Putin, Trump and Netanyahu: Image from Original FB post.
Trump’s Iran War has turned into a frozen fiasco. American motorists face steadily rising costs of fuel. Many retail prices are also rising as the now closed Persian Gulf causes commodity prices to mount. The Jeffery Epstein scandal, which lies at the heart of the Persian Gulf war, is beginning to break out into the open. The Trump administration just spent $20 billion to try to distract attention from it.
What does Trump do? He blames Germany for being soft on what he calls terrorism. This from the man who authorized his Israeli ally to kill over 79,000 West Bank Arabs and killed thousands of Iranians in recent weeks. Germany, thunders Trump, is ‘soft’ on military matters and only interested in playing footsie with wicked Muslims. The US, says Trump, is doing Europe a huge favor by stationing over 80,000 troops in Europe. He’s been claiming this for a long time. As I’ve written in the past, Trump simply does not understand the nature of geopolitics. Why should he? Trump used to renovate old hotels and run beauty pageants. The trembling yes-men who surround him dare not contradict their leader, who styles himself a ‘unique genius.’
Trump views Europeans as cowardly, miserly weaklings sponging off the overly generous USA. What would-be world overlord Trump does not at all understand is that domination of Europe is the basic building block of America’s world imperium.
Today, eighty-one years after US armies stormed into Germany, the US maintains some 100,000 troops in Europe. The official reason is to prevent Russia from invading Europe. A constant drumbeat of propaganda accuses Moscow of getting ready to grab chunks of Europe. This is untrue. President Putin is vilified as an archdemon, thanks in large part to highly effective British-US propaganda.
The Russians are not innocent angels. Their ghastly Stalinist regime murdered millions of innocent people, including at least 5 million Ukrainian farmers. British propaganda has long tried to obscure the crimes of Stalinist Russia – a close Russian ally in WWII - by focusing attention and outrage on Germany’s National Socialist regime. This pattern continues today. We hear endlessly about Auschwitz but next to nothing about the more deadly Soviet Gulag system or death camps like Magadan or Vorkuta.
Today’s Russians are unlikely to contemplate invading Western Europe. The war in Ukraine is a one-off event that was ignited by western bungling and cupidity. Russia’s once mighty Red Army has been fought to a standstill by the amateur Ukrainian army - albeit with huge western support. Moscow is lucky to hold on to the slivers of land it has taken from the self-declared Ukrainian state. Meanwhile, the western powers are busy trying to promote secession in the rest of Russia’s lands.
Putin is not Stalin. Today’s Russia has little of its the power of the mighty Soviet Union. Stalin’s Soviet Union fielded over 12 million men and a sea of tanks and artillery. Today, Russia refurbishes old tanks and hires mercenaries from North Korea.
Polls show Europeans have little fear of Moscow. Why should they? NATO can deploy twice as many men as today’s Red Army. Germany’s army – today a sad joke – will one day regain its laurels as the world’s premier military forces.
What’s more, Spain and Italy, two key NATO members, refuse to support Trump’s aggression against Iran. The president’s child-like wrath may be set to fall on them. It seems the self-proclaimed ‘war president’ is a bigger threat to Europe than the Muscovites.
Meanwhile, ever-guilty Germany quakes and shakes with fear before the Trump White House. One of these days the Germans will remember who they are and whom they were.
Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2026