Imperial Games

Nora Hoppe 

Source: Al Mayadeen English

… and a reshuffling of the cards

"You don't have the cards right now!", Wheeler-Dealer Trump informed the no longer useful, wretched pawn during the gladiatorial humiliation act in the Oval Office (a micro Circus Maximus).

What the imperial gladiator perhaps did not reckon with was a bit of pushback from the suddenly "patriotic" pawn the Empire thought it owned. Moreover, this arrogant underling also dared to ignore the dress code of the Circus Maximus. (On a side note: but wasn't his outfit the brainchild of some propaganda design company from Hollywood intent on making him look like an American Marvel hero?) Thus, in some ways, there seemed to be a reciprocal humiliation. But the pawn's contemptuous moves turned out to be in the Empire's favour, giving it an advance to the next stage of the rigged match: No deal with the pawn… and a reshuffling of the cards.

This extravagant circus act was followed up by another, yet less flamboyant spectacle, across a large pool of water, in London. This was not gladiatorial entertainment, but rather a woeful melodrama sketch – a hastily cobbled together "European Security Summit", which posed as "the good parent" of the victimised pawn. Here the wretched pawn was passed around to various elite leaders - even to an ostensibly "extraneous" king - for cheek kisses. And here the drums for a larger (and self-serving) war in the pawn's patch of land were beaten by the unelected president of the European Commission in her frenzied call to "Urgently Arm Europe".

That counterplay turned out to be yet another advantage for the Empire in the New Great Game. Because contender Trump has been planning all along to beat a quick retreat from the losing side and to let the spineless vassals deal with the coming humiliation and their subsequent downfall. No Afghanistan 2.0 during his term.

Some have indicated that the points Trump seems to feel he has won during the gladiatorial event will give him an advantage in his negotiations with the (possibly "former") opponent, Russia, on the playing field – to make the sudden pass seem acceptable and to gain bonuses in the form of valuable resources… This and some delusively anticipated concessions from Russia would seem to be the deal that the Wheeler-Dealer and his backers believe will be clinched with President Putin to safeguard the primacy of the Hegemon.

On to the other games and deals…

On the domestic front there are the auxiliary games one might call "Tariff Tussle", "Immigrants Out" and "Clean the Cupboards"… They are all in progress to Make America Great Again. However, unbeknownst to the players, who deal little with reality, rebounds and boomerangs are likely to enter the field.

And then in preparation is the major "Techno face-off" with the Hegemon's most formidable opponent, China. That will be the Real War – which is still in the wings, so far. Because, one thing is for sure, the Hegemon will not tolerate a rival, and China has dared to become one! But this is not a source of concern for the Empire which feels it is invincible.

Oh, and in case you have forgotten…

For those already enthusiastic about the ostensible Trump Turnabout in Ukraine and his targeted "détente" with Russia, for those suddenly believing he is a "Man of Peace"… have they forgotten his lavish support of psychopathic Netanyahu (on 1^st March, the US delivered 4 billion dollars to the genocidal Zionist entity)? Have they forgotten his gift of bombs with a particularly high destructive potential to unleash a new hell upon Palestine?

It is easy for anyone to despise the mollycoddled, snooty, decadent European elites… but many seem to remain bedazzled by the wholesome, gritty, yet gosh-wow simplehearted John Wayne character, even when he has cheated and backstabbed them many times over.

Trump may not come off as dissolute and degenerate as Biden & Co., and it cannot be denied that he has an "interesting" character, but… firstly, he has not shown himself to be particularly interested in human beings but in games, deals, money, real estate and winning… and, secondly, he is, like all US presidents, just a player in a four-year term, securing the façade for the major corporations really running the show. The Deep State will always be there, and, as an entity composed of individuals and various big business consortiums, well, it, too, can at times be divided: some of its members simply got stuck in the past and bet on a losing horse (i.e. beating Russia), while others have sniffed the winds of change and shifted their sights on a new, more promising game in the offing: the Techno Tournament… which will have the Hegemon change its gameboard from a woke neoliberal pseudo-democracy to a neoliberal techno-feudalocracy, as aptly described here by geopolitical analyst Pepe Escobar.

“America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests.” - Henry Kissinger

And yet, with this shift in interests, there are some who actually now believe the US will abdicate its position of hegemony to become a "normal major world power". One opinion piece – I assume and hope it is facetious – entitled "8 Reasons why the SCO [Shanghai Corporation Organisation] could be a better deal for America" ... evokes the famous German phrase: "Den Bock zum Gärtner machen" – whose English equivalent would be: "to have the fox guard the henhouse" or "to let an inmate run the asylum" or "to set the cat amongst the pigeons."

Again, Trump may have reshuffled the cards, but the deck remains the same. Because he is only a player and only has the deck that the House (the Deep State) has given him (and then, can one really expect that primed cardsharpers would play with unmarked cards?).

And to those who simply believe that his changing of the gameboard from "woke" to supposedly "conservative-traditional" is a complete game-changer that has transformed the entire system of values of the US back to its "original ideals", one can only ask: What were those ideals, and what are these new values?

They could be summed up in these words: "The Trump Gaza Riviera Resort & Casino". A good example of the American Dream.

Because Trump is a product of his homeland, the Promised Land, an offshoot of the British Empire and its imperial mentality, founded on colonialism, expansion, land expropriation, plunder, supremacy, genocide and slavery.

And despite a handful of noble-minded individuals throughout its history who tried in vain to change its course, the US will always remain the indispensable, exceptional, exclusive nation, and it will always follow its inherent path – of Manifest Destiny – otherwise… it will simply cease to be.

So, is Trump's America First the answer to a better world?

The big questions remaining for every single human being in the Global Majority, watching these Imperial Games are: Are we, too, playing along in these games? Do we want imperialism, do we want colonialism, do we want a rapacious economic system? Can we live with a genocide? What are the values we hold sacred?

And we might do well to recall the fable, The Scorpion and the Frog… to remind ourselves of the intrinsic nature of things and beings.