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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jan/21/trump-disorder-prompts-talk-liberal-alliances-mark-carney>
"Donald Trump has told the Davos economic forum “without us, most countries
would not even work”, but for the first time in decades, many western leaders
have come to the opposite conclusion: they will function better without the US.
Individually and collectively, they have decided “to live in truth” – the
phrase used by the Czech dissident Vaclav Havel and referenced by the Canadian
prime minister, Mark Carney, in his widely praised speech at Davos on Tuesday.
They will no longer pretend the US is a reliable ally, or even that the old
western alliance exists.
Trump’s threat to invade Greenland – half-withdrawn in his unnervingly rambling
Davos speech on Wednesday – and his glorification of the use of tariffs to
intimidate his allies have been the final straw. As such – on the first
anniversary of his second term – the taboos around denying him the role of
“leader of the free world” seem to have been broken.
Just as the greengrocer in Havel’s story took down the sign in the shop window
praising the communist empire and started to tell the truth about the sham in
which he had been living, so leaders of some of the west’s liberal middle
powers appear intent on shedding the collective lie about the continued value
of a partnership with the US. Whether this collective discovery of backbone is
more than rhetorical, time will tell."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
