Finian Cunningham
Europe's cynicism is dripping as thick as its sycophancy.
The sycophantic European leaders laid it on thick last week to ingratiate themselves with Trump. France's Macon hosted the American president at Versailles Palace for a candlelit dinner following the G7 summit. At Versailles, Trump signed the newly hatched so-called peace framework to end the war with Iran.
Appropriately enough, the signing was conducted solely by Trump in the chateau's fabulously ornate Hall of Mirrors. There were no Iranian officials at Versailles.
It was a PR stunt designed to lend gravitas to Trump's supposed peace deal with Iran. In reality, his war on Iran is a debacle for Trump's presidency and U.S. global standing. Thus, the pomp and splendor of the Versailles Palace was tantamount to putting lipstick on a pig. Macron obliged because, for the Europeans, the more important issue was getting Trump back in line with prosecuting the proxy war against Russia.
In a joint statement, the G7 leaders contrived a congratulatory tone: "We welcome the announcement of a deal between the United States and Iran, secured under the strong leadership of President Trump."
This portrayed Trump as a hero who had provided "an historic opportunity to prevent Iran from acquiring any nuclear weapon and tackling the threats related to its regional and ballistic activities." Trump was also praised for "the resumption of maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz."
The G7 statement is an audacious inversion of reality. Trump should be condemned as a criminal for launching a war of aggression, killing over 3,000 Iranians, and plunging the Middle East into chaos, threatening the world economy and global food production. And to top it all, Iran is standing as strong as it ever was before the latest war was launched on February 28.
What the Europeans are after is Trump's compliance with their fanatical proxy war agenda against Russia. Because Trump lost the war against Iran in such spectacular fashion, he is amenable to their supplication to get back to supporting the Ukrainian regime.
The main topic of the G7 summit in France last week was uniting the U.S. with Europe to ramp up the war on Russia. The outlook is ominous.
Last summer, when Trump hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, the American leader appeared interested in ending the conflict in Ukraine. This shift caused major alarm among the European NATO partners, who decried Trump's diplomacy with Moscow.
For the past few months, the European leaders have sought to go it alone by supporting Ukraine with a €90 billion loan and supplying weapons that they have bought from the U.S.
Still, the Europeans knew they couldn't replace the United States as the primary military sponsor of the Kiev regime. Trump's talk about getting Russia and Ukraine to the negotiating table to address "root causes" was anathema to Russophobic Europeans.
The irony is that due to Trump's disastrous failure against Iran, he is now more amenable to European persuasion. At the G7 summit last year, Trump did not even stay to the end, leaving it derisively and refusing to sign a joint statement. This year, however, Trump was more circumspect and added his signature to the final communique. His less abrasive manner is because his "deal" with Iran is an embarrassment from the American point of view.
The fanfare that the G7 laid on and the pomp of Versailles were calculated acts by the Europeans to stroke Trump's ego.
Trump returned the favor by taking a tougher stance towards Russia. He will also need the Europeans to salvage his mess with Iran by helping to open the Strait of Hormuz and get the oil flowing again. Trump admitted that emergency stockpiles of oil were four to five weeks from running empty, and that's why he needed to stop the war with Iran.
The G7 statement leads off with: "We, the leaders of the G7, stand united in our unwavering support for Ukraine in defending its freedom, sovereignty, and territorial integrity."
Trump has dropped the pretense of finding a peace deal in Ukraine and has rejoined the NATO agenda of war with Russia.
He backs the European calls to ramp up economic sanctions against Russia's oil and energy industries. This comes as European NATO states increase the seizure of Russian oil tankers in international waters.
More ominously, the U.S. and the Europeans have agreed to expand supplies of long-range weapons to Ukraine for strikes deep inside Russia.
"To support and accelerate this new momentum, we agree to increase the delivery of air-defence capacities, additional systems and interceptors, and long-range capabilities. We are also ready to consider extending to Ukraine the benefit of licenses to allow for an increase in Ukraine's military production," said the G7 leaders.
This is a call to put the war on an even greater industrial scale.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he was "grateful" to Trump for his cooperation to grant U.S. licenses to Europeans and Ukraine for local production of American weapons systems. Merz added: "We are currently producing too little, and this can be compensated for by [the U.S.] granting licenses to companies that have these capacities, including European and Ukrainian companies."
France's Macron said he was pleased by "a very deep change in the U.S. approach towards Ukraine," claiming that Trump now understood that Putin is not serious about peace. Macron added: "President Trump, like all of us, simply acknowledged that there was no serious willingness on Russia's part to discuss peace."
Europe's cynicism is dripping as thick as its sycophancy. The European leaders claim to support peace in the Middle East by fawning over a war criminal whom they are cajoling to ramp up the war against Russia... because the latter is "not interested in peace."
This is Orwellian on steroids. Peace means war.