The United States has gone from supposed guardian to destroyer of the post-World War Two international order

The old world order is gone . . . Nostalgia won’t save us, but honesty and strength at home, and collective action abroad can forge a better future.

By Fareed Khan 
A version of this article can be found on Substack.

In what has been called an era-defining speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 21, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney laid bare the “rupture” in the global order that has sustained relative peace and prosperity globally since the end of World War Two. Drawing on Václav Havel’s parable of the greengrocer who props up a false system by displaying a sign he doesn’t believe in, Carney urged middle powers to stop “living within the lie” of a rules-based international system that no longer exists. The great powers, he argued—with a clear reference to the United States—now pursue naked self-interest, weaponizing economic integration and abandoning multilateral institutions.

For Canada, this means confronting a brutal reality where our largest trading partner, the US, is no longer an ally but an active enemy of the world order that has kept global peace for eight decades. It’s time for Canadians to remove our own signs of compliance, recognize the US as a clear threat to our sovereignty, and forge new alliances with nations that still uphold values like territorial integrity, multilateralism, and solidarity.

The post-World War Two order, built on institutions like the United Nations and the World Trade Organization, was imperfect but effective in preventing large-scale conflicts and promoting collective security and prosperity. The US, as its chief architect, provided benefits such as guaranteeing open sea lanes and supporting dispute resolution mechanisms. But under Donald Trump’s second presidency, America has morphed into a rogue actor, dismantling these very foundations through unilateral aggression and imperial overreach.

Consider the US military incursion into Venezuela on January 3, 2026, where special forces captured President Nicolás Maduro in a raid involving airstrikes on military installations and the temporary blackout of parts of Caracas. Trump brazenly declared that the US would “run the country” until a transition to a new regime suited American interests, echoing colonial-era interventions and violating the UN Charter’s prohibition on the use of force except in self-defence or with Security Council approval. This operation, planned for months without congressional authorization, underscores how the US now flouts international law, treating sovereign nations as extensions of American interests or as vassal states.

Trump’s threats against Iran further illustrate this erosion. Amid widespread protests in Iran, Trump has repeatedly warned of “very strong action,” including military strikes, if the regime executes demonstrators. He has gone so far as to vow that Iran would be “wiped off the face of this earth“ if it acts on assassination threats against him or harms protesters. While he dialed back immediate action after reports of declining violence, the sabre-rattling persists, with options like cyberattacks and airstrikes on the table. Such rhetoric not only destabilizes the Middle East but revives the spectre of pre-emptive wars, reminiscent of the 2003 Iraq invasion that shattered global trust in US leadership.

Even more insidious is Trump’s effort to “own” Gaza through his so-called “Board of Peace.” Ostensibly created to oversee Gaza’s reconstruction following Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, under a 20-point ceasefire plan endorsed by the UN Security Council, this body has ballooned into a pay-to-play imperial council with Trump appointing himself as chairman. Nations can buy permanent seats for $1 billion, with funds supposedly for rebuilding, but the charter omits any specific mention of Gaza, instead positioning the board as a “bold new approach to resolving global conflict” that could supplant the UN. This includes an executive committee controlling Gaza’s demilitarization and governance, effectively placing the territory under US-led oversight and sidelining Palestinian self-determination. By commodifying international diplomacy and bypassing established institutions, Trump is not building peace but entrenching US hegemony, turning the post-war order into a marketplace for those who can afford to pay his price.

For Canada, the implications are dire. Despite being our largest trading partner and neighbour, the US under Trump is no longer a friend or ally. Trump’s fixation on territorial expansion directly threatens our sovereignty as well as Greenland’s, Mexico’s and that of other nations. He has repeatedly floated annexing Canada as the 51st state since he was re-elected, citing our vast natural resources as motivations. In a September 2025 speech, he claimed Canadian leaders wanted to join his “Golden Dome” missile defense system “for free,” retorting, “Why don’t you just join our country? You become the 51st state.” Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned that these threats stem from the US coveting Canadian resources, noting, “They’re very aware of our resources, of what we have, and they very much want to be able to benefit from those.”

This ambition extends to the Arctic, where Trump’s wants the US to seize Greenland, and has threatened to impose tariffs on Denmark and allies like Norway, Sweden, France and the UK if they oppose his efforts. He has announced that tariffs of 10% on those supporting Denmark will begin on February 1, 2026, rising to 25% by June if no deal is reached to purchase or cede Greenland for reasons of America’s “national security.”

Trump frames this as benefiting Canada by countering Russian and Chinese influence in the Arctic, but it is nothing less than a thinly veiled land grab. He has also criticized Canada’s defense spending as inadequate, pushing for joint military operations, updated warning systems, and US patrols in Canadian waters—steps that could erode Canadian control over the Northwest Passage, which Canada considers internal territorial waters. American insiders reveal a “secret plot” for larger takeovers, with aides noting Trump’s view that “the status quo is not enough” for Canada’s Arctic capabilities.

Canadian leaders have urged standing up to these threats, warning that if Canada fails to stand up for Greenland today, then can it can’t expect anybody aid Canada when we need it. Trump’s history of threats, including economic force during his first term, makes clear that military options aren’t off the table, though he deems them “highly unlikely. Yet, his invasion of Venezuela shows how quickly rhetoric can be turned into reality.

Canadians need to realize that this nation’s territory and sovereignty are now under threat from the United States—the world’s biggest economic and military power. As Carney noted in his speech, our geography and alliances no longer guarantee security. We face an era of economic and political instability, with the world’s three major powers vying for dominance.

However, in light of developments over the past year since Trump returned to the White House, the greatest threat to world peace today is not China or Russia, whose aggressions are predictable and often contained. It’s the United States, whose erratic, unilateral actions—fuelled by Trump’s irrationality and demagoguery—undermine the very alliances that once restrained such powers. In some very disturbing ways the US has become a modern-day incarnation of Nazi Germany, not through ideology alone but through its expansionist impulses, disregard for borders and international law, and willingness to coerce or invade other weaker nations under pretexts of security or access to resources.

To survive, Canada must heed Carney’s call for “values-based realism.” We need to depend on alliances with nations that share our commitments to sovereignty, international law, and sustainable development—partners like the European Union, with whom we’ve deepened strategic ties, or emerging coalitions in Asia and Latin America. Carney’s government has already pivoted by cutting taxes to boost the domestic economy, doubling defence spending by 2030, and signing trade agreements with China, Qatar, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates. We are championing multilateral initiatives, like bridging the Trans-Pacific Partnership with the EU to create a 1.5-billion-person trading bloc, and forming buyer’s clubs for critical minerals to reduce dependence on any single power.

But policy alone isn’t enough. Canadians also must rise up to express our outrage and opposition to this American betrayal. Protests, boycotts, and public campaigns can signal our refusal to “go along to get along.” As Havel taught, one act of truth can crack the illusion. By naming the US as the dangerous adversary it has become, we reclaim our power and invite other middle powers to join us in building a new order—one free from the fortresses of isolation and the coercion of hegemonic powers.

The old world order is gone, as Carney said. Nostalgia won’t save us. But honesty and strength at home, and collective action abroad can forge a better future. For Canada, that starts with turning our backs on a former ally turned enemy, and facing the world with open eyes and unyielding resolve.

© 2026 The View From Here. © 2026 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.

The US annexing Greenland would result in catastrophe for North America and Europe

Economically, the fallout would devastate the US as the European Union and NATO nations retaliate in response to American aggression . . . including dumping holdings of US debt . . .

 
By Fareed Khan 
A version of this article can be found on Substack.

As Canadians, deeply invested in the stability of our continent and the alliances that have protected it for generations, we should view the escalating American rhetoric around annexing Greenland with profound alarm. In early 2026, President Donald Trump’s repeated assertions that the United States must control this Danish territory “one way or another” for national security reasons have pushed transatlantic relations to a breaking point. If the US were to proceed with forceful annexation, whether through military action or overwhelming economic coercion, it would constitute an unprecedented act of aggression against a fellow NATO member. Rather than strengthening the United States it would represent geopolitical suicide, dismantling the post-World War Two international order that has prevented major wars among major global powers and ensured relative global peace.

The bedrock of this order is NATO, founded in 1949 on the principle of collective defence. Article 5 declares that an armed attack against one ally is considered an attack against all. By moving against Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark fully covered by NATO’s guarantees, the US would trigger this clause against itself. Such a betrayal would render the alliance untenable overnight. European leaders, including Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, have explicitly warned that an attack on Greenland would spell the end of NATO. The organization that has deterred Soviet and then Russian aggression for 75 years would collapse, forcing Europe to accelerate independent rearmament and seek new security arrangements that exclude the former guarantor. This fracture would not only embolden adversaries like Russia and China in the Arctic but also leave North America more vulnerable, as shared defense structures collapse.

Militarily, the consequences for the United States would be swift and severe. Europe currently hosts numerous key US installations—over 30 military bases and additional sites—essential for projecting power into Eurasia, the Middle East, and Africa. Facilities like Ramstein Air Base in Germany, Aviano in Italy, and RAF Lakenheath in the UK form the backbone of American forward presence. In retaliation for an attack on a NATO partner, European governments would demand—and likely enforce—the closure of these bases, evicting US forces from soil they helped defend since 1945. The US would retreat to a more isolated posture, losing critical logistical advantages and diminishing its global reach. Recent European deployments of small contingents to Greenland for joint exercises with Denmark already signal a shift toward bolstering Arctic defences without heavy US reliance.

Economically, the fallout would devastate the US as the European Union and NATO nations retaliate in response to American aggression and restrict American products entering the European market. The EU could impose comprehensive sanctions, including dumping holdings of US debt, divesting from dollar reserves, and targeting American corporations operating on the continent. This would undermine the dollar’s status as the global reserve currency, sparking a severe devaluation, rampant US inflation, and a potential stock market collapse far exceeding more recent crises. American companies—tech giants, automakers, and consumer brands—could face asset seizures, market bans, or forced divestitures, erasing trillions in value. Aviation restrictions might ground Boeing aircraft and bar US carriers from European airspace, severing transatlantic supply chains. The result would be a rapid de-globalization that isolates the American economy from its wealthiest trading partners and severely weakens it, contrary to the promises Donald Trump made to American voters. 

Diplomatic and cultural isolation would compound the damage. International sporting bodies, drawing parallels to Russia’s exclusion following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, would likely suspend the US from events like the Olympics and FIFA World Cup competitions. Team USA would be absent from global stages, treated as a pariah akin to Russia. Visa-free travel to Europe would end abruptly, complicating movement for Americans and turning the US passport into a barrier rather than an asset. This ostracism would be long-term because trust, once shattered by invading a democratic ally, does not easily recover. Europe would pivot to independent defence architectures, alternative financial systems, and alliances that sideline the US, preserving the broader Western framework without American leadership.

The consequences for Canada would be devastating, given our deep and longstanding economic entanglement with the United States. Bilateral trade between the two countries routinely surpasses a trillion dollars annually (combining goods and services), with the US serving as the destination for the overwhelming majority of Canadian exports. These exports account for a substantial portion of our economy—often estimated at around 17-20% of GDP in recent years. If the US economy were to collapse under the weight of severe European sanctions and diplomatic isolation, the fallout for Canada would be swift and severe with widespread job losses across interconnected industries, fractured supply chains that have evolved over decades, and intensified recessionary forces rippling through every region of the country.

In this scenario Canada would suddenly find itself caught in an excruciating dilemma—torn between our largest and most vital trading partner on one side, and our longstanding European allies on the other. In a world order turned upside down by such a crisis, Ottawa would face an unavoidable choice of allegiances. In all likelihood, Canada would ultimately side with Europe, this alignment reflecting a commitment to upholding international law and norms, as well as a strategic imperative to preserve credibility within the remnants of NATO and the broader network of global institutions. Standing firmly against any illegal annexation would help safeguard Canada’s reputation as a principled middle power, even in the face of short-term economic pain.

However, this choice carries grave risks. Canada’s Arctic expanse holds vast energy reserves and critical minerals essential for green technologies. In addition, this country holds approximately 20% of the world’s freshwater reserves—a resource increasingly coveted by the US as the American US southwest continues to grapple with a megadrought ongoing since 2000, the worst in over a millennium. If the US justifies seizing Greenland for strategic and resource needs, similar logic could cause Trump to say that the US needs Canada’s north for its strategic and economic importance as well.

To protect Canadian sovereignty in the face of such uncertainties, Canada could seek enhanced European military support—including troop deployments or joint Arctic patrols on Canadian territory. Europe, recognizing Canada as a key partner in preventing a broader transatlantic fracture, would likely respond with firm commitment by deepening security ties through established frameworks, investing in shared infrastructure, diversifying trade to lessen reliance on the US, and extending defensive assurances via EU mutual assistance mechanisms beyond NATO. Recent European troop deployments to Greenland already signal a readiness to act decisively in the Arctic, and extending comparable solidarity to Canada would strengthen collective resilience across the region.

In the end, any US annexation of Greenland would sacrifice an eight-decade alliance and the shared economic prosperity forged through cooperation, all for short-term territorial advantage. From Canada’s vantage point, this course promises not greater strength but mutual decline, where a once-dominant superpower drifts into isolation, while its former allies realign to sustain patterns of economic partnership and collective defence without American involvement. To avoid being caught in the crossfire, Canada must forge closer coordination with Europe and secure robust allied backing. The survival of the post-war international order ultimately hinges on firmly rejecting aggression—even from the US—before it becomes irreversible.

© 2026 The View From Here. © 2026 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.

Zionism has enabled Western complicity in Israeli crimes – The ideology must be purged from society to reclaim our souls

The West, Israel's chief enabler, must confront the deep poison of Zionism that has corrupted our politics, media, moral compass, and stolen our humanity

By Fareed Khan 
A version of this article can be found on Substack.

In the shadowed corridors of power, where truth is often the first casualty, our Canadian and Western society teeters on the brink of a profound moral collapse. This crisis, one of our own making, stems from the unwavering support Western nations have lavished upon Israel—a rogue state that has flouted international law since its creation on stolen Palestinian land.

For decades Israel and its Zionist agents in the West have coerced, threatened, bribed and gas lit politicians, news media outlets, and societal leaders to champion Israel’s interests while turning a blind eye to its war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Zionism has infiltrated and corrupted the very fabric of Western democracy to the point that Western society consistently sided with Israel even when it launched wars against its neighbours and committed the most heinous of crimes. The abyss between the West’s proclaimed values and grim reality widens daily, threatening not just the Palestinian people but the soul of our society. The death of truth, as we have witnessed in the ongoing horrors of Gaza, marks the triumph of unchecked evil that should have died with the worst horrors of the 20th Century.

Our hold on objective reality frayed irreparably in October 2023, when Israel unleashed its “final solution” on Gaza—an enclave long described as an open-air Palestinian prison and concentration camp, where every facet of life is dictated by Israeli control. What has unfolded is nothing short of genocide, a crime affirmed by the United Nations, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem, renowned Israeli Holocaust scholars, the nations backing South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), international legal scholars. The ICJ itself ruled that Israel’s actions constitute plausible genocide. Yet, in Western media and political discourse, the word “genocide” is verboten, reporters muzzled from humanizing Palestinians or acknowledging the scale of atrocity. Major outlets in the US, Canada, the UK, and Germany—CNN, CBC, BBC, Deustsche Welle—exile this truth, mirroring the complicity of Western governments that could halt the slaughter but instead supply arms and diplomatic cover.

Birthed in 1948 amid the ashes of the Holocaust, Israel, for good or ill was supposed to be a refuge for European Jews in the Middle-East. Instead, it became a monster, perpetrating evils against Palestinians akin to those of Nazi Germany—not in sheer numbers but in the calculated intent to eradicate a people. This is not hyperbole. Israel’s founding involved the ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinians in the Nakba, the destruction and physical erasure of over 500 Palestinian villages, and the seizure of Palestinian land through terrorism and force. From its admission to the United Nations in 1949 under Resolution 273, Israel’s acceptance was conditioned on fulfilling Resolutions 181 (partition plan) and 194 (right of return for Palestinian refugees). It has flagrantly failed both, refusing to allow refugees back and expanding settlements on occupied Palestinian land in violation of international law. This defiance set the stage for decades of impunity, enabled by Western patrons who prioritized geopolitical alliances over justice for Palestinians.

Prominent voices, including Jewish intellectuals who could not be dismissed as biased, have long exposed Israel as a criminal terrorist state. Noam Chomsky, the eminent linguist and political commentator, has decried Israel’s actions as genocidal, arguing that US support for its occupation threatens world peace. He has advocated for a single binational state, rejecting the ethno-nationalist framework that sustains apartheid-like conditions. Chomsky’s critique echoes a historical pattern, one where Israel’s systematic dispossession of Palestinians mirrors colonial genocides, where settlers expel indigenous populations and take over their lands.

Norman Finkelstein, son of Holocaust survivors and a scholar of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, brands Israel a “rogue state“ that violates every international norm. In his exhaustive analysis of the suffering of Gaza’s people, Finkelstein documents how Israel’s assaults—killing thousands, predominantly civilians—are flagrant war crimes, shielded by Western complicity. He asserts that Israel’s intent is not self-defence but the complete destruction of Palestinian society, a genocide in slow motion, accelerated since 2023. Finkelstein’s work underscores how Zionism’s propaganda has inverted victim and perpetrator, portraying oppressed Palestinians as aggressors, and the Israeli aggressors as victims.

Ilan Pappe, the Israeli historian exiled for telling the truth about Israel’s criminal history, chronicles the nation’s founding as premeditated ethnic cleansing. In his seminal work The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Pappe details Plan Dalet, the blueprint for expelling Palestinians, drawing parallels to genocidal campaigns. He contends that Zionism’s colonial ethos has poisoned Israeli society, leading to the current Gaza genocide where hospitals are bombed and aid blocked in defiance of international law. Pappe’s exile from Israeli academia highlights Zionism’s grip, where dissent is silenced and truth about Israeli crimes is branded as treason.

Miko Peled, born into a prominent Zionist family, the son of the renowned Israeli General Matti Peled—a hero of the 1948 and 1967 wars—has emerged as one of the most unflinching pro-Palestinian voices from within Israeli society. Despite his privileged upbringing and early military service, Peled underwent a profound transformation, particularly after the tragic death of his 13-year-old niece in a 1997 Palestinian suicide bombing in Jerusalem. This personal loss drove him to deeply examine the narratives he had inherited, ultimately leading him to condemn Israel as a “terrorist state” and an apartheid regime.

From his insider perspective, Peled exposes the Israeli military as the world’s best-equipped, best-trained, and best-fed terrorist organization, arguing that Israel’s systemic control over Palestinians—through the denial of basic rights, routine bombing of civilians, and the maintenance of concentration-camp-like conditions in Gaza—amounts to institutionalized terrorism, all sustained by Western indifference and complicity. His courageous critique shatters the enduring myth of Israel as a beleaguered democracy under constant threat, instead revealing a society where widespread public support for ethnic cleansing and genocide exposes deep-seated supremacist attitudes.

Similarly, Gideon Levy, the acclaimed Ha’aretz columnist who has long risked his life reporting from the occupied Palestinian territories, offers a searing indictment of Israel’s moral erosion. He portrays the occupation as a metastasizing cancer that festers through the daily atrocities committed by settlers and soldiers alike, while much of the Western media averts its gaze. Levy has repeatedly warned that Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza has rendered the country a global pariah, its carefully cultivated reputation now in ruins amid the flood of unfiltered images from Gaza documenting widespread horror and suffering. Through his persistent pleas for empathy and humanity, Levy works to rehumanize Palestinians in the eyes of Israelis and the world, directly challenging the Zionist propaganda that systematically dehumanizes them—often reducing them to labels like “human animals“ or terrorist threats to be eradicated. His unflinching journalism stands as a vital counterforce to the narratives that enable ongoing oppression and violence.

Even Albert Einstein, the renowned physicist and committed humanist, issued stark warnings about the dangers of political Zionism. He firmly opposed the establishment of a sovereign Jewish state, believing it would cultivate a narrow, aggressive nationalism that would ultimately inflict deep and lasting harm on Judaism itself. In December 1948, he co-signed a public letter—published in The New York Times—condemning Zionist paramilitary groups such as the Irgun and Stern gangs as “fascist” organizations whose tactics and ideology bore disturbing similarities to those of the Nazis. Einstein’s foresight proves hauntingly prescient today. The creation of Israel in 1948 resulted in the ethnic cleansing of more than 750,000 Palestinians through forced expulsions, the erasure of over 500 Palestinian villages, and widespread terror, planting the seeds of perpetual conflict that Western governments have sustained for generations through unwavering military, financial, and diplomatic backing.

These prominent critics—Jewish intellectuals, historians, and activists of conscience—are far from outliers. Together, they form a powerful chorus exposing the toxic influence of Zionism, which has fuelled endless violent conflicts across the Middle East. Since its founding in 1948, Israel has systematically violated the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Geneva and Hague Conventions, the Genocide Convention, and the most fundamental tenets of humanity—all in pursuit of its national and geopolitical ambitions.

Yet Western leaders continue to recite the tired mantra that “Israel has a right to defend itself,” even as this racist apartheid state bombs schools, razes hospitals, engineers starvation in Gaza, and assassinates journalists with complete impunity. This unwavering complicity has poisoned Western societies from within. The United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, and their allies have pour billions in military hardware into Israel—arms that have been used to slaughter innocents—while organizations like AIPAC in the US (now widely regarded as a politically toxic organization) and similar pro-Israel lobbies in other countries, exert relentless pressure to silence dissenting political voices.

The toxicity of Zionism permeates far beyond the halls of government, seeping into the core of Western institutions and everyday discourse. Universities routinely suppress pro-Palestinian voices through disciplinary measures, event cancellations, and funding threats, stifling academic freedom and open debate. Major Western news outlets engage in pervasive self-censorship, marginalizing or outright dehumanizing Palestinian suffering by avoiding terms like “occupation” or “genocide,” framing reporting to align with pro-Israel perspectives, and downplaying civilian casualties. Societal leaders—politicians, influencers, and public figures—cynically conflate legitimate criticism of Zionism with antisemitism, a dangerous tactic that deflects scrutiny from Israel’s criminal actions and shields it from accountability.

This infiltration has been insidious and pervasive, embedding Zionist ideology deep within Western minds and structures over generations. Relentless pro-Israel propaganda has indoctrinated populations, consistently portraying Israel as the eternal victim besieged by existential threats, while systematically vilifying Palestinians as inherent aggressors unworthy of empathy, rights, or even basic humanity. This narrative inversion has taken firm root, profoundly shaping public opinion, driving policy decisions, and dictating media framing across the United States, Europe, and beyond—ensuring that Israel’s violations of international law are met with silence or justification rather than condemnation.

Recent polling data from Israel itself lays bare the extent of extremist radicalization within Israeli society. A March 2025 survey of Jewish Israelis, commissioned by Pennsylvania State University and published by the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, revealed shocking levels of support for extreme measures against Palestinians. Fully 82% of respondents endorsed the forced expulsion of all Palestinians from Gaza—often framed as “transfer” but amounting to ethnic cleansing, a clear war crime under international law. Even more disturbingly, 47% agreed that the Israeli army should emulate the biblical conquest of Jericho by killing every inhabitant of captured enemy cities, effectively supporting the total extermination of all men, women and children in Gaza. This mirrors the dehumanization tactics once employed by the Nazis against Jews, reducing an entire people to existential threats that justify total eradication—yet the Western alliance continues to provide Israel with political, military, and financial support.

These attitudes among Israelis are not fringe outliers but reflect a broader societal shift, compounded by decades of Zionist indoctrination, occupation, settlement expansion, and impunity. The United Nations has passed repeated resolutions condemning Israel’s actions—more than against any other member state—yet these are routinely ignored, actions supported by the US. Israel’s admission to the UN in 1949 came with explicit conditions, including acceptance of the partition plan and the right of return for Palestinian refugees. It agreed to the resolutions but has fulfilled neither, instead perpetuating a brutal, decades-long occupation and committing genocidal acts with utter disregard for human life and international norms. Western complicity in this defiance not only enables ongoing crimes but erodes the credibility of global institutions and the rule of law itself.

The poison of Zionism is clearly evident in Gaza over the past 27 months, where the ideology has allowed Israel to justify genocide, and commit mass murder with a true death toll far exceeding the underreported official figures that dominate mainstream narratives. Independent analyses of Israeli crimes paints a far more harrowing picture of the scale of devastation inflicted since October 2023. Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has documented more than 75,000 Palestinians killed, underscoring the relentless toll on civilian life.

However, there are other analyses of Palestinian casualties that are far higher. Drawing directly from Israeli military data, Ben Gurion University professor Yaakov Garb’s rigorous spatial and demographic study estimates at least 377,000 Palestinians dead or missing—presumed dead—amid the rubble, and widespread disappearances, with roughly half believed to be children. Even more starkly, a 2025 study by Australian academics Richard Hill and Gideon Polya, building on epidemiological projections from The Lancet and accounting for both direct violence and indirect deaths from engineered famine, blockades, disease, and a collapsed healthcare system, places the total dead and missing at over 680,000. These staggering figures reveal a deliberate strategy of deprivation as a weapon of war, where starvation and denial of aid compound the horrors of bombardment, eroding the foundations of international humanitarian law and human rights. Western governments’ continued military, financial, and diplomatic backing sustains Israeli crimes, allowing violations to proceed with near-total impunity and further undermining the “international legal order” they claim to defend.

When truth is assaulted and twisted in such an Orwellian fashion, monsters are inevitably created. Israel’s leaders and their Western agents, armed with some of the loudest and most well-funded propaganda machinery in the world, have seized control of Western narratives for far too long. But cracks are now widening in this facade, especially in the midst of the unfolding genocide in Gaza. Since October 2023, millions around the globe—from Tokyo to London to New York—have cast off the Zionism’s blinders, pouring into streets in unprecedented protests, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, to demand justice for Palestinians, and an end to the slaughter in Gaza.

The moment has arrived for the West, Israel’s chief enabler, to confront the deep poison of Zionism that has corrupted our politics, media, and moral compass. We must insist on real accountability from our own governments by halting the flow of military hardware and trade that sustains the violence, rigorously enforcing the ICJ’s rulings on plausible genocide, and press for Israel’s suspension or expulsion from the United Nations until it finally honors the conditions of its 1949 admission, which it has defied for decades by denying Palestinian refugees their right of return and expanding illegal settlements on occupied land.

We must expose and challenge those politicians who have been coerced, lobbied, or outright bought by pro-Israel groups, holding them to account for their complicity in Israeli crimes. Similarly, we need to confront media executives and outlets that perpetuate anti-Palestinian bias through selective reporting, language restrictions, and the erasure of Palestinian humanity. These entrenched structures of prejudice—built on decades of Zionist indoctrination—must be dismantled if we are to reclaim an honest public discourse.

Only by wresting truth back from distortion and denial can we pull back from the moral abyss into which we are sliding. Zionism’s adherents have infiltrated and degraded our societies, turning empathy into suspicion and justice into taboo. Rejecting this toxic influence is the path to restoring our shared humanity. The monster we helped birth and sustain through arms, aid, and silence must be starved of support, not continually nourished. For the sake of Palestinians enduring unimaginable suffering, and for the sake of our own souls, the cloak of complicity and darkness must finally be shed.

© 2026 The View From Here. © 2026 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.

Trump’s presidency is ruining American society, and now he’s chosen to inflict chaos on Venezuela

The Venezuelan attack is the beginning of a tragedy which could impact the globe, a reminder that power left unchecked has the potential to inflict danger and chaos on the world.

By Fareed Khan 
A version of this article can be found on Substack.

In the chaotic theatre of Donald Trump’s second presidency, the curtain has risen on a spectacle of hubris and hypocrisy. Just one year into his second term, Trump has orchestrated an illegal military raid on Venezuela, violating international law by capturing President Nicolás Maduro in a brazen act of gunboat diplomacy that reeks of 19th-century imperialism.

Trump crowed about the operation from his Mar-a-Lago lair, declaring that the United States would “run the country” until a “safe transition” could be engineered—presumably one that hands Venezuela’s vast oil reserves to American corporations on a silver platter. But why now? Why expend energy and resources to meddle in a sovereign nation’s affairs when Americans are buckling under the weight of Trump’s disastrous economic policies? The answer is as cynical as it is transparent. This fiasco is a desperate smokescreen to distract from the Epstein files, those damning documents that threaten to expose Trump’s sordid ties to the notorious sex trafficker and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump’s re-election in 2024 was sold on the promise of “America First”—a slogan that evoked isolationism and a focus on domestic issues. What Americans have gotten instead is a deranged president who struts like a would-be emperor, now threatening Colombia with invasion on the same pretext he used to abduct the Venezuelan president, while musing about using military force to annex Greenland. This isn’t remotely close to the leadership for which Americans voted. It’s a reckless grab for resources that endangers global stability and betrays the very voters who put him back in the White House. At a time when tariffs have ignited inflation, gas prices are far higher than he promised they would be, and the economy teeters on the brink of recession, Trump’s foreign adventurism is not just irresponsible, it’s an epic betrayal of his MAGA base.

On the economy Trump’s tariff policy, hailed by the president as a masterstroke to punish foreign competitors, has boomeranged into a punishing blow for everyday Americans. Economists warned that these levies would act like a hidden tax, and they’ve been proven right. Inflation, which dipped to 2.3% in April 2025, climbed as high as 3% by September 2025, fuelled directly by higher import costs. Gas prices, averaging US$2.94 a gallon in December 2025, are up from pre-tariff levels, with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell attributing the spike to Trump’s policies. The effective tariff rate has ballooned to 18%, pushing consumer prices higher across the board—coffee, bread, appliances, electronics, you name it. Goldman Sachs estimates that tariffs could add 0.3 percentage points to core inflation in 2026, with households bearing up to 70% of the US$1.2 trillion cost.

Trump claims that managing the economy has been one of his crowning achievements. But that claim has been proven to be a bald faced lies with economists and experts refuting the assertion. Economic growth projections have been slashed, unemployment is ticking up as tariffs hammer industries reliant on imports, and the Tax Foundation warns that these policies will shrink America’s GDP by 0.5% before foreign retaliation affects the US. Trump’s boastful claims that prices are “coming down tremendously” are pure fiction. Core inflation peaked at 3% year-over-year in September 2025. Meanwhile, nearly 60% of Americans—about 24% of households—are living pay cheque to pay cheque, a figure that has risen steadily under Trump’s watch. Lower-income families have been hit hardest, with 29% scraping by as wage growth stagnates. This isn’t a “winning” scenario, it’s lousy, incompetent economic stewardship by a president who has left millions one missed pay cheque from disaster.

Yet instead of fixing this domestic debacle, Trump turned his gaze to South American, proclaiming he’ll “run Venezuela” like it’s some sort of Trump business franchise. The Venezuela fiasco isn’t about democracy or halting drug trafficking, it’s an attempt to distract the American public’s attention from the Epstein scandal which is festering like an open wound.

During his 2024 campaign, Trump repeatedly promised to declassify and release the full Epstein files, vowing transparency on the late pedophile’s web of elite enablers. He signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act in November 2025, mandating full release by December 19 in a searchable format. But deadlines have come and gone. As of January 2026, the Justice Department has admitted that less than 1% of the documents have been released, citing endless redactions to “protect victims” as the reason. But what is really being protected are revelations about Trump’s close connections to Epstein that could rupture his Republican base.

The files, heavily blacked out and incomplete, hint at Trump’s deep ties to Epstein. They include flight logs, grand jury testimony, and communications that could unravel his carefully curated image. Reports reveal Trump was briefed in May 2025 that his name appeared in the files multiple times, prompting a pivot from promises of full disclosure to downplaying their importance. Victims and bipartisan lawmakers have decried the stonewalling as a cover-up, a stunt orchestrated just as speculation mounted that the files would implicate Trump in Epstein’s depravity. This isn’t a coincidence? This is deflection and misdirection on steroids, a wag-the-dog maneuver to shift headlines from Trump’s deep ties to Epstein to an act of imperialism out of the darkest chapters of the colonial era.

In addition, Trump’s threats against Colombia—calling President Gustavo Petro a “sick man” involved in cocaine trafficking and hinting at military action—echo his Venezuelan aggression. Petro, a leftist leader, has pushed back fiercely, deploying troops to his country’s borders and vowing to take up arms if invaded. Meanwhile, Trump’s renewed obsession with annexing Greenland, citing “national security,” has escalated to White House discussions of military options. Denmark’s leaders have condemned the “threats,” along with their European allies France, Germany, the UK, Spain, Italy, Poland, Austria, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Iceland rallying against this neo-colonial fantasy. This isn’t isolated blustering by Trump, but rather part of a pattern tying aggression against other nations to an agenda of evading transparency on a domestic crisis that could destroy Trump politically.

Furthermore, the attack on Venezuela is unconstitutional to its core. The US Constitution vests Congress with the sole power to declare war, a check on executive overreach that Trump has shredded. He launched this military attack without consulting members of Congress or Senators, let alone securing authorization—a blatant violation of the War Powers Resolution of 1973, which requires presidential notification within 48 hours and withdrawal after 60 days absent congressional approval. Congress neither knew nor approved this raid, making it illegal under domestic law. Trump’s flimsy justification—drug charges from a 2020 indictment against Maduro—doesn’t hold water. You don’t invade a nation to arrest its leader based on domestic US law.

While there’s no argument that Maduro is a corrupt thug, the same can be said of Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, Russia’s Putin, and Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. And there have been no invasions launched against those countries and neither have their leaders been abducted to stand trial in the US. Disliking a leader doesn’t grant the US or any other nation the right to overthrow governments or abduct heads of state.

Internationally, Trump’s actions are a grotesque breach of the UN Charter. Article 2(4) prohibits the use of force against another state’s territorial integrity, a cornerstone of global order that Trump has spit upon. Legal experts decry the invasion as the “crime of aggression,” no different than Russia’s assault on Ukraine or Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait. By ignoring international law, Trump has made the world exponentially more dangerous. Vladimir Putin can now point to American actions in Venezuela to justify escalating Russian aggression in Ukraine, while Chinese leader Xi Jinping could cite it as justification for moving on Taiwan. Additionally any terrorist group or rogue state might invoke “Trump logic” to launch attacks on those they deem to be threats or enemies. What Trump has done isn’t a demonstration of strength or an act of self-defence, it’s recklessness that invites global chaos and armed conflict.

At its heart, the US attack on Venezuela is blatant imperialism in support of America’s oil companies. The oil in that nation belongs to Venezuelans, not US corporations salivating over potential profits, oil that Trump has claimed belongs to the US. As the world pivots to renewable and green sources of energy, propping up fossil fuels is economic idiocy and climate suicide, an energy strategy that would fuel catastrophic climate change.

This hypocrisy guts Trump’s campaign persona, the one where he ran as the “no more wars” candidate, slamming endless foreign interventions and pledging “America First.” But in his first year since being re-elected he has launched attacks on Iran, Yemen, and Venezuela, with Colombia and Greenland now in America’s cross-hairs. With 60% of Americans living month to month amid rising inflation and a wobbly economy, Trump should be laser-focused on addressing domestic issues. Instead, he’s destabilizing Venezuela while he bungles the management of domestic affairs in the US, proving again that he’s inadequate and ill equipped to manage one country, let alone two.

Americans and the global community deserve far better than this imperialistic farce. Trump’s dangerous and sociopathic leadership has impoverished Americans, eroded democracy in the US, and endangered the globe—all to dodge accountability for his ties to Epstein. For the sake of the world it’s time for the US Congress to reclaim its war powers, for the international community to sanction American aggression, charge Trump at the International Criminal Court, and for US voters to demand a leader who puts their interests first, rather than feeding his own ego. The Venezuelan attack isn’t triumph, it’s the beginning of a tragedy that is the first domino falling which could impact the globe, a stark reminder that power left unchecked has the potential to destroy nations and inflict danger and chaos on the world.

© 2026 The View From Here. © 2026 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.

US attack on Venezuela echoes 1930s Nazi Germany and lead up to World War Two

Nazi Germany’s pre-war expansionism was characterized by a step-by-step erosion of the international order. Since returning to office Trump actions have been following a similar pattern.

 

By Fareed Khan 
A version of this article can be found on Substack.

In the early hours of January 3, 2026, American military forces launched airstrikes across northern Venezuela, capturing President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in an operation codenamed “Absolute Resolve.” President Donald Trump swiftly declared that the United States would “run the country” until a “safe, proper, and judicious” transition could occur, framing the action as a necessary strike against narco-trafficking, and critical to the security of the US.

This military action, executed without the approval of the US Congress or sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council, has drawn sharp international condemnation and ignited debates about parallels to historical aggression in the 1930s. Critics argue that the move mirrors the expansionist tactics of Nazi Germany in the lead-up to World War Two, where Adolf Hitler annexed Austria in 1938 and the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia later that year, under pretexts of protecting Germans and restoring national greatness.

While the contexts differ—the US operation in Venezuela was justified as targeting a “narco-state” rather than ethnic unification—the underlying pattern of unilateral territorial intervention, disregard for sovereignty and international law, and rhetorical emphasis on national security and an American revival evokes eerie similarities to Hitler’s justifications for his actions. As Trump escalates threats against other nations, including Greenland, Canada, Panama, and Iran, the world faces its most precarious moment since the 1930s, with US actions destabilizing global norms and risking broader conflict in the same manner that Germany did in the 1930s.

Nazi Germany’s pre-war expansions were characterized by a step-by-step erosion of the international order, beginning with an exit from the League of Nations in October 1933 and the Anschluss of Austria in March 1938. Hitler portrayed the former as way to get out from under the domination of World War One victors, and the latter as a voluntary union to protect German-speaking populations that was enforced through military pressure and propaganda. Similarly, the annexation of the Sudetenland in October 1938 followed the Munich Agreement, where European powers appeased Hitler to avoid war, allowing Germany to seize territory under the guise of resolving ethnic grievances. All these moves were part of Hitler’s broader vision to “Make Germany Great Again,” a slogan that emphasized racial purity, German nationalism, economic revival, and territorial expansion.

Trump’s Venezuela operation, while not a full annexation, involved airstrikes and the abduction of a sitting head of state, with a subsequent announcement that the US would oversee Venezuelan affairs, including plans to invest in extracting its oil reserves, which he said were “stolen” from American interests. Trump has justified this by labeling Maduro a “narco-terrorist” and emphasizing benefits like reduced drug flows and energy security for America. This echoes Hitler’s pretexts, where perceived threats to Germany justified aggression. Furthermore, Trump’s threats since returning to office to “take back” the Panama Canal—citing violations of neutrality and Chinese influence—resemble Hitler’s claims on the Sudetenland as rightful German territory. In December 2025, Trump reiterated plans to reclaim the canal, which the US handed over to Panama in 1999, drawing rebukes from its government. Such rhetoric undermines post-World War Two treaties and norms, much like Hitler disregarded the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, to which Germany acceded in 1919.

At the helm of these actions is a leader whose style and ideology invites direct comparisons to Hitler. Trump, like the Nazi leader, positions himself as an infallible figure with a divine mandate to restore national glory to the US. Hitler’s cult of personality revolved around his self-proclaimed role as the savior of Germany, promising to “Make Germany Great Again” after the humiliations of World War One. Trump has echoed this with his “Make America Great Again” mantra, surviving an assassination attempt in 2024 that he attributes to divine intervention, which reinforced his messianic self-image. Both Hitler and Trump vilified minorities and immigrants as threats to the nation’s purity and security. In the US, minorities—particularly Latinos—have been targeted through inflammatory rhetoric and racist policies. Trump has described immigrants as “poisoning the blood” of America, a phrase reminiscent of Nazi eugenics propaganda. This has manifested in aggressive immigration enforcement, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operates with expanded powers, detaining thousands, including US citizens, in operations critics liken to actions of an “American Gestapo.”

Reports indicate that ICE has detained over 170 innocent Americans in 2025, with the vast majority being detained based on racial profiling. A Supreme Court decision in September 2025 lifted restrictions on ICE using race, language, and employment as factors in stops, enabling sweeps that echo Nazi roundups of “undesirables.” Thousands of US residents have been sent to detention centers, including facilities like Fort Bliss, where accounts of abuse and inhumane conditions have surfaced. These actions sideline due process, much like Hitler’s Enabling Act of 1933, which centralized power and targeted Jews and political opponents.

Trump’s consolidation of power further amplifies these parallels, sidelining democratic institutions in ways that recall the Nazi regime’s erosion of checks and balances. In Germany, Hitler used the Reichstag Fire Decree to suspend civil liberties and the Enabling Act to bypass the Reichstag, allowing dictatorial rule. In the US, Trump has bypassed Congress and issued over 400 executive orders in 2025 alone, more than any president in modern history, covering tariffs, immigration, and federal restructuring, essentially governing by decree, as would a dictator. Congress has been effectively marginalized, with Trump vetoing Two bipartisan bills in December 2025, including one for water infrastructure in Colorado, asserting executive prerogative. Key decisions, such as the Venezuela operation and strikes on Iranian nuclear sites in June 2025, were made without legislative consultation, drawing criticism for violating the War Powers Resolution.

The Supreme Court, with a 6-3 conservative majority including three Trump appointees, has consistently sided with the administration, overturning blocks by lower courts on policies like mass deportations, federal employee firings, and protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants under Temporary Protected Status. This has enabled the restructuring of critical agencies and placed limits on nationwide court injunctions, consolidating executive authority, further empowering Trump to execute his anti-democratic agenda. Lower courts have been bypassed through the “shadow docket,” where the Supreme Court has granted emergency relief in about 90% of Trump cases as of late 2025. These judicial wins echo how Hitler stacked the German judiciary to give legitimacy to his regime, and pursue his agenda.

Internationally, US actions under Trump exploit America’s veto power in the UN Security Council, allowing violations of the UN Charter with impunity, much like Germany’s withdrawal from the League of Nations gave Hitler license to violate of the League’s rules based order with impunity. The attack on Venezuela has been condemned globally, with historians decrying the “naked imperialism” mimicking Nazi Germany’s actions in the 1930s, violating sovereignty norms established post-World War Two, to prevent another global conflagration.

Trump’s threats extend beyond Venezuela as he has renewed calls to annex Greenland for “national security,” prompting Denmark’s prime minister to calling or him to “stop the threats.” He has mused about making Canada the 51st state since shortly after his election in November 2024, and “taking back” the Panama Canal. Additionally, in 2025, US forces bombed Iranian nuclear sites escalating tensions in the Middle-East and setting back Iran’s program by years, while not ruling out further strikes. Such actions without a forceful response destabilizes entire regions, and possibly the world, echoing how Hitler’s annexations without international pushback emboldened aggression, leading to the invasion of Poland in 1939 and World War Two.

The cumulative effects of US actions places the world on its most dangerous path since the 1930s. Back then, appeasement allowed fascism to spread unchecked, eventually resulting in more than 70 million deaths. Today, American unilateralism risks similar escalation, with Russia’s and China’s condemnations of the Venezuela action possibly provoking proxy conflicts, while threats to Iran and Cuba heighten regional war risks.

Domestically, policies targeting minorities and sidelining government institutions erode democracy, fostering division and potential political unrest. Historians warn that Trump’s administration exhibits “increasingly relevant” parallels to the rise of Nazism in Germany, including attacks on truth and the legitimacy of public institutions. As Former vice-president Al Gore noted in 2025, lessons from Nazi Germany’s “emergent evil” apply to efforts by the Trump administration to distort reality and consolidate power in the US. Without robust international pushback and strong domestic resistance, these actions could unravel the post-1945 order, inviting calamity on a scale not seen since World War Two.

While the US under Trump is not identical to Nazi Germany—lacking the same scale of war crimes or totalitarianism—the patterns of expansionism, leader worship, targeting minorities, attacks on the institutions of democracy, and international impunity are alarmingly similar. The US attack on Venezuela, coupled with broader threats to other nations, makes the US a destabilizing force that imperils global peace. The world must heed lessons from the 1930s and 1940s before the violent history of that era repeats itself and we all suffer. 

© 2026 The View From Here. © 2026 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.