By Professor John Robertson OBA
The typically excellent Bella Caledonia [ I mean that] has this today, joining with all the other folk I respect on Scottish independence but suddenly ‘armchair tank commanders‘, and rushed to the barricades to try to stop President Trump coming to Scotland.
I mean, really, you hate him more than Narendra Modi of India or whichever Israeli diplomat comes to Scotland? Look properly. He’s a horrible horrible guy but he has done little to compare with the horror inflicted on Muslims in India or in the Israeli Empire.
They write:
America is a shadow of itself and now cast a dark shadow across the world. The spectacle in the Oval Office was a disgraceful exercise in public (global) humiliation and a gross demand for fealty. It was a callous act by two bullies, with JD Vance playing to his MAGA base and seemingly leading and controlling the event. As the Ukrainian novelist Andrey Kurkov put it: “Zelenskyy was called to the White House to sign, but not speak.” The consequences for this are barely being understood because they are so immense.
America is a shadow of itself and now casts a dark shadow across the world?
Eh? What? Is it a smaller shadow now? If so, good. That can only help world peace. Is it a darker shadow now? Look at the history from the Indian Wars through Hiroshima, to Vietnam and on to Iraq, it was already pretty black.
Trump is a monster and very bad news for women and minorities in the USA but there is no evidence here that he is worse for world peace. This is the replacement of one elite, harmful to us all, with another elite probably as harmful to us all.
If Hilary Clinton was President, then, like her husband before her, both Bushes, Reagan, Nixon and Johnson, before them and all the way back to FDR and Teddy Roosevelt, the USA would be intervening all guns blazing, often on behalf of corporate interests, removing regimes, on a whim, it once supported but no longer does and leaving bloody dysfunctional societies characterised by extreme poverty, disease, violence, corruption, misogyny and homophobia, behind them.
Mostly, [Thanks Harold] Britain under Labour or Cons, would be in on their coat-tails, spending billions needed for public services in the UK and paying the ‘blood price’, often in Scots lives, that Blair was so proud to meet.
For 90% of us in ‘democracies’, it makes no difference which coven of narcissistic psychopaths is in charge. Trump might even, through no real care or compassion, actually cut the cost in blood.
Let’s see before we think we know what will happen.
I walked with the 100 000 in March 2003, from Glasgow Green to protest the imminent ‘Shock and Awe’ assault on the civilian population of Iraq, by Bush and Blair, because we all knew with utter certainty what the consequences would be. I won’t be marching against Trump, with, I’m guessing, far fewer attending. There will be better ways to spend my time.
Finally, as for the ‘disgraceful exercise in public (global) humiliation and a gross demand for fealty‘, you misunderstand. See this:
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
I disagree that Trump not is a danger to world peace. His appeasement to Russian aggression is precisely that. Appeasement of dictators and fascists is always a danger to peace.
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Trump stops wars. He did not agree with Iraq war. He went into politics to stop war and has done it. The Americans voted for him to stop wars. They are sick of it, so is everyone else. The US/UK wars have ruined the planet. Left millions dying, starving and places destroyed. The US has been at eternal wars since WW2. The waste and $trillions spent could have eradicated poverty, worldwide.
Russia has a right to protect its borders. A Treaty was signed in 2019 Ukraine broke it. Joining NATO would put even more nuclear missiles trained on Russia borders. 1990 Glasnost and Perestroika gave 150Million people self governance and self determination. Reagan and Gorbochev made unilateral nuclear disarmaments treaties to cut nuclear weapons.
Ukraine expects $Billions to continue war. Instead of investment in the economy. Ukraine 37million people. Russia 150Million people. The War should stop immediately. Trump is trying to do that. More than keeping it going. A better outcome is peace.
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Anyone can stop a war by capitulation.
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Ukraine has a right to protect not merely its border but its very existence from Russian aggression. Ukraine will spend whatever it costs to defend itself. Russia should withdraw from ALL Ukrainian territory and THAT would stop the war. Trump is doing nothing but being a Putin puppet defending Russian aggression and his attempt to wipe another nation out of existence.
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Religious biased Starmer supports war. Labour illegal wars have ruined the planet, causing mass migration and death and destruction. £Billions wasted. Oil revenues stolen and wasted. Iraq, Dunblane and Lockerbie kept secret for 100 years.
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Which has nothing to do with the Russian invasion of a neighbor and its attempt to wipe it out of existence.
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Professor whether you think that America being a ‘shadow of itself’ is a good thing or not, THIS quote is absolutely accurate.
“The spectacle in the Oval Office was a disgraceful exercise in public (global) humiliation and a gross demand for fealty. It was a callous act by two bullies, with JD Vance playing to his MAGA base and seemingly leading and controlling the event.“
It was the opposite of America no longer being a bully.
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I cannot respond individually to all of the negative comments on this. I’d never get new posts written on Independence-related matters which I know most readers want to see.
So, quickly to all of you unhappy with my writing on Ukraine, let me say:
I won’t be returning to this.
John
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