Where’s the Peacemaker? - News With Views

By Lee Duigon

May 21, 2022

In 1904 Russia and Japan went to war to decide which of them would dominate Manchuria and Korea. It was a punishing conflict, with high casualties on both sides. A Russian fleet sailed virtually around the world, only to be wiped out by the Japanese in the battle of Tsushima Strait.

Japan appeared to be winning; but there were leaders in Tokyo who feared the consequences of a lengthy conflict. Winning now, but losing later.

Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States (just coming into its own as a world power) intervened—not by helping one side against the other, but by inviting both sides to peace talks at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Japan and Russia both sent delegations, and by the end of the summer of 1905, they had hammered out the Treaty of Portsmouth, ending the war with a peace that both sides were able to keep.

Today we have a shooting war in Europe, Russia having invaded Ukraine. The damage to lives and property has been immense.

But one thing we do not have: a world leader like Roosevelt, of sufficient stature to command respect and of sufficient neutrality to generate trust.

Someone needs to set up a peace table and get Russia and Ukraine into serious peace negotiations—but who? God help us, several irresponsible persons have already speculated on this war going nuclear—a disaster for the whole world. This needs to be avoided.

There is no Theodore Roosevelt on the scene. With SloJo Biden openly siding with Ukraine, with the Senate poised to dole out $40 billion to Ukraine’s war effort, and motormouths like Sean Hannity and others calling for the assassination of Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, America has disqualified herself from any role in mediation. I mean, would you trust any of these idiots to end a war? If you were Putin, would you trust them to be even-handed?

Who can be the mediator? Everybody’s busy choosing sides. Britain, France, Germany—no neutrality there. China? Not likely. It would have to be the leader of a major power: who’s going to listen to the president of Costa Rica? Meanwhile, who has heard from the United Nations? The world’s supposed peacekeeper is out to lunch somewhere. The European Union is compromised, the UN is AWOL, and the war in Ukraine goes on and on. One might fear that it will spiral out of control—although that may already be the case.

Some of us wonder whether the world’s, um, leaders even want peace. Maybe they like having a chaotic mess. “See? We toldja it’s time for global government! This is just gonna get worse and worse until you put us in charge and give us vast new powers!”

Would this war even have started, with Donald Trump still in the White House? The Biden disaster in Afghanistan showed weakness, fecklessness, and incompetence: not the qualities to be sought in any mediator.

It’s not hard to imagine Trump presiding over the peace table—if you can imagine The Regime allowing it under any circumstances. Would Democrats keep any peace that Trump had brokered? That’s where my imagination gives up and goes home.

We do need somebody to do in 2022 what Theodore Roosevelt did in 1905; but today’s world leaders aren’t up to it. A mediator for this war is desperately needed, but no one has come forward. If you were Donald Trump, would you volunteer for the job? But the current state of America’s domestic politics probably makes this impossible.

This is a job that needs doing, and there seems to be nobody here to do it.

The world needs to find someone—and fast.

I have discussed these and other topics throughout the week on my blog, http://leeduigon.com/ . Click the link and drop in for a visit, before the Ministry of Truth prohibits it. My articles can also be found at www.chalcedon.edu/ .

E-Mail Lee Duigon: leeduigon@verizon.net