Eight US warships and submarine in positions in the Southern Caribbean, a dozen US F-35 warplanes heading towards the airport in Puerto Rico, with amphibious landing exercises. A fatal attack by the US Navy on a civilian ship, with suspected drug traffickers (11 dead), and a warning to official Caracas that if Venezuelan air force planes continue to fly “dangerously close” to a docked US warship, they will be “shot down”. Then unconfirmed news that the government of Nicolas Maduro has deployed Iranian-made warships into Venezuelan territorial waters. With all that, the news that the newly renamed US “War Department” is directing its upcoming actions, not against China, but towards Latin America.
Should it be surprising then, that since last week, US President Donald Trump seems to have put aside his long-standing ambition to become a Nobel Peace Prize laureate?
“I have nothing to say about it. All I can do is end wars. I don’t seek attention. I just want to save people’s lives,” president Trump said on September 5th , in response to widespread speculation that Trump was expecting to be named the Nobel Peace Prize winner of the past year on October 10.
The latest, tautly modest description of Trump’s “peacemaking ambitions” followe two separate events that indicate a new sharpening of the rhetoric of the leadership of the two most powerful powers in the world today: America and China. And that, on the subject of “war” and/or “peace.”
“We won World War I. We won World War II, not with the Department of Defense, but with the Department of War..We have reestablished the warrior ethic. We want warriors, people who understand how to deal a lethal blow to the enemy..” emphasized Peter Hegseth, the US Secretary of War, according to the newly proposed terminology.
Who are the potential enemies…who should be dealt a deadly American blow is yet, still far from clear.
On the other hand, the timing of Trump’s decision on September 5 to scrap the “Pentagon,” and that it is time for the US Department of War, is in line with a new geopolitical message from Chinese leader Xi Jinping, delivered on September 3.
“Only when all countries and nations treat each other as equals, coexist in peace and support each other, can the causes of war be eradicated and common security be maintained. And the root causes are the Cold War mentality, bloc confrontation and bullying practices,” Xi warned during a major military parade in Beijing.
What “war” did Xi Jinping have in mind here?
In any case, US President Donald Trump is reportedly preparing to visit South Korea “in late October or early November.” There is speculation that Xi Jinping could also appear there at the same time.
If the meeting between Trump and Xi takes place in Seoul, among the many already known topics of the confrontation between Washington and Beijing, there may still be readiness for a debate on the two newly signaled concepts of “war”.
