Spinning tops and global chaos

Those of us who grew up in the good old post-war days, when our toys were simple, will remember the ċippitatu. It might be translated into English as a spinning top, though its origins seem to lie in the Italian acchiappatutto – ‘winner takes all’.

Our ċippitati were made from the first buds of a tree, with a hard head set on a green stump. One would twirl the stump and toss the contraption into the air, hoping it would land upright on its tip. Then came the test: whose ċippitatu would spin the longest? The winner took all.

Why write about such seemingly trivial things today, when the world is going through grave upheavals and when our own Malta appears to be spinning aimlessly, with so many open issues and so few decisions being made to resolve them?

It is because international affairs, especially decisions of war and peace, are increasingly being handled with a troubling degree of triviality, often based on false or flawed assumptions. It is as though the spinning top is tossed into the air without any clear plan or expectation of how it will land, whether it will even spin, or how it might be stopped. The other similarity is just as stark: the one who sets it in motion intends to take all, if he wins.

In Ukraine, Vladimir Putin is the tosser who unleashed a brutal war, driven less by necessity than by lingering Tsarist dreams of grandeur. The result has been devastating: immense loss of life on both sides and widespread destruction of property and infrastructure. All this for a relatively small stretch of land, occupied, yet still not fully controlled. The ċippitatu has drawn in NATO, as its members, many of whom endured decades of Communist rule and, before that, centuries under the Tsars, fear that their own borders could be next if Russia’s aggression goes unchecked.

Consider the follies of the present megalomaniac US President, Donald Trump. As with the toss of a spinning top, decisions appear to be driven by impulse rather than strategy, encouraged by a circle of unquestioning advisers. At the same time, the influence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems ever more pronounced. The result has been a most terrible illegal war of aggression against the terrorist religious regime in Iran.

Iran commits illegal acts against its own subjects and fosters terrorist movements in many areas of the Middle East and deserves no sympathy. But who can forget then US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s claims at the United Nations, ahead of the launch of the war in Iraq, only to have mud on his face when no weapons of mass destruction were found to have ever existed?

That was yet another ċippitatu that spun and spun, only to fall at last with all sides the losers and with the world still suffering the consequences of that disaster. Afghanistan was another American war that began like the throw of a dice and ended badly, as did Vietnam. Will they ever learn, as Bob Dylan once asked?

They have grown even more reckless. This current US administration does not even deign to inform the United Nations, or its closest NATO allies, before unleashing one of the most devastating barrages of weaponry on a distant land, indirectly guided, like a tail wagging the dog, by Israel.

Donald Trump’s decisions appear to be driven by impulse rather than strategy, encouraged by a circle of unquestioning advisers- John Vassallo

Israel does have cause to fight for its life since it has been threatened, even though it possesses nuclear weapons somewhere underground in the middle of the Middle East. That is cause for concern for all of us in the Mediterranean region. More nuclear weapons would not make the region safer or more dangerous; it already is very dangerous.

To make matters worse, consider the reckless rhetoric coming from Pete Hegseth, the US Secretary of Defence: “Israel has clear missions as well for which we are grateful. Capable partners.

“As we’ve said since the beginning, capable partners are good partners. Unlike so many of our traditional allies who wring their hands and clutch their pearls, hemming and hawing about the use of force. America, regardless of what so-called international institutions say, is unleashing the most lethal and precise air power campaign in history. B2s, fighters, drones, missiles, and, of course, classified effects. All on our terms with maximum authorities. No stupid rules of engagement, no nation-building quagmire, no democracy building exercise, no politically correct wars.”

Is this how we want the world to be governed in the future? Can one just attack without following international law in what was called the rule-based global order?

Might is right seems to be taking over today.

What will happen when President Xi Jinping in China decides to move against his neighbours or even countries far away from his shores in the same way “regardless of what so-called international institutions say”?

Europeans are treated as nonchalantly as the ċippitatu. We are tossed around in the turmoil of these wars in our neighbourhoods. The position taken by the European, Canadian and British members of NATO not to join this illegal war but to try their best to calm the waters is commendable.

Iran will try to involve as many nations as possible in the war to create more chaos. The EU and NATO members should stand firm. Europe must keep away and concentrate on building its strength in defence, energy supply and the economy to re-establish the rule-based world order in trade, commerce, war and peace, and international relations.

Both Putin and others acting like him will not last forever. Spinning tops and ċippitati always stop spinning.

Courage and steadfastness should be our motto.