Dome Sweet Dome

The peace dividends of war profiteering

Trump’s ‘outside-the-box’, ‘revolutionary’ thinking will ‘bring peace’, suggests Israel’s Netanyahu. Isn’t he (far) right?

Take West Asia. What better ‘peace plan’ for a MAGA-Stripped region than for US to ‘buy’, ‘own’ and yet be bootless in Gaza? Not for nothing Trump pushed the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, approved 2,000 pound bunker-busting bombs for Tel Aviv, and suggested 2.1mn Palestinians vamoose. What about their attachment to a homeland Israel’s relentlessly pounded, with US aid? Don’t worry, they’ll be happy outside Gaza – future ‘Riviera’ with casinos instead of bombed-out craters. As son-in-law Kushner said, turn battlefront into waterfront. Life’s a beach, eh?

Next, take Ukraine. What sweeter peace ‘deal’ for battered Ukrainians than for US to hog their natural resources? Ever-so businesslike, Trump threatened to sanction Russia if fighting continued. Reportedly, his administration then briefly halted arms shipments to Ukraine, near-hobbling its fightback. He finally sought Ukraine’s rare earths in exchange for keeping it fighting fit! What about the casualties of a ‘ridiculous war’ Trump said he’d end in an iffy jiffy? Well, since peace-brokering takes time, it had better be profitable meantime, right?

Finally, take the world. What greater peace programme than for US to put missile-detecting sensors and kill-capability weapons in space – a grand ‘next-generation’ missile defence shield against ‘foreign aerial attack’? If Israel’s ‘Iron Dome’ can smash short-range rockets, surely Trump’s early-warned America can demolish the ballistic, hypersonic and advanced cruise missiles of its long-ranging foes.

Russia claims US’s ‘focus’ on space warfare will heighten global ‘tensions’. How bang on target. Strategic deterrence only works if all nations with nukes-brandishing M.A.D.-men are sitting ducks – a precarious balance that’ll collapse if Donald ducks. But then, aren’t peace-poopers proliferating? So, yes, US must also possess those very missiles Trump wants neutralised by eye-in-the-sky satellites, spy-in-the-sky trackers and collide-in-the-sky interceptors of what non-fantasists dub his pie-in-the-sky project.

So is global amity, or calamity, within striking distance? Well, if US’s arms-factories revive Star Wars, retaliators can also lucratively militarise space. Entropic equilibrium will set in: with arms-racers ignoring nuclear insecurity to cash in on Domeland Security, the dome’s-day clock won’t strike midnight. See? Trump may seem an unguided missile. But when Bibi hailed the Don of peace, he hit the nail on the warhead.

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