Dealing…with reality

There’s an interesting debate going on in our dear Mudland – and indeed the entire world – as to exactly how our countries should deal with President Trump’s USA. That the net has been cast soooo wide should immediately signal that this ain’t just a matter of us pipsqueaks “knowing our place” – but one that demands even the big ones move with caution!! When you got Canada’s PM next door, ruefully conceding there’s now a “rupture” in the old-world order and its verities – and his country must now recalibrate its entire foreign alignments to deal with the US president’s forceful efforts to Make America Great Again (MAGA) – then what are we to do??
One group – let’s call them “the realists” – says that to challenge the US directly is to invite disaster, and as such, “pragmatic” moves that don’t risk upsetting the behemoth up north are the way to go. Their guiding mantras are “When yuh haan in tigah mout’, pat ‘e head!” or “Staan easy bettah dan beg pardon!” or, as one of the chroniclers of Burnham’s foreign policy between 1965 and 1985 put it, “Better to survive sensibly than court heroic death.”
“Not so!!” cry those on the other side we can call “the idealists”!! Such a stance means we’re abandoning our dignity and self-respect, and so we should let the US know – as the case may be – exactly where we differ with them and which principles are being violated. “Better to die on your feet than live on your knees” is their motto!!
So, for instance, with Operation Southern Spear that extracted Mad Maduro and spirited him away to Miami to face the music, we should point out that this violates the old rule on “non-intervention” into the affairs of other states without the say-so of the UNSC!! The realists’ figures – such a posture is to court being squashed like an annoying gnat – and advises we support the US for the reasons it proffered. Even before the dust had settled on that existential choice came the embargo on shipping oil to Cuba and the ongoing bombing of Iran!!
Decisions, decisions!! What to do? Especially when we can be certain we’re just seeing the tip of an iceberg slowing rising out of the oceans!! From where your Eyewitness sits – right here in Mudland where he experienced ethnic conflict fostered and our country was ruined for half a century because one leader chose “to tell the US where to get off” – he says principled pragmatism’s the way to go!! But we don’t have to go overboard – ‘cause then – as in all matters of courting – we’re gonna be taken for granted!!
It’s like making love to a porcupine – you gotta be VERY careful!!

…against narco-terrorists
Confirming the ascendancy of realism in our foreign policy, there was our PM Phillips – not so incidentally an ex-GDF Chief-of-Staff – sitting smack in the centre front row with US Secty of War Pete Hegseth in the inaugural Americas Counter Cartel Conference at US SouthCom headquarters!! Also, not so incidentally, the good Secty spoke of a “Greater North America” – encompassing all nations north of the Equator, from Greenland to Guyana – as the immediate security perimeter that must be defended through cooperation and burden-sharing.
Now, whether the US had other motives for decapitating the Venezuelan leadership, we gotta admit Guyana’s being used as a transhipment point for cocaine and gold from Venezuela – by Maduro’s Sindicatos. We’ve intercepted submarines and planeloads of cocaine – one in which a high police official was corrupted to facilitate it.
Your Eyewitness expects we’ll be going beyond the issuing of communiques and initiate concrete initiatives on our western border that can staunch the cross-border illegal activities.
A defence treaty and a military base in Essequibo??

…with Venezuelan threats
Addressing concerns of US corporations being wooed to re-enter Venezuela to reopen mines for rare earths and platforms for oil extraction, US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Delcy’s Government would ensure their security!
Good luck with that!!