Milquetoast, and the man who would be king
We have seen the wholesale global trade tariffs inflicted by the Americans as indiscriminately towards its ‘friends’ as its ‘foes’
Published: 03:02 PM,Feb 07,2026 | EDITED : 07:02 PM,Feb 07,2026
How is it that a nation that so wants to be everybody’s friend, loved and admired by all, can be so fickle, so dismissive, so selfish, so careless, and so... brutal?
In the same way that personal relationships sour quickly, the same is true of international relationships, and the United States of America is currently making an art form out of ‘how to lose friends and alienate people,’ and we, all of us, should have seen them on the horizon, however, blinded by our own self-interests we didn’t see these betrayals coming.
We have seen the wholesale global trade tariffs inflicted by the Americans as indiscriminately towards its ‘friends’ as its ‘foes.’ Yet the question whether we, its friends, deserved that is itself brought into question by our muted responses. America has ‘yanked the rug out from under all of us'. This is the geo-political ‘trade chaos theory,’ that we never thought could happen because of the genuine implications for so many of the smaller and less affluent nations. The poverty-stricken among us have no chance!
The world’s leaders have maintained a stifled indignation, with facile responses that label them as ‘milquetoast,’ after the HT Webster comic character of a century ago, Caspar Milquetoast, who refused to engage in any discussion that had any chance of becoming controversial, incredibly weak, timid and insipid. How can they so readily ignore the needs, let alone the opinions, of their people? It is symbolic of appalling arrogance!
Last month we saw the United States intervention in Venezuela, tearing up the international law that had established legal perspectives within which nations are both protected from others and accountable for their own violations of justice in, and abuse of, human rights, employment law, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, ostensibly ensuring justice for all. That has all gone out the window, as the world has seen, ‘If they can do it – so can we!’
And now, echoing similar themes, we see threats against Iran, where the ‘hawks’ of the American military simply can’t wait to bring peace, through war, to a people clearly unhappy with their lot, but lying in a bed of their own making. The Iranians have the leadership they wanted, the leadership they protested for, the leadership they fought for, and have exercised little else for the West than hatred... yet now America is making noises about either saving them from anarchy or bombing them into submission.
Then there is Greenland! A tiny nation under the ‘protection’ of Denmark, its population barely that of a small Mid-West American town, yet, as I have recently researched, has been actively solicited by America since 1867, and subsequently in 1910, 1946, 1948, 1951, 1952, 1955, 2019, 2025, and now in 2026. Numerous times, America has asked Denmark to ‘put a price tag’ on the strategic North Atlantic island, but been rejected each time, and with the most recent referendum also rejecting American ‘sovereignty,’ it could prove a hostile takeover target.
I’m told that President Trump seeks the accession of Greenland as a permanent monument to his presidency, as so many earlier Presidents have sought the same real estate and failed. I guess it’s not enough that the latest addition to the White House is to be named after him in perpetuity, the Donald Trump Banquet Hall?
On the other hand, maybe it’s entirely fitting... Because amidst his bluster and threats, he is making a meal of this presidency. His bigotry, misogyny, narcissism and insecurity, making him an object of ridicule and fear, a combustible combination, and lacking respect for anyone or anything.