M Santhananaban
For over a century we have been digesting the reality that April is the cruellest month, thanks to TS Eliot.
For US President Donald Trump, this April is particularly cruel as he finds himself, in all probability, unable to escape his self-made wasteland in Iran – whether there is a deal or not.
As there is currently no deal, and Kharg Island is not some easy prey like a lucrative Long Island real estate deal, Trump will hopefully realise that tangling with Mojtaba Khamenei brings not spring rain but prolonged pain.
It involves an agonising entanglement far removed from “mixing memory with desire” (as Elliot put it in his 1922 poem The Waste Land). We don’t need a clairvoyant to tell us that an ancient and resilient Persia may yet prevail over an overly puffed-up president.
The world continues to be held hostage in a deeply troubling way by an erratic US leader who persists in using inflammatory language and threatening to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Age”.
The people the US seem powerless to stop this madness, which has caused serious repercussions for the global economy.
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Clearly, the vast majority of the world’s population have been hit by rising energy, food and fuel prices. The poorest suffer the most.
Yet it is troubling that most world leaders are staying silent or cautious, unwilling to take on the president in a more forceful manner.
But Trump cannot possibly take on the whole world.
Can the world be reduced to such a state of helplessness and hopelessness? It is commendable that a few countries continue to show sympathy and solid support for the people of Iran and Lebanon.
We can only hope for some restraint from Trump and some workable, durable resolution to this grave crisis.
Dato’ M Santhananaban is a former Malaysian ambassador with 45 years of public sector experience.
The views expressed in Aliran's media statements and the NGO statements we have endorsed reflect Aliran's official stand. Views and opinions expressed in other pieces published here do not necessarily reflect Aliran's official position.
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