Category: Diplomacy

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Politics and the UN Security Council: Stand By Your Convictions…

The logo of the United Nations and the German flag to the left and below it.
Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay and Adobe CC, my arrangement

Germany and the UN security council: I am German by birth and upbringing. Political and community responsibility were a central part of education as well as discussions in our family. As indeed in the majority of German families and households.

The security council was from the start and always will be a highly political body. When we look at unjust and forced decisions by its 5 permanent members over the past 80 years since its founding, we will start to realize that anywhere in the world power and third party interests influence such bodies.

We also can easily ascertain that good forces and good deeds are strong and at the moment still prevail throughout Europe, including Germany.

Yet, Germany reserves its right to stand up and point at injustice. These days, with an extreme-right-wing president in the US, a dictator in Russia as heads of government, who are basically best buddies, it’s practically impossible to ‘please all’.

You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.
(John Lydgate)

That’s also very clear:
We should not at any time confuse Israeli politics and the reactions to those politics with the past or present of people using antisemitism as a weapon in discussions.

It is tragic and also very true:
In politics and dictatorships all around the world certain methods were – and still are – used to manipulate those of less well-educated mind to gather and hunt those that were a minority, or are an easy target.

‘Minority bashing’ occurs in Russia, in China and the US, in the UK and France. The USA were the first – and so far the only nation – to use a nuclear bomb in a war against another.

They have forfeited their ‘right’ to be counted among the righteous at least in politics: Their present government is nothing to write home about. And that’s putting it rather nicely yet. What would you expect from a president who’s a convicted felon and his administration?

The same holds true for nations such as China or Russia, both also permanent members.

To stand up for our beliefs and the same right for all to justice, peace and support of those rights is a central aspect in German politics and has been for a long time.

I for my part think we can be proud and at the same time unassuming about the great history of science, philosophy and arts this country of Germany possesses.

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The Sad Story of an Unnecessary War – Iran, the US and a Uranium Enrichment ‘to Use’…

Image by Bruce Emmerling from Pixabay

War: a means to an end. Indeed, often it’s more than one end only. In this case there are several:

    • Sell weapons (for the industry, the providers of supplies…), make a profit – or two.
    • Get your hands on the oil in the country: The US need oil. Iran has it, in abundance. Additionally, it’s got the largest oil recovery industry in the world.
    • Distract attention from severe internal problems, such as Epstein papers in the US.
      • Or the waning support for a president and his administration who seem to ‘lose it’ – not just once or twice, but regularly.
      • A president, who’s also a criminal, ruled guilty on 34 counts in front of a US legal court of law, for bribery, corruption and molestation.
      • The ever increasing drug problems of a society that far too long advocated the always handy pills –  and the always ‘working human’.
    • Make people forget that this had been planned long in advance, as long as 2018, at least, rather longer: When the Trump administration during his first time in office cancelled the working contracts for uranium enrichment control with Iran – that had taken 10 years to negotiate.

It would be a wise man to get proper counselling well in advance – and act accordingly. But then: Whenever did the current president prove to be wise…?

He has been proven to have committed about any felony in the book… This war is a shame and a crime. Nothing else and nothing in between.

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War on Iran, ‘Leverage’, Negotiations – and One of the Oldest Cultures

Collage of two pictures, one ofan old water pump operated by a hand using a lever. The other showing oil wells in front of a dusky skyline.
Images licensed via Adobe CC

‘Leverage’: A nice term almost, when you think of old pumps that would bring water to the surface and into a home. A lever sometimes used to do the ‘pumping’… Exactly that is part of it when you think of getting or having “leverage” in negotiations: One or the other party to an intended deal being able to put pressure on. For their own good.

That’s what this war and the occasional recent (apparent?) ‘flares’ of attacks to break that truce indicate:

Remind each other of the respective position. Let’s remember that it was the US who started this. Internal affairs in Iran haven’t been anything easy to think of – or ‘write home about’; quite to the contrary. But this is not about that government, let’s remember that too.

It’s about oil, Iran having the largest oil recovery industry in the world(!).

About a country, the US of A, whose population looks to the car as something almost like a body appendage: indispensable. Therefore petrol must be cheap. Which in turn means oil has to be cheap too and keep flowing in…

Especially with a president and his ‘coworkers’, his ‘entourage’, or cue-givers…, who refuse to look into a future of being less dependent on fossil fuels, which in the long run could make it better for all: Better water, air and less dependency on ‘any old’ oil well.

Let’s also keep in mind that negotiations take time. Which this president hasn’t got anymore, really: His second term in office is running out. If he wants to leave any kind of legacy beyond the recall of court actions, Epstein papers and worse, he has to make haste.

In the case of Iran that is one thing to better avoid. Haste.
I love that old culture, reaching back thousands of years, into a rich and also troubled history. Full of poetry and wisdom and art.

Three crucial and very striking aspects of many people I had the joy to learn to know better in a comparatively long life are these:

    • perseverance
    • patience
    • pride

That also has its roots in the history of the country: For a couple of thousands of years and to this day being at the heart of a region that always was the turnstile to all cultures you can think of, far east, west and near east.

The free flow of all that’s good in mankind’s history and mind into and through this country, of languages, arts and influences of knowledge and wisdom – together with the resilience built up over troublesome landscapes with hot, forbidding deserts, constant threats by neighbours attacking and earthquakes into the bargain – have created a ‘fellowship’ almost of a people who at their best will neither give in to blackmail or extortion, and will keep their calm, their pride and their preparedness for reasonable offers to the last.

A wise man will look for good counsel. But some people are not wise enough.

Hopefully this shameful war will end sooner rather than later to make room for negotiations – that will need patience and real offerings.

Picture of the tomb of Persian poet Hafez in Shiraz, 2019, courtesy Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons license
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“By Hook or By Crook”: The Extortion Machinery Called Trump-Administration

German flag in a gold circle, suspended from an air born heart shape by a fine chain.

(Image by Alexey Hulsov from Pixabay)

Germany’s situation is bad? Beg your pardon? We are getting along fine, taken all in all, thank you. Who started a war to divert attention from his legal problems? To finally be able to make Iran succumb to their terms because they need oil so urgently? After 2018, cancelling those uranium enrichment control contracts, without reason. (Link to New York Times report from 2018.)

Who pressured the whole of NATO into spending more on their annual on weapons in order to get the weapon’s industry in the US to calm down? 5% instead of 3%, all of NATO who didn’t already?
Since, most of NATO members buy there.

Whose economy has slumped for years? Where are thousands of people killed in the streets because that same weapons industry clings to that myth of the society needing its civilians be ‘under arms’, because the right to protect ‘house and home’ is ohhh, so important?

Who initiated the storming of Capitol Hill in 2021?

Whose universities are being threatened or actually cut off from fundings in order to get scientists to acknowledge one’s own world view?

WHO IS IT, BONDING WITH PUTIN IN RUSSIA FOR PRACTICALLY A DECADE NOW?

TO WHAT END?

To have more leverage, of course. To threaten people and scare them in their boots in order to get the ‘deals made’. Someone with no consideration for anyone but himself and the likes of him:

A bunch of self-centred, cruel and completely ruthless, wealthy, shameless crooks, in his own case already ruled guilty in front of a US court on 34 counts of bribery, corruption and molestation. Practically fleeing the shameful and horrifying truth of those Epstein papers.

SHAME ON YOU! 

Author’s Note: This blog is not strictly kept along the lines and rules similar genres of text, such as commentaries in newspapers, are like. ‘Blog’ derives from ‘weblog’ originally, which in turn is based on the combination of the two words ‘web’ and ‘log’. The log being a book that recorded daily events on ships and was – and still is, as far as I know – mandatory to maintain.

‘Blogs’ therefore represent a category of entries or texts that usually are crisp, rather short and focus on the main subject primarily, often made to look like actual diaries and openly discussed thoughts.

In literature, one well-known genre is the fictitious ‘novel of letters’: A longer text or book made up of letters all written by the same person but creating the impression that several protagonists were involved at a time and wrote letters to each other, a careful ordering by fictitious dates included.
One of many famous examples in English literature is “The Woman in White” by Wilkie Collins, a high-towering author among many of that also rich English literary culture.

(Recommended too: This kind of novel saw a hype that showed already in the course of the 18th century. Try Henry Fielding’s satire “Shamela” for real good fun…another one of the greats.)

I write my posts sometimes, when angry and I also like to imagine that the person addressed might ‘click by’ one day. Even if they don’t, which in some cases could be highly unlikely, in theory, I use this platform to show all who care that such voices, who think and say similar words, are there. And the numbers of visitors seem to prove me right, to some extent.

Thanks to all who come by here and who care!

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Iran, Israel and the US – Next Stage in a Conflict Made Into War: Confusion

A drawing of a figure wearing a hat, goggle and a coat, raised fists and wiring on an opened mouth and hands, as wells the rest of clothing: mouth and hands in red background colour, other parts in dark grey, with terms and phrases that cover open aggression on the red parts and underlying weaknesses of character on the dark ones.
Image by John Hain from Pixabay

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.

Stop killing people! Dar(…)n it!!

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A Criminal at the Helm: The Crime That is the War on Iran – The International Community

A collage of two images as vignettes showing a map of the near east, Israel and Iran marked and another image showing burning ruins of houses with a tank in front on a dark background.
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…

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No Way Out from Under the Putin-Trump-Edge? – The Ant Principle: Powerful in Droves!

Globe on a blue surface, Europe visible, with golden glowing lights behind it.
Image licensed via Adobe CC

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 admire(s)d Putin immensely for his way to (apparently) have people jump through hoops at his command.
    • 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.
    • He is a convicted criminal on 34 counts. This also is a fact.
    • 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.

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“Call for Weapons is Open Again”? – War, Peace, Negotiation and Realizing Power-balance

Picture of the UN building in Vienna in front an ancient scroll shape showing two shaking hands.
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.

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Warmongering – Benefits and Losses… or: Means to an End – or: *War* is Avoidable!

Two images side by side, one still from the movie one girl in front of a sunset watching doves fly.
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.

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War – Power – Power-play – Power-balance or: No Time for Denying the Obvious

Image of a cloud in the sky at dusk, with sunlight behind it.
Image by lmaresz from Pixabay

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 of NATO member states and installations around East of Europe, including Ukraine and its border with Russia.
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.

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