic stake Russia and China have in Iran — beyond war or religious considerations. It’s already known that Iran is a key node in the new Silk Road — evidenced by the nearly completed railway linking China to Iran. But geopoliticians also know that Putin and Xi have selected Tehran to serve as a new logistical hub for the Eurasian world, a pivotal geoeconomic center designed to decisively counterbalance U.S. influence in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. So beyond peace and world order, Russia and China have massive economic interests tied to Iran — and it’s clear they will now mobilize heavily, because they’ve already invested too much there.
That’s how you begin to understand the strategic ambition behind Eurasianism — which aims to create the most prosperous and secure economic–military bloc in the world, one that ultimately stretches from Vladivostok to the Atlantic, across Asia and Europe. In this blueprint, the United States is left with influence over the Americas — North and South — and maybe Greenland and the remaining members of the Five Eyes (Australia, New Zealand, perhaps the UK), but only on the condition that it abides by the agreements and is geoeconomically capable of managing its designated sphere. Africa and the Arctic are not yet included in the consolidated plan — they’re currently labeled Terra Nova or Terra Promesa.
After last night’s stunt, Trump has shown Putin and Xi that he’s ready to unilaterally break the plan, something that, at this level of geopolitical arrangement, is not permitted to anyone — least of all to the U.S., which has lost its status as “global policeman” and economic leader. Trump now comes off as unserious, unstable, and irresponsible, and to the other two leaders, Putin and Xi, as a gambler who pushes the stakes even though everyone at the table knows he doesn’t have the winning cards.
Now my editorial yesterday about Trump’s Manneken Pis image (the little statue boy who pees into the water basin) becomes even clearer (Gușă: The Putin–Xi duo has undermined Trump through an asymmetric geopolitical strategy. “CHESS and GO” versus the “irresponsible fanfare” of the Trump–Bibi pair aka the Manneken Pis-like duo!). I’m being ironic, but believe me, it’s close to the truth in Trump’s case, who just turned 79. It’s obvious he wanted to show that he doesn’t have prostatitis, that his urine flow is normal, but to me, after what he did last night, he just proved that he’s stupid. His and America’s tragedy is that soon even his own supporters, including the Jews, will realize it
