HAS THE FRENCH PRESIDENT TOLD US WHERE AMERICA IS HEADED?

…Attendants at the WWI,100^th Anniversary included Macron, Merkel and the Trump’s

President Macron gave the US President a lesson that he will totally ignore

French President Emmanuel Macron said it as clear as it can be said, and he did it as our ignorant president was standing nearby.  This US President, that calls himself a “Nationalist”, Macron purposely rebuked President Trump when he said that “Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism” and he warned against “old demons coming back to wreak chaos and death.”

Of course, he was referring to what had happened to Germany in World War II and this was being presented during a solemn Armistice Day celebration of 100 years since the end of WWI.

Macron gave this statement under overcast skies at the foot of the Arc de Triomphe, in the heart of the French capital.  The statement was for a global audience, however it was a pointed rebuke of  President Trump, Russian President Vladi­mir Putin and any others among the 60 world leaders in attendance.

Macron made it clear that a global order based on liberal values is worth defending against those who have sought to disrupt that system.  The millions of soldiers who died in the Great World War I, had fought to defend the “universal values” of France and of the then United States.  He emphasized that today’s free nations needed to reject the “selfishness of nations only looking after their own interests”.  This was also an obvious shot at President Trump again stating that patriotism was exactly the opposite of Nationalism.

Unfortunately, partially due to President Trump, as the world marks the 100 years since the end of WWI, nationalism is on the rise again, and we all know how that affected the nation of Germany just before WWII.

It is important today to understand how the German Nazi’s were able to grow into what became the controlling Third Reich under Adolf Hitler.

First, the German government had virtually taken over all of the local press and of the then newly developed German radio stations.  Therefore, whatever was printed or broadcast was whatever the German government had said was the truth.  They virtually  controlled all of the information that was fed to the German public.

Now, look at what is being offered up to those in the US that support President Trump.

Many Americans that support the president, only rely on what they get from the Fox Network and what the gets through their Social Media connections.  And we all know how Fox and the Russians and other interests have put questionable information into those communication channels.

Many of those “Lock Her Up” Trump rally participants,  wearing those “Make America Great Again” hats, they only listen to right-wing radio and they only watch Fox News.  In addition, they receive and believe all those false info Tweets from the current US president.

In many ways, Trump is growing his support for "Nationalism" in a way that is similar to the way Hitler and the Nazi’s took over Germany.  The only difference is that is that the information technology has changed.  Those that support the president are not receiving the whole truth and the Trump administration is taking their supporters down a path of untruths, just as Hitler’s group did way back in the 1930’s & 40’s.

President Macron continues to stand as a vocal counterweight to President Trump, who had just recently decided to call himself a “Nationalist”.  Trump has since moved to set the United States apart from all of its global treaties, including the Iran nuclear deal, the Paris climate accord and a UN program that supports refugees.  (Similar moves were made by Hitler and Germany back in the 1930’s.)

Amid other growing divisions in Europe that have strained the European Union, Macron continues to defend that institution and the United Nations, declaring that the “spirit of cooperation” has “defended the common good of the world.”

“By putting our own interests first, with no regard for others, we erase the very thing that a nation holds dearest, and the thing that keeps it alive: its moral values,” Macron said.  Again, this was another shot at Trump for his strong, isolationist views.

Macron denounced those fringe ideologies that have become more mainstream in Europe.  These views warp religious beliefs and they set loose extremist forces on what he called “a sinister course once again that could undermine the legacy of peace that we thought we had forever sealed.”

These powerful remarks came as the many of the gathered world leaders had sought to mark the 100 year since the war by honoring those who served and died.

Among those who participated were German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  British Prime Minister Theresa May did not attend, as she remained in London to preside over a war remembrance there.  But she had visited France last week to lay wreaths at military cemeteries and she meet with Macron.  

As expected, Chinese President Xi Jinping did not attend.

President Trump did speak at the first US military cemetery outside the US, which is located  in France.  He spoke on this 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, but he was criticized for not attending another ceremony because of bad weather.  All the other dignitaries did show up, even in the heavy weather.

Putin told Russia’s US Radio and TV, RT Network, after the ceremony that he and Trump spoke during the leaders’ luncheon, but that a formal meeting would wait until they cross paths at the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires later this month.  Putin said he and Trump agreed to a request from French officials not to overshadow the war remembrance ceremony.

“We are ready for dialogue,” Putin said, adding a dig at the Trump administration for announcing that the United States would withdraw from a landmark Cold War arms pact. “We’re not the ones exiting the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.”

Ahead of the ceremony, dozens of other world leaders, wearing black, had strode shoulder-to-shoulder along the Champs-Elysees toward the Arc de Triomphe as French military jets streaked overhead, emitting red, white and blue smoke, also the colors of France.

Trump did not attend the walk and he did not address the Macron speech.

It is obvious that the relationship between Trump and Macron has soured as the US president has promoted an “America First” foreign policy that has unsettled allies on trade and defense.  Macron has sought to counter some of Trump’s agenda, and he organized a three-day Peace Forum that began Sunday afternoon, just as Trump headed home to Washington on Air Force One.

For European observers, the commemoration was a somber event, but not because of the dead it was honoring.  A lot was the poor relationship between Europe and President Trump.

In this resurgent Nationalism, which has seen upheavals in Rome, Budapest, Warsaw and even London, Macron was alone in preaching the virtues of multi-lateralism.  Merkel, his most loyal partner in that endeavor, has now announced that she will soon leave public life.

“Franco-German reconciliation was at the very heart of what we’ve been seeing together,” said Dominique Moïsi, a French foreign policy expert at the Paris-based Institute Montaigne and an informal adviser to the Macron campaign.

“But she [Merkel] is out,” he said of the head of Germany, who announced she will step down in 2021. “The spirit in which we are commemorating the event is no longer fully present.”

Taking the stage to applause at the Paris Peace Forum later Sunday, Macron avoided presenting the weekend’s event as a success. Instead, he said history would remember the image of multiple world leaders whose countries were once at war gathered in peace under the Arc.

The question, Macron said, was how that image would be interpreted.

“Will it be the symbol of a durable peace among nations?” he asked. “Or, on the contrary, a photograph of a final moment of unity before the world descends into a new disorder?”

I think with our current leadership, Macron may be telling us what to look out for under this president.

Copyright G. Ater  2018