If the US does not cast a shadow, it needs no other favour

The words US President Trump uttered at the press conference with French President Macron about his expectations from the Arab world were like a sentence of revealed secrets about the understanding with which they have so far governed the world.

Trump openly laid out the whole racket on which the relationship between the US and all Arab countries in general, but especially the Gulf countries, rests. That it was said so openly in fact overturned all diplomatic custom, style and relations.

Trump is openly demanding tribute. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have plenty of money, and they have a right in this money because of the protection they have so far been provided. Trump is demanding this right.

Since the September 11 attacks he said it had spent 7 trillion dollars on fighting terror in its operations in the Middle East, and that this had in fact been done to protect these countries. But in return for all this money the US spent to protect these countries both from terror and from the Iranian threat, he spoke of the Arab countries sitting on huge fortunes and not sharing this money with them.

To be sure, this is not the first time Trump has said these things. Even before being elected President he was saying much more via Twitter or in some speeches. It had been expected that once he sat in a seat of responsibility he would soften those unswallowable ideas, and that even if he kept the same ideas he would express them in a more courteous tone. But Trump, without any concession even in his style, went on expressing the same ideas in the same way.

Of course, though the words he expressed in that crude style are a blunt expression of his own ideas, they are not equally true; they are entirely contrary to the truth. Neither Saudi Arabia nor any Arab country needs US protection. Neither against Iran nor against any other power...

In essence, the one who created this need for protection is none other than the US itself. The US invaded even Iraq not to protect the Arabs against terror, but under the pretext of stopping a terror threat directed at itself five thousand miles beyond its borders. The weapons of mass destruction rationale turned out to be a huge lie, and it was already known that this was merely a pretext fabricated for the invasion of Iraq, which it had set its mind on.

Therefore there is no situation that requires it to send a bill to anyone. Today it talks of protecting Saudi Arabia or the Gulf against the Iranian threat, but everyone knows and sees that even Iran's having become a threat today is solely the responsibility of none other than the US.

The US, which invaded Iraq, kept it under de facto occupation for about ten years and then left it, as if on a golden tray, entirely to Iran's control, also succeeded in making this a source of tension that would disturb the Arab countries. Iran, in its present form, is the most useful material the US has resorted to for subjecting the Arab countries to tribute. Let no one expect it to use up this material soon. Apparently, both Iran's anti-Americanism and the US's anti-Iranism are the most practical, the most convenient way of eating the Arab countries' tribute.

Within today's world order, Iran is a tremendous livelihood for the US. It is not Iran's being threatening but its not being so that would constitute a great threat to the US's Middle East order. Should such a situation arise, let no one doubt, the US would try to take other measures to revive this threat.

In fact, establishing an order and subjecting people to tribute with this logic is the best-known way of mafia orders. The mafia too subjects a place to tribute in the name of protecting it from dogs and mongrels. Everyone knows that in fact there is no one more of a cur and a mongrel than the one providing the protection. The real threat is the protector himself. If he did not constitute a threat, there would be no one to threaten or disrupt the order.

That is why the protection is provided so that he himself does not constitute a threat, and its price depends on the wealth of the one subjected to tribute and on the mercy of the one collecting it. The US has no mercy and the Arab countries have much money. All the poor, destitute, hungry and starving Muslims of the world have a right over the Arab countries' wealth, and even with the zakat of the tribute collected the problem of hunger in the Islamic world could easily be solved. But the US does not care. In fact, this is how it has always been in the relationship between the US and the Gulf countries. But no one had expressed this order so openly in this manner. Trump expresses the mind and approach behind the US's world order in the clearest and bluntest way.

What is hard to understand here, of course, is how the Arab countries can consent to this relationship so easily. Do they not know that fear is of no use against death? Do they not know that once you accept tribute and blackmail it is impossible to feed that wheel?

The US had imposed this order on Turkey too, and Turkey could be considered to have been subjected to tribute in proportion to its means. Over the last ten years Turkey has managed to step out of this wheel of tribute and blackmail. It refused the attempt to market and build up the YPG to get rid of terror against ISIS.

Turkey said, let it be. I want neither your fight against terror nor your help in it. In any case, whatever kind of fight against terror it is, the more you fight, the more terror grows, the more it develops, the more it runs rampant.

Over time we have also seen clearly that the greatest party responsible for terror in the Middle East is none other than the US and its policies. After seeing this truth, there is only one thing left to say: Do not stand in the way; no other favor is wanted.