Now after a month of attacks and counterattacks, alternately hopeful negotiations are mentioned in official statements and yet at the same time attacks continue. We all know that a truce could be a first step in negotiating peace.
But, what if certain parties don’t want peace, really?
“A Bully’s Paradise” ?
Because the ulterior motives are not part of statements – but can be deducted based on similar occurrences and past events?
Again, this is about power, money and thus oil; natural resources. Iran has the largest oil recovery industry in the world. Which can be partly seen from the prices rising currently to breaking point.
“Levers”: They are technical appliances; but the term is also used for an artificial ‘bottleneck’, a pressure point that is meant to make the other party to the conflict more lenient.
Or make them buckle and give in.
None of the parties concerned is apt to do that soon, so it seems: Iran, because they know what it could mean to the country as a whole, if they would ‘sell out’.
Netanyahu and Trump because they need this war: Their respective administration’s support is waning, their population needs reasons why they are put through such a lot of suffering.
But: There are no reasons that bear inspection or a closer look:
Except greed – and a too large ego – and selfishness.
Images licensed via Adobe CC, my graphics, no AI involved
The president of the USA, Donald Trump, is a criminal ruled guilty on 34 counts of bribery and corruption as well as molestation before a regular court of law of the US. At the same time ‘leader’ of one of the most powerful nations today, yet. War means death and destruction, always. No exceptions. None.
Landscapes and living areas are laid waste, people deprived of home and livelihood.
Although all the motives are clear and have been for decades, still the international community lets him and his administration act as if he was the only one around?
This is indeed a crime, because it’s killing people for no other reason but profit:
He and his administration cancelled the Uranium enrichment control contracts without reason. They were working, according to official reports of the IAEA at the time. They had been reached after ten years of negotiating.
Internally the reign of the Iranian government is nothing to write home about. But, about how many governments, especially the larger powers today, can you say that? China? Russia?
The US?
The USA where money is the sole defining attribute of a person. Where close to no protection for workers/employees exists to this day. Where weapons are sold to minors and people killed in the streets into the bargain, thousands each year. Where people from one day to another will lose house or home and live in cars, with their few belongings right there, searching for employment.
Now this country of Iran, whose conflicts in the area are heavily intertwined with the Israel-Palestine conflict and so many adjacent countries is supposed to be bombed back into the stone age? Just like Iraq?
Iran: A tradition and history that reach back thousands of years, far beyond Islam and its first advent?
Because the US need oil, cheap and fast? Because cars in the US have to be kept rolling, with cheap petrol, if as a president you want to stay in office?
Because the weapons’ producing industry is the largest and most powerful over there?
Where are EU, UNO and NATO these days? What if another member would do the same…? Any of them?
Russia and Putin are scorned for their attack on Ukraine, for other internal reasons. Have been so for years? And Trump does the same thing now… To cover up, too. As so often has happened throughout history: Make war on a ‘common enemy’ to distract attention from internal affairs and shortcomings.
Netanyahu of Israel was and is a well-known hardliner against Palestinian territories. He has driven Israeli settlers there for almost a decade now. He has lost the support of his own parliament as well as the majority of the people of Israel. Which is a fact even on platforms such as LinkedIn.
Stop this madness now! Start using reason again. Stop selfish, cruel and completely ruthless people such as the present president of the US and his administration.
Note 16th March 2026: Acting like the true ‘scary’ ‘deal maker‘ he has publicly declared himself to be: Trump, this sorry excuse for a man, of course, uses every lever he can get hold of. Beware, and just wait a little… Neither NATO, UNO nor EU will bow to your conditions:
You have all the oil you need…? Now…in dependence on Russian oil, for the time being… but it is only reasonable that in the long run this will not be sufficient or satisfying to an economy as dependent on oil and fossil fuels as the USA:
Rather make Iran succumb and get oil from the largest fossil fuel recovering industry in the world on the cheap… hey?
Who do you think you are fooling here…?
We all know by this time that messages in front of cameras are one thing; but often just as much marketing and boasting or pressurizing as anything…
Setting the whole of the Near East on fire – nice and calm sitting in front of screens thousands of miles away.
Some stunt.
Really…? – Rather embarrassing if it wasn’t so cruel – one is reminded of just so many boys playing at tin soldiers…
In 2016 it already was clear and being published by reliable sources: Trump and Putin were in close contact. Over the years numerous interviews and remarks, recorded of Trump too, made two things very clear:
He uses scare tactics to ‘make deals’. He proudly calls himself in front of cameras a ‘deal maker’.
But these also are facts:
The most powerful industry in the US is the one producing weapons.
The most needed resource in the US is oil, fuels from fossils, in general.
Now, perhaps even fighting for his life, this sorry excuse for a man called Trump uses any means in the book of cruelty and baseness to get his way.
The Ukraine war is welcome and even obviously one more cruelty that costs thousands of lives – to put NATO and the EU under pressure: Buy more weapons, raising their annual used on ‘protection’. Putin right behind it…
Tariffs raised purportedly to protect the US…
EU leaders have been called one after another to visit and ‘discuss’. The first to fall was Giorgia Meloni, Italy.
The first to go was Britain.
NATO seems at the mercy of the US, since they produce most of the weapons NATO-members so far buy – yet.
Trump has been known for bullying, corruption and bribery, as well as molestation in smaller contexts.
The Epstein papers are another instance and proof of that fact.
The only means to fight back is: Standing together. Because, the US depend on the EU just as much as the EU does.
The Office of United States Trade Representative states so itself in numbers, here.
Mr Trump has to be reminded of his ‘manners’ and the limits he comes off at.
This is no way to deal with a strong, international community. Period.
Image by Dorothe Wouters, and general content, from Pixabay
“Negotiate the hell out of them”… da…rn it. – I’d like to say that directly sometimes to the people concerned at present trying to reach an end to that war, that was unnecessary in the first place, if…
Yes, if people would do their homework, people in power learn from history, and those who know:
Diplomats, for centuries learned ‘at their mothers knee’ what is essential in any kind of politics you may want to conduct:
Realize that in politics it is about money, power and – 3rd party interests, those of your own country as well as those of others.
Know your opponents’ interests as well as possible.
Realize that it is about power-balance just as much as saving face!
The one-time elegance of manners stems also from here: Get to realize that treating the opposing party with respect and the usual formalities makes all the difference.
Learn to be patient! Patience – without giving up, or in – is the most important characteristic of successful negotiating.
The Thirty Years’ War in Europe raged exactly that: 30 years.
Whole regions were wasted and cities laid bare because of plundering, murder and legions of soldiers passing that had to be kept, resulting in hunger, starvation and more death.
The weapons’ industry and its entourage are the only ones – if they survive it – that profit from a war.
So, let’s keep telling them: We want peace, we want a power-balance, at least. We want that cruelty and useless destruction to stop, now.
The Thirty Years’ War took 5 years to end it. 5 years of negotiations.
Patience is the order of the day. Not more profit from yet more weapons.
Images from the movie’s webpage and licensed via Adobe CC, my graphics – Documentary by John Houston, award-winning director, “Le There Be Light“, 1946
When you look into news and messages you will find that around war there still is a sort of halo or glow being created: As if it actually was about heroes, about being brave and strong and resilient in the face of adversity.
It’s not. It’s a means to an end. Sometimes more than one end.
Oil. Power. Money. … You name it.
Especially in these days, where more than half the world is online and rather better educated than ever before. Patterns of human behaviour are age-old and they repeat. But war is young in history, compared. And that’s a fact, stated by scientists and archaeologists of long standing.
Think of the hundreds of thousands of years that humans have been part of this planet.
Around ten thousand years are a pea on a hot plate in that respect.
There are a few very easy to follow arguments that support this view:
People who come back from war, alive, are scarred in their feelings and emotions, their souls, for the rest of their lives. One proof of that fact is shown with widely recognized precision and compassion in the documentary from 1946, created by John Houston about WW II soldiers, coming back.
But also in former times soldiers who came back would behave differently. Would be uneasy in everyday life and often become furious at any little thing. Turn to be alcoholics. The reports are legend. In literature and in chronicles.
In other words: If war was so natural, would people mind?
Again:
Conflicts are natural. Wars are not!
We can resolve conflicts, if we really want to, because there’s always another road.
War is no destiny. War is not dealt us by any type of gods to check our resilience or our heroism.
War is man-made by those that crave power, want to protect it or even more so, protect the money involved.
Conflicts are a natural part of human life. Wars are not.
The present power blocks we see are not really new. New is the leader-of-state-type the US have engaged to do their dirty work:
Someone who likes it, who already is starting to prepare his ultimate leadership as dictator, king or emperor and someone also, who uses threats and fear as means to ‘make deals’. He has publicly admitted, nay, praised himself that: A ‘deal-maker’.
At present the most urgent need many see and have is ensuring peace.
To deny the obvious, namely that the maps we can see make Ukraine an encroachment onto Russian territory, if they should join the NATO, is childish.
Image screenshot of NATO’s own website, all options checked. Taken at: 23-11-2025_05-50-47 local time (UTC+1)
Ukraine is a country with people, a history and pride.
But they also are people who want to live, to have peace, to stop seeing their cities and villages go up in flames. Bury their dead and weep each and every day over their lost loved ones.
Even more so, Palestine and the Palestinians, same way the majority of Israeli people do!
The majority of Israelis publicly declares even on Social Media such as LinkedIn their lack of support for the politics Netanyahu has applied from the start:
He was known as so-called hardliner from day one.
He had made the situation for Palestinians impossible for them by forcefully moving Israeli settlers there. Gaza-strip and the West Bank had been assigned to Palestinians to live in peace. To this day the official acknowledgement of Palestine as a state is not complete.
Additionally, it is recorded fact that his support in parliament and from voters was waning. So he started a war.
Attacking again under any pretext? Shame on him.
Peace needs to be negotiated, when we want to stop wars. Sometimes that can take time. But to deny the obvious or to refuse to negotiate properly is a sign of ulterior motives.
War needs to stop.
This is the simple truth:
Whatever your colour, creed or conviction, you are not supposed to either kill, torture or bother other people. Period.
‘A real man’, ‘a hulk’, ‘the hero’, ‘the fighter’ – the words and phrases are numerous, sometimes there seems no end to the ideas of what men should be like.
“Always cool, calm and collected.” “Women and children, the sick and the elderly to be saved first.”
What does that do to men’s minds? To some, at least, raised with the full brunt of this concept?
That a man is to be powerful, reigns the creation, the earth, and everything in it – including women.
‘His woman’. ‘His wife’.
For centuries that was understood: A woman is her father’s and later her husband’s ‘ward’, in modern terms that was in effect the legal ruling. She did not own anything, even when she worked or inherited money.
Comfort. A fine word. It evokes all kinds of images if we come to think of it. And men so long had to be the providers. Providers of food, shelter and – comfort.
Because, this indeed can be too much: Because, indeed, this is not human!
Every human being feels lonely at times, yearns for closeness, warmth and comfort.
But men are supposed to feel and be always superhuman? Strong, knowledgeable? The last resort?
It’s not possible to always feel that way. But when no one tells them so – how would they know?
And sick minds can be born by the almost schizophrenic concept: Be kind, understanding and calm. But also be brutal and a fighter and always in control of the situation.
Schizophrenia is associated with sickness. But at the outset it means a ‘divided brain’. Thinking and feeling are at odds. And if that cannot be resolved, we find cruelty and (near) madness in deeds and – online activities…
Let’s remember that war is just a phenomenon based on this image. Based on the idea of sovereignty and wealth being the most important and most attractive traits in a man.
These are images, concepts and they are not human. We do not need images. We need human beings in this world.
War is no solution. War is not destiny. War is not inevitable. War is not in our nature.
Conflicts are. But they can be solved if we really want to.
Screenshot of NATO member states, current, taken at 21-01-2025_06-16-46 at https://www.nato-pa.int/content/membership-map
Yet once more Russia attacks Ukraine. Ukraine will answer in time… The news are often just a short glimmer of the actual blunt truth behind it all:
Just as in everyday conflicts, very often war is about power, about position, about prestige, about reputation – and about money as well.
What makes it a pattern too, is the way the opponents treat each other in frontline ‘reports’: It’s always the other party that is to be blamed. It’s always the others that didn’t make enough allowances or offered the real bargain to finally reach a truce.
And eventually an agreement to be observed by all.
Does anyone remember how this first got started? The idea had been that NATO after WWII would not extend into the East of Europe beyond a certain realm. In order to let the actual feeling of danger or threats be allayed in regard to Russia.
I still have to think of that little story I made up the other day about that situation:
A man lives in his house by himself, calmly attending to his (rather turbulent) internal affairs.
One day he opens the door and finds a huge, smiling hulk of a yet young, blonde, clean-shaven man with close-cropped haircut standing there – kindly looking at him, feet on his porch, legs wide, chewing gum – holding a machine gun. Telling him, with a broad smile that the man need not worry: He and his mates were just having a good time of it, doing nothing. Just brought their guns and tanks too…
Seriously, looking at maps, what would you think…?
There is no question about Russia’s internal affairs, i.e. its president Putin, being a cruel leader and dictator internally.
But this conflict did not start 3 years ago. It started long before that. And as long as greed and selfishness on all sides won’t make room for real negotiations, this will go on…
When men start ‘impressing’… (Images licensed via Adobe CC)
When you look at children playing they already repeat the sometimes age-old patterns of the patriarchal societies we live in: “When you start touching my sandcastle, I’ll kick yours…!”
“Why? Because…!”
It’s that thing about boasting, bragging and hitting the chest, just as apes do…
Whenever in history was it helpful or really effective to use threats of war? Usually it will just end in war!
How ridiculous can you get these days? Especially someone like Trump, who was raised in a place that calls itself a military school, not to say an academy, West Point…
I beg your pardon, ‘dude’, but if you didn’t get what tactics should have taught you, you are wrong for that job anyway!
Do you really and truly believe that you will get Putin to relent this way?
Or is this one step into yet another ‘deal’ to sell more weapons?
That is Putin and Trump, as per precedence (s.a. 2016 elections, where Putin had them manipulated in favour of Trump)* getting together behind the scenes – and having a ‘ball’ at our expense…?
Well, there’s a thought: Do not buy into their wars.
This strange entity called Trump is known for and even proud of making ‘deals’ that way: He creates a background of scares and fear and threats – and then tries to move in. But then, apparently he suffers from ADHD anyway…
Unfortunately Putin in Russia for reasons of his own would not be where he is today if he was ‘got’ that easily – assuming that what we see in front of cameras is not just a …
Big stage performance…
*Note: Since then the Washington Post has been acquired by Jeff Bezos, founder of amazon and has become completely unreliable.
