AMERICA FIRST

The European nations now getting themselves in a collective fit about America's seeming threat, led by its new President Donald J Trump, to withdraw from its position of the defender of western civilisation, as if this was something new.

Whilst the world has got used to seeing America in the role of global policeman, and has happily sheltered under its nuclear umbrella, it has in reality been fooling itself since 1945.

America at its heart is isolationist, and why not?

It has all the oil, coal and gas it can use; it can, should it so choose, produce more food than it can eat and is wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice. The world might need America, but it is doubtful that America needs the world.

Since its inception the United States has been essentially an inward-looking nation and where it has involved itself in world affairs it has been only to serve its own self-interest.

The USA would never have become involved in the First World War had Germany not incited Mexico to declare war on America and if Germany had not been so stupid as to order its submarines to sink US ships. Even when it did, belatedly, join the war it was not as a partner to the French and the British, rather it fought its own private war with German, did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles but made its own peace with Germany in 1921.

It is highly improbable that America would have chosen to take part in the fight against Hitler's Germany during World War Two.

There was, and has always been, a strong anti-British feeling amongst Americans, driven by their envy of our innovation, Empire and language. There was, in 1918, a very real possibility that America, now it had an army in Europe,  would 'sort out the British once and for all', presumably in revenge for losing the war of 1812.

There was at the same time a corresponding strong pro-German sentiment, the USA had, in the 1930s, the largest Nazi party outside Germany.

After Pearl Harbour America would have been quite content to have its own private Pacific War with Japan and leave Europe to sort out its own destiny and salvation had not Germany, in an act of madness, declared war on the USA.

Since the end of WWII we have seen American expansion and aggression across the globe, but it has rarely been to the advantage of the nations affected.

Korea, due to America's war, is a divided nation, each half living in perpetual fear of the other.

Vietnam was wracked with strife for 20 years, and for what? Not for Vietnam's benefit that's for sure.

The Gulf War, nothing more than America's revenge for the loss of the Twin Towers, no matter how it might be dressed up as a fight for freedom.                                                                                              

One hundred years on from Woodrow Wilson's 'America First' annunciation in 1916 we see its resurgence in Trump's  threats  to withdraw from international treaties and  conduct an isolationist trade policy, imposing tariffs on imports in an effort to return America to a self-sufficient nation.

And now, Trump wants to buy Greenland, annex Canada and invade Panama, all for the greater good of..........the United States of America!

America First!