Democracy is the Worst Form of Government Except for All of the Other Ones

One thing about gangs of thieves is that betrayal is a feature, not a bug. The buzz right now is that Trump is expanding Witkoff's mandate based on his securing the Gaza ceasefire. Specifically, the speculation is about getting Witkoff to do a deal with Iran. Traditional establishment types, the kind who loved McCain's Bomb Iran song, are getting booted and I'm pretty curious about how AIPAC is taking it.

It shouldn't be surprising - all of Trump's owners are making moves with Iran. Putin just finalized a military co-operation deal with Iran, and Saudi Arabia is moving forward with settling their long standing rivalry. There's definitely a current of bringing Iran into the club - it is one of the expansion nations in BRICS. While Trump does count on the Israel lobby to back him at every step, apparently he feels like he owes them nothing in return. They need him more than he needs them and he knows it.  

Am I noting this because I think it'll be good for Gaza (because it is obviously bad for Israel)? Maybe? It's complicated. 

I don't think this is good for Gaza. Acting in opposition to Israel specifically with regards to the generations of occupation and apartheid and now this recent stage of full blown genocide? That is good - but it does not excuse the horrible shit that came with it. Hamas is a terrorist organization that specifically targeted civilians for violence and harm. More over, they were not and are not a responsive and fair governing authority. Violating human rights in the Gaza Strip is not a practice unique to the occupying IDF forces. Hamas, well they're no angels.  

Additionally, Iran is a far-right theocracy - not the type of people I want to see becoming more influential in our already broken world. So this is bad in many ways. That said - my objections are pretty high minded relative to the fact that it is a fucking genocide going on. I'm going off that Ben Franklin quote - " those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." But the fact is, Palestinians (especially those in Gaza) already have neither liberty nor safety. Worrying about the spread of far right religious extremists is a luxury that is pretty alien to a devastated territory that has been essentially bombed out of existence. These concerns are well into "let them eat cake" levels of out-of-touch.  

Here's where I am - the US has lost a fuckton of standing in the world, and the new Commander-in-Chief is absolutely not going to reverse that trend. And as terrible as US foreign policy has been, I still see this as a very bad thing. The West built up an international order, which had a lot of very real problems, but also too delivered a lot of real benefits. Maybe I can say this because I am not a citizen of the Global South, but I do believe that the "international rules based order" has been a net positive, and by a pretty significant margin. But the whole thing has been severely damaged by the ridiculous antics of the Biden Administration - just absolutely shredded and left with little to no legitimacy whatsoever.  

And it wasn't just Biden, although clearly he was the driving force behind it all. The whole lot of us -Canada, the EU, our allies like Japan and Australia - we all went along with it. Maybe some of us put up some resistance eventually, but certainly not enough. We are at this point because Western democracy has failed so spectacularly and now the consequences are starting to show themselves.  There are other games in town - and as much as we tell ourselves that "democracy is the worst form of government except for all of the other ones" - well maybe we have been rating it too highly.