Trump and His Generals

Chief Trump recently concluded an event with his country's military establishment, which some analysts enthusiastically praise for Trump's rhetoric described as unusual, a turning point.

He was escorted by Pete Hegseth, the head of the War Department, as the former Department of Defense was renamed, perhaps in an act of sincerity regarding what that ministry actually handles. Also present was Vice President J.D. Vance, and curiously, Mr. Rubio, who minutes later came out to support Trump's remarks so he could collect his salary for that day, was not present. Well, Mr. Rubio's absence shouldn't be surprising; it's just another example of his secondary role in the administration.

As spectators, any number of generals of various denominations and specialties, hailing from the most remote places where the Empire has deployed troops and resources, from Asia, Africa, America, and Europe, as well as from every other corner of the universe. In the front row were the super generals, from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the branch commanders of the air force, the army, the navy, and the top dog of the marines, whose main base, Marine Corps Base Quantico, was the venue for the event.

Main message from the speakers, including Trump first and foremost: This administration's foreign/military policy is based on the so-called "peace through strength" doctrine. It establishes the need for a "massive investment in defense," "preemptive" military deployment, and the use of force as a "diplomatic tool," thereby seeking to "deter potential enemies." It's a bit like the rhetoric of threatening to raise tariffs, only with missiles and rifles brandished.

It's worth clarifying that these concepts have already been used by warmongering leaders like Reagan and W. Bush, and have served to justify huge profits for the military-industrial complex—that is, for the owners, those who really rule the US, of course, paid for with American taxpayers' money.

In keeping with the "peace through strength" approach described above, Trump now expects to receive a 2026 Pentagon budget of $1 trillion, higher than the $892 billion currently allocated.

So the meeting at Marine Corps Base Quantico was, in practice, a staged attempt to present such a colossal expenditure to the public, despite the fact that the US is not actually at war with anyone, even though it sponsors and supports several simultaneously.

In true Trump style—remember, he's a TV showman—in his speech, he insisted on his parallel efforts to achieve peace in more than seven conflicts, something that never happened in reality. He also alluded to his desire to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, assuming that it won't happen but will be awarded to someone who, in his best interest, does nothing.

Thus, these seemingly contradictory approaches—that is, contextually justifying a super-multimillion-dollar budget and simultaneously "demanding peace for the rest of the world"—are resolved with Trump's histrionic mastery, which explains the squaring of the circle: he guarantees to please the real powers that be and, at the same time, his MAGA base, to whom he promised to end government waste, which entails not dragging the country into any new external conflicts.

Of course, fundamentalist slogans and prejudices couldn't be missing from the meeting; there, the Secretary of War, former TV host Pete Hegseth, unfolded his vision of women in the military's high command, of the paradigm of the white alpha male as representative of the exemplary soldier, even daring to criticize overweight generals. The fat ones are out, as are the gays (who had already been expelled), and any other "conceptual specimen of the woke world," banished from the current official discourse.

And to avoid any confusion, both Trump and Hegseth himself warned in their interventions: "If the words I'm uttering today are making your hearts sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign," exclaimed the Secretary of War, with Chief Trump concluding with: "If you don't like what I'm saying, you can leave the room because there goes your rank, there goes your future." In other words, ideological subordination, not just institutional, but find another job.

It's shocking to say the least. Imagine any general here, who didn't have it so easy to have his star or stars, and a politician, no matter where he came from, comes along and mistreats him in that way. Well, in any country in Our America such an offense would be with a military coup; although it probably won't happen here because, as is well known, military coups don't happen in the US because there is no US embassy.

Ultimately, Hegseth's considerations aren't solely motivated by aesthetics. He won't admit it either, but it's clear that the Chinese armed forces parade, marking the 80th anniversary of the victory in World War II, probably impacted the US leadership—well, that's what shows of force are for.

Those who saw the military parade organized in Beijing surely remember the surprising martial spirit, uniformity, and discipline; Hegseth is probably aware that his military is far from that perfection. And they must be clear about another, more strategic issue: the way things are going, the People's Republic of China is practically unbeatable; they can't be stopped.

Gaza Peace Plan Made in the USA

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In this context of saber-rattling, threats left and right, and also the dance of millions, the day before, Trump received the head of the Zionist government and proclaimed, or proclaimed to anyone who would listen, that there is already a "definitive" peace proposal for Gaza.

It’s still early to fully consider this proposal, however, at first glance, it seems more like a demand for capitulation from the so-called Palestinian resistance. And if it doesn't suit him, the genocidal Zionist vociferously stated that he will continue with his macabre US-backed war plan, as Trump himself confirmed.

The Plan itself has 20 points, some apparent carrots to unite the Palestinians, because it admits that the Palestinian people will not be expelled from either the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, as well as a vague hope that they will one day recognize a Palestinian state. In exchange for this, the dissolution of Hamas.

Trump's proposal culminates with another of his unusual ideas: That peace be guaranteed by an international group, called the "Peace Board," chaired, of course, by no other than Trump himself, who hopes that US capital and other guests, perhaps including his own, will turn a pacified Gaza into a real estate paradise. And although the Plan doesn't say so, that US transnational corporations will also be guaranteed the right to exploit the fabulous gas and oil reserves north of the Strip, a Palestinian heritage, by the way.

That Netanyahu accepted the Plan without much hesitation is in itself worth a reading. On the one hand, because the microphones in Washington, where this proposal was announced, hadn't been turned off, so that it would be rejected by one of the extremists who make up the Israeli cabinet. Today, he's probably in trouble.

But also because it's a way out of the crushing, overwhelming, and undeniable reality of the massive, universal rejection of the Zionist genocide in the rest of the world. More than 60,000 murdered, more than 20,000 infants massacred, seem to have convinced a good part of the world, finally!, of the unacceptability of ethnic cleansing, the crime against humanity carried out in Gaza.

This is how the repudiation of Israel, in the high-level segment of the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly, becomes the norm, where 159 countries, 80% of the total members, already recognize the Palestinian state, unthinkable a year ago.

The Global Sumud Flotilla is heading toward Gaza, which could inscribe heroic pages. In parallel, mass protests are multiplying in Europe, Asia, Oceania, and Latin America, and widespread condemnation on social media has generated more than one feigned surprise from the Israeli leadership.

Therefore, in short, something had to be done because this global rejection is cornering Zionism and its American protectors, with a probably novel addition: the class bias of this popular rebellion is increasingly evident and clear, and this is another horse of a different color.

The international situation does not always clearly show the loss of the empire's hegemony, its decline also in the military order, one of the few strengths it can still exhibit with some success.

Precisely these two episodes, the meeting with the generals and the announcement of the Peace Plan, seemingly unconnected, point to the same thing: preserving that hegemony, daily degraded when, despite dropping 10 times more explosives, bombs, and missiles on Gaza than in any previous war, far from making Palestine disappear, it turned the rest of the world into a kind of Palestine.

To shake up the lofty American war forest, to scold the top brass and generals in public, and then to threaten the world they have or will make with hyper-million dollar sums, new weapons of extermination that they could not even use, is not only pathetic, unique and predictable, but the best proof of this decline and the fear of losing this hegemony.

At least the Empire still has the showman Trump, with the pretensions of an emperor, although more similar to Romulus Augustulus, the last to hold that position in a defeated Roman Empire, than to the famous and victorious Julius Caesar, considered a "perpetual dictator" with almost monarchical powers. History has the last word.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff